Hotel Principado - El Superbo !! (Hotels in Buenos Aires)

Member Name: sidneygee

Product:	Hotels in Buenos Aires
Date:	30/01/01 (207 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Central location, reasonable price

Disadvantages: Not so good for meals

I was fortunate to spend a total of 90 days in Buenos Aires between September 1998 and September 1999, in five separate business trips.

My opinion on Buenos Aires city (referred to as ‘BA’ from now on) is posted on Dooyoo but it is useful to go into the hotel aspect in more depth. Obviously mots people who go abroad on holiday buy the hotel stay as part of the package. For a long-stay business traveller, this is not always convenient or economical. Or a start, the timing of trips may have to be altered at short notice and, in my case during one of my trips, I had to ‘decamp to the city of Cordoba for 3 nights, and by giving the hotel in BA sufficient notice, I did not have to pay twice for accommodation. On most occasions when I have travelled abroad on business, the client has been able to arrange suitable hotel accommodation, but in the case of the trips to Argentina, the funding came form the world bank, and ‘no referrals’ could be given. One of the agents for the contract in the UK had been to BA for 3 days, so he provided a hotel booking for the three of us involved in the contract about 4 miles from the client’s site, and made arrangements for one of the people working there to pick us up each day. According to him, this hotel (“El Citadel”) was a ‘bit basic’ but very cheap at only $60 a night for a ‘suite’ including a kitchen. There were cooking facilities available in each suite and the local Carrefour Supermarket was only about 100 yards away.

It was with great hope in my heart that I arrived at ‘El Citadel’. One of my colleagues, Colin, had arrived the day earlier and the other (David) would arrive the next day. I was a little apprehensive that Saturday to find an apartment block being built next door and on seeing my ‘suite’, that there was a railway line only about yards away from my bedroom window. According to Colin, the t
rains ran until 01.30 hrs and started again at 05.30. Although the suite was indeed large and clean and, yes the supermarket was close, the Sunday night was so grim, it was beyond belief. Some trains actually ran past the window between 01.30 and 05.30, and the building site started at 07.30 even on weekends. So that Sunday, Colin and I set out by train into the centre of BA and started asking around the hotels. At a restaurant close to the station we got talking to a video (?) Consultant from the UK, who said that the ‘Lafayette’ where he was staying was quite good (on a street named ‘Paraguay’) but he thought they were full, but that the hotel opposite was also ‘well-regarded’, but he couldn’t remember its name ..... He reckoned at about $180 a night (!!!).

Following his directions, we soon found Paraguay, quite a narrow street with small shops., restaurants and a motley collection of hotels. We soon found ‘Lafayette’ and opposite it the ‘Hotel Principado’. It was modern, quite plush and part of the ‘Tulip’ group of hotels. The desk clerk (‘Mario’) looked like Mr Bean, and one of the porters looked so much like Manuel in Faulty Towers that both Colin and i smiled broadly at each other when we first saw him.

The normal price was $150 a night, but – hey I’m from Scotland, so we ‘negotiated’. After all this first trip was for another 28 nights, with another 60 to follow, and there would be 3 of us involved, with another 3 or 4 consultants to follow each for about 2 weeks each, so we were dealing with ‘high finance'. In fact we did not mention the ‘other consultants’ at that stage, wanting to see if we could negotiate an even lower price when David arrived. Anyway, we were offered a stay at $110 a night, on a 3 day trial starting on the Monday morning.

We went back to ‘El Sh**houseR
17;, as we had christened the 'other place' and made arrangements to move out the next morning. David duly arrived, a little disgruntled that he was to spend one night before being uprooted again, but we moved into Hotel Principado on schedule. David confirmed to the management the amount of business that would do as a result of this contract, with some Consultants (unfortunately not me) returning for 3 or 4 days annually, and thus managed to ‘beat’ them down to $105 a night.

The Hotel Principado address is :

Paraguay 481 – C.P. 1057 Bs.As. Argentina

Telephone number : 313 – 3022 Fax : 313 3952

For that price we each had a large room (about 20 foot square) with an en-suite bath with a shower. The room had a large bed, satellite TV, desk and chair and air-conditioning. The price included breakfast for one and a daily copy of the local English Language newspaper (‘The Buenos Aires Herald’). The rooms were generally on 5th/6th/7th or 8th floor ( of 11 floors), and there were two lifts. If one was out of order, then it became a problem. Larger 'suites' were available at about 50% more.

Breakfast was excellent (toast, marmalade, fresh fruit salad, and as much coffee as you wanted). We ate at the hotel one evening, but it was not particularly good quality, but next door was an excellent ‘Parilla’ (steak house) – “El Establo”. A good steak meal there cost about $9/12, the higher oprice being for ‘Lomo’ (fillet steak, the most succulent imaginable beating UK ‘Aberdeen Angus’ into a cocked hat. The red wine was very reasonable at about $8 a bottle. Beer was relatively expensive ($4 a glass for Quilmes). Liqueurs and spirits were very cheap and after dining there a few times and tipping regularly, we usually had several bottles deposited on the table for us to help ourselves too. However, there is only so much
of a sweet liqueur that you can drink after a meal, without losing it quickly !!!

So how did it compare with the other international hotel chains in Buenos Aires ?

These are quite expensive. The Hilton worked out at about $270 a night whilst I was there, and expats that I met who were staying there were not particularly impressed. Most of the other modern hotels seemed to cost around $160 - $200 a night (before discount).


The client was a little ‘put out’ since their arrangements to transport us to and from the client base each day was not ‘so convenient; for the client. For a couple of weeks we travelled in each day using the local rail service from the main station (Retiro). It was cheap ($1.20 a day) and reliable and always full of characters (most of whom were trying to either beg from you or trying to sell cheap batteries or trinkets.. The first Saturday that we worked, two former soldiers entered the train, selling small calendars marked “Malvenas Argentinas”. Colin (who was on the train with me) turned down this opportunity of buying a unique souvenir. I bought five and gave $5. The soldier asked “English ?”. I replied “No, Ecosse !!” (Scotland) and he smiled broadly and thanked me profusely (for a moment, I thought that he was going to kiss me !!!),.

They did not collect a lot of money from the other passengers, since most Argentineans are very anti-military (after General Galtieri had led them to defeat by the ‘first British Mad Cow’, as they all delighted to inform me was 'our dearly beloved' leader at the time of the Malvenas (sorry, I mean “Falklands”) conflict

Eventually, negotiations with the client and consultation of the ‘head contract’ established that the client was responsible for local transport, so a mini bus or a taxi collected us from the hotel or the client’s base each day.
But I did enjoy those train journeys – a unique insight into being a Buenos Aires commuter !



The hotel bar was open all night and this was very useful for a ‘night-cap’, after a gruelling business meeting over dinner or after good drinking session at the Druid In (sic), mentioned in my opinion on the city.
Remember the Argentineans eat late, so that dinner was often not over until past midnight.

The porters and desk clerks and the manager were all characters who I got to know very well. We managed to coach the ‘Manuel’ impersonator to say “Que ?” very effectively, which will no doubt amuse a number of British visitors.

One Saturday night I played a trick on the staff. I had been drinking until 4am at the Druid In, and met two gorgeous young English teachers (late 20’s and typical Latinos).

We had talked for about an hour before ‘closing time’, and I walked with them back to their car, which was parked almost in front of the hotel. Naturally, I invited them into the hotel for a coffee, and three of the night staff ‘grinned’ us into the bar. Alfredo, the regular barman, served us coffees, with a beaming smile and about half an hour later, he left the bar, just before my ‘new friends’ had finished their coffees. I walked them to their car, noticing that the foyer was empty. I re-entered the hotel and just managed to get into the lift as the night clerk came back to his desk.

“Good night” I said “ Buenos Noches Senor” he replied. Then as the doors of the lift closed, I giggled and made a comment to my (not present) friends and went to my room alone. I awoke at about 10 am, and telephoned down to ask for “Three Breakfasts” to be brought to my room. I was running the shower as the knock came at the door, and I took in the breakfast trays – saying to my ‘friends̵
7; – It’s OK it is only your breakfasts, girls !!”

Obviously I did not need lunch that day, and by the Monday morning the staff were looking at me with a kind of ‘awe’. My two fellow consultants were ‘put in the picture’ by me and they told me of the tales that Alfredo the barman was telling about my ‘prowess with the ladies’.


Oh I wish that I could get another contract. It is not out of the question, since the first one was very successful. One of my contacts out there still tells me that “many in Buenos Aires have warm memories of you”. So there !!

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