Hotel Galería Plaza Reforma — Hotel in Mexico City

TL;DR - Could not sleep (even with ear plugs on) due to the noise from the neighboring bar that persisted until 5am. I am not a light sleeper, and even I cannot fall asleep at all.

Hotel staff are friendly, and tried to be helpful, but sadly I do not think they are equipped with the resources or management flexibility to succeed in their roles.

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Check In Process We made the reservation via the hotel’s official website, and entered the card info online. Upon checking in, it turns out that reception cannot directly charge the card that we have put on file. Since we only have a digital card, and the hotel does not have a contactless card machine, we were in a bind. So we suggested canceling the reservation, so that we can rebook through a platform that accepts online payments. However, the receptionist informed us that she cannot cancel the reservation from the system, and that we must do it ourselves via the website. When we tried to do it, the website says that there is a cancellation fee of the first night’s stay, because it is under 24 hours until check in time, and that the cancellation fee will be charged to the card that we have put on file. The irony is uncanny.

We have asked if there is anyone else who could assist us with this issue, but it seems like there was no one the receptionist could escalate the matter to, and she told us to email the hotel.

Unbearable Noise Level The hotel faces a bar that is blasting loud music starting around midnight until past 5am. Even though our room was on the 7th floor, the noise can still be heard even with ear plugs on. The hotel staff claimed that this only happens on weekends. I checked in on a Thursday, so I presume she meant from Thursday to Sunday.

The staff further explained that the rooms facing away from the bar would be quieter. However they do not have availability until the following day, so there is no way for me to verify the noise level of the other rooms now.

I asked if I could get a refund if I check out now. The response was that she doesn’t know because she can’t check the reservation system.

Will update review again after checking out.

(Update: hotel policy allows for refund of cancelled nights - thank goodness!)

Room There was someone smoking on our floor, and we could smell the cigarette odor in our room. Thankfully the hotel staff managed to swiftly find the culprit, and the odor subsided after an hour.

The mattress is on the stiffer side, and the pillows a tad flat. Generally my preference is for harder beds, but this one is erring on uncomfortable for me.

The shower head water pressure is of a medium-low strength.

Overall the room is clean, though dated and with odd lighting configuration. It has the furnishing and amenities of what would be typically considered a 3-star hotel by...

Pros: -This Hotel is in a great location 5 minutes away from many different nice bars, clubs and restaurants among other landmarks like Angel or Independence. -10-30 min walk from many other nice places very worthwhile to check out Rome NTE, Condesa, Chapultepec and Polanco. -The service is great in general if you ask for something in general it's delivered and quickly, our door was not closing properly and it was quickly resolved. -The rooms are nice enough and include everything you would want -Gym area is pretty decent for a hotel -Staff were very attentive and friendly at all times.

Cons: -The rooms are very small with no windows or balcony of any sort, potentially expected in the middle of the city but have stayed at others which have both. -The pool area which looks amazing online was sadly pretty disappointing, the pool is very shallow like 2ft it comes up to your knees so you can't really swim or do anything in it, the other area of the pool is 4ft but very small so don't expect to be swimming. -The pool bar is closed for construction so at times there was another mini bar setup or you had to get drinks from downstairs through the waiter, both very were average and slow (30 min wait on drinks when we were only people there). -The pool area was also completely dead aside from a few people on the 1st of Jan so don't expect parties or social drinks up there (or at least for the week we were there). -The room service and breakfast buffet felt very average, I would recommend staying far away and just going to the surrounding cafes and restaurants.

The stay overall was a good experience especially with the location but don't expect a very new and modern hotel with an amazing and...

We've stayed here for 5 nights and while the staff were generally nice and unproblematic, I would probably not recommend this for any of our friends or family. The location is half decent, you're in the neighbourhood of Juarez, which means you're decently close to Roma and Condessa, and the price was okay. However, the rooms barely have any kind of sound proofing so it's quite easy to hear your neighbours have a quiet conversation and on our last night was when the worst situation of this characteristic happened.

There was a party of sorts on the top floor (PH) and we were just 2 floors below. The noise was loud enough that I could feel vibrations against our walls and floor. Don't be led to believe that just because CDMX approved new laws in 2021 to limit excessive noise after 10PM that you may get the hotel on your side.

After I spoke to concierge, he did little to hear me out and asked me to "take it up to management" and pointed me to the service desk. After I spoke to the service desk (where I noticed quiet whispers between 2 staff). She essentially just said that they have no other rooms available of lower levels and that that's all they can do. The party was expected to end at 12:30AM-1AM.

I'm clearly a foreigner/tourist so it felt pretty useless for me to try navigate the situation in my favour, and I doubt I could make a formal complaint with the city by-law officers with my lack of Spanish. So if you feel you're in a similar situation as me, I would just avoid this hotel. There's tons others in the area that are around the same price + might at least try to look like they want to accommodate your complaint. They really just didn't even try...