Regency Park Hotel — Hotel in Montevideo

When you see the hotel's name, you get associations of something very luxurious and classy, right? Maybe a bit English upper-class-like… Regency Park Hotel + Spa. Wow.||Forget all your associations! The hotel, located a short (but expensive) taxi ride from Montevideo's airport, is messy and poorly run. Forget about the English upper class too - here they make a point of ONLY speaking Spanish.||The reception in the ugly lobby was confusing and slow. The receptionist seemed like it was his first day on the job.||One elevator wasn't working, but we had to figure that out ourselves. After spending 5 minutes trying to get it to work, we had to go to the receptionist, who then showed us to the elevator that was working.||The room is large and comfortable, completely lacking in charm, but perfectly fine for the price. Wifi works flawlessly.||In the so-called spa area, there are no changing rooms. You have to change in a rather dirty toilet (I got black feet from standing on the floor). And the shower you're supposed to use before going into the pool is in the pool area, so you have to wash yourself in full view of everyone.||When we looked for the sauna, we tried the door to a room where the door handle fell off. Sloppy! We never found the sauna.||Unfortunately, the pool had the same very warm water temperature as the jacuzzi. At the edge of the pool lay a dead spider and a dead cockroach. The jacuzzi had a nice light show, but we never got the bubbles to work.||The restaurant is expensive, but the food is at best mediocre quality - and we had to wait 45 minutes before our dishes were served. The T-bone steak was cooked grey, even though we had asked for medium rare, and the pork chop was rock hard. The red wine was served straight from the fridge and was way, way too cold.||Breakfast in the form of a rich buffet with bread, cakes, fruit, eggs, and sausages is...

When you see the hotel's name, you get associations of something very luxurious and classy, right? Maybe a bit English upper-class-like… Regency Park Hotel + Spa. Wow.||Forget all your associations! The hotel, located a short (but expensive) taxi ride from Montevideo's airport, is messy and poorly run. Forget about the English upper class too - here they make a point of ONLY speaking Spanish.||The reception in the ugly lobby was confusing and slow. The receptionist seemed like it was his first day on the job.||One elevator wasn't working, but we had to figure that out ourselves. After spending 5 minutes trying to get it to work, we had to go to the receptionist, who then showed us to the elevator that was working.||The room is large and comfortable, completely lacking in charm, but perfectly fine for the price. Wifi works flawlessly.||In the so-called spa area, there are no changing rooms. You have to change in a rather dirty toilet (I got black feet from standing on the floor). And the shower you're supposed to use before going into the pool is in the pool area, so you have to wash yourself in full view of everyone.||When we looked for the sauna, we tried the door to a room where the door handle fell off. Sloppy! We never found the sauna.||Unfortunately, the pool had the same very warm water temperature as the jacuzzi. At the edge of the pool lay a dead spider and a dead cockroach. The jacuzzi had a nice light show, but we never got the bubbles to work.||The restaurant is expensive, but the food is at best mediocre quality - and we had to wait 45 minutes before our dishes were served. The T-bone steak was cooked grey, even though we had asked for medium rare, and the pork chop was rock hard. The red wine was served straight from the fridge and was way, way too cold.||Breakfast in the form of a rich buffet with bread, cakes, fruit, eggs, and sausages is...

We spent 4 nights here as a base for exploring central Uruguay. The impression is that it is more of a business than a tourist hotel due to accessibility to both the airport and Zonamerica (business park). It is not so easy to find if driving - Google maps directed us to a side entrance, the gate of which was heavily padlocked. Our room was fabulous - large with two huge and comfortable beds and the bathroom was clean and modern. I suspect the emphasis, apart from business, is on groups. Our fellow guests included three visiting sevens rugby teams (from Portugal, Jamaica and Tonga). They were no trouble but it seemed the hotel prioritised their needs at the expense of individual travellers. At the same time a children’s summer camp was based at the hotel and they monopolised the pool for much of the mornings. The pool is OK but not as big as it looks in the photos. Breakfast and the lunch/dinner menus were satisfactory rather than exceptional. In the evening there are limited opportunities to eat elsewhere in the vicinity. Management standards could be improved - more attention to the pool area e.g. provision of umbrellas during the day should be automatic and the water was not totally clean. Housekeeping needed chasing for various items and staff’s level of English was limited. Probably better for a business trip...