La Gran Francia Hotel and Restaurant — Hotel in Sector Urbano

We stayed here for three nights as part of our Costa Rica & Nicaragua tour. On first sight this hotel looks like a grand old colonial style mansion with an internal courtyard that is typical for the area. This courtyard is filled with the hotel’s swimming pool. ||We were fast tracked through check in courtesy of our tour manager but it soon became apparent that our tour (12 people) was the only guests in the hotel. The hotel staff whilst very helpful had little understanding of English and relied on telephone calls via an interpreter for any dealings. This surprised me with their proximity to the USA which could produce a large part of their future custom.||||The rooms were of the same style with a lot of dark wood and a really small walled courtyard area. Although this did have chairs it was not an inviting place to sit out with four walls within touching distance and an aircon extractor fan. The rooms looked stylish but with basic furnishings and you felt you were part of the house’s history rather than in a plush modern hotel.||||On closer inspection however you realised that there were a lot of issues within the room that could be easily resolved. ||||The table light fitting was broken with the switch and bulb fixed only by the wire and moving considerable every time you went to switch it on or off.||||Coffee maker in each room but no cups available to make use of it. None available at reception either so we had to borrow some from the breakfast restaurant the following day.||||Nowhere to store your case and no luggage stand like most other hotels. We resorted to leaving them open on the floor which would have been ok except for;||The room flooded during the night due to heavy rain. This came through the doors leading to the courtyard and swamped the floor and anything on it. We had to borrow a mop from reception to keep this at bay. Other members of the tour party were also affected and the hotel provided towels to place against the door to try and keep it at bay.||||During our stay none of us experienced hot water although after mentioning this to reception via the translator the water was upgraded from cold to lukewarm. ||I am aware that tourism in Nicaragua has been virtually non-existent in recent years due to recent political troubles and I believe this may have impacted on the upkeep of the rooms as a result. The staff were very apologetic for the problems we encountered and provided free cocktails at our evening meal on our last night’s stay here as a thank you for our patience and acceptance without complaints. I would have marked this higher if it wasn’t for the hot...

Half of our group stayed here and the other half in Plaza Colon which was apparently better maintained. I chose this hotel on purpose because in Plaza Colon, there were stairs and our room here was on ground floor. Very conveniently located just off the main square, very close to the cathedral, this beautiful mansion with a lovely courtyard and spacious rooms could easily be the number 1 hotel of the city. However, the bathrooms floor needed refurbishment although there were no problems with hot water, some clients didn’t like the bathroom. Actually the historical washbasin was a museum piece. With just a little expenditure, the room would change a lot. The furniture was of dark wood. We used the table for our luggage. There was a safe and the WiFi was good. There was also a water tank next to the reception where we could fill our bottles. Breakfast was served in the courtyard of the historical mansion across the street. This house belonged to a infamous historical character, William Walker. Breakfast was typically Nicaraguan with rice and black beans and fruits. ||The staff tried their best but they were totally unprofessional and untrained with no English. We had a hard time trying to get a small towel. In principle, they give 2 big and 1 small towels for 2 people in Nicaragua and you have to fight for the second small towel. We usually gave up and used the large one to wipe our...

Pague por una habitación doble por tres (3) días y mis especificaciones claras era tener WIFI y no tuve ni un segundo en los 3 dias. Lo peor eran las mentiras y excusas que me daban. También hablé con la Manager no me recuerdo su nombre pero si se que es de una isla de Africa llamada Seychelles y en vez de poner atención y pedir disculpas o un crédito de incentivo ella comenzó a enumerar sus quejas de hoteles que ella había estado... que si le votaron sus palillos de oídos... que si su wash cloth... esto es malo pues la que ponía la queja era yo (y no creo que nadie) yo no estaba allí para oírla a ella sino para ser escuchada.||Lo del WIFI fue lo más ridiculo que causó que no pude trabajar esos días.||Enumeraré los otros puntos que da pena que se encuentren en cualquier hotel:||1. La primera habitación que nos pusieron el mal olor a humedad era desesperante y al ver que se empeoraba pedimos que nos cambiaran.||2. Al limpiar la habitación me botaron una esponja que es para lavarme mi cara. ||3. La regadera estaba tan sucia de residuos del agua que todos los huecos estaban tapados y me tomó el triple del tiempo lavarme mi pelo y darme un baño. Este problema me lo solucionaron (esto se debe prevenir con un buen management que este pendiente).||4. En el escritorio habían puesto una silla con el junco roto. No se podía sentar en esa silla. Pedimos que la cambiaran y la cambiaron. Igual esto no debe de pasar con revisar los muebles al salir y antes de entrar se detectan estos problemas.||5. Malísimo desayuno... no se ni como decirlo todo malísimo. Los jugos no eran naturales... el pan viejo... los hot cakes duros y sin sabor... el café pésimo creo hubiera sido mejor un café instantáneo. El servicio de los meseros malísimo también para que le trajeran algo que pedíamos teníamos que pedirlo por lo menos 3 veces.||En fin innumerable cosas malas.||Las chicas de la recepción y las que limpian muy lindas todas (pasó lo de mi esponja) pero eran muy amables. Cuando era un chico el que estaba en recepción no fue tan amable.||Me da un pesar tener que dar un mal review a tan bonito hotel (la construcción y decorado si es linda) y su ubicación pero todos los problemas son de un mal management y hay...