"One of the worst five-star hotel experiences I have ever had
This was easily one of the most disappointing hotel stays I have ever had, and certainly the farthest thing from a five-star experience.
Before arriving, I called the hotel to ask whether they could accommodate an early check-in. I am a Sterling member of The Leading Hotels of the World, to which Hotel Las Arenas belongs, and when I made the reservation, my membership was not properly linked to the booking. As a result, benefits that should have been included, including breakfast, were initially denied when we arrived. What should have been a simple issue became another frustrating interaction with the staff.
Check-in was supposed to be at 3:00 PM. We arrived at noon, fully understanding that the room might not be ready that early. That was not a problem. What was a problem was that we ultimately did not receive our room until 3:40 PM, 40 minutes after the stated check-in time, because we were told there was a “problem with the side table in the room.” I have stayed at many hotels, and I understand that things happen, but having a guest wait past the stated check-in time because of a problem with a side table is simply not what I expect from a five-star property.
Unfortunately, the problems continued throughout the stay.
When we went to the pool, we tried to get towels, but there was nobody there at the towel station. We had to wait a significant amount of time for someone to return. We later tried to order poolside service, but the service was extremely slow. Servers were not circulating regularly, so eventually I got up and went to the bar myself to place the order. Instead of simply helping me, I was met with attitude and resistance.
The worst part was how unnecessarily difficult some of the interactions were. My fiancée simply asked for a cup of ice to add to her water, and the server responded by asking, “Why do you want water? What for?” I genuinely could not understand why such a basic request needed to become an interaction like that. At a five-star hotel, you should not feel like you are inconveniencing the staff by asking for a glass of ice.
Because of the issues with our reservation, the hotel gave us a voucher for a 90-minute hydrotherapy session at the spa. We appreciated the gesture, but unfortunately, the spa experience only reinforced the same problems we had experienced throughout the hotel.
When we arrived at the spa, the staff did not properly explain where we were supposed to go or how the hydrotherapy session worked. The staff were rude and dismissive rather than welcoming or helpful. We were given one small towel and a robe. When I asked for another towel, the employee immediately pushed back and told me that we had already been given one towel.
I explained that the towel we had been given was a small one because, as we had been told, they had already run out of the larger towels. Rather than simply getting us another towel, she continued to resist and repeat that we had already received one.
Imagine making an argument out of giving a guest a second towel.
The entire purpose of giving us the spa session was presumably to make up for the problems with our reservation and provide us with a relaxing experience. Instead, it became another example of how poorly the service was being managed.
The room itself was also nowhere near the standard I would expect from a five-star hotel. It felt outdated, the shower did not drain properly, and some of the appliances appeared old and poorly maintained. Again, none of these things individually would necessarily ruin a stay, but when combined with the service issues, they contributed to an overall experience that felt much more like an average hotel than a luxury property.
The final issue came on the day of checkout.
We had planned to go for a walk, return to the hotel, shower, and get ready while waiting for our Uber to take us to the train station. The night before, I specifically called the hotel to confirm that our late checkout was still in place, and I was told that it was.
When we returned to the hotel, our key card no longer worked. I went to the front desk and was told that guests with late checkout apparently need to stop by the lobby to have their key card reactivated.
That would have been very useful information to receive when I specifically called the night before to confirm the late checkout.
Because nobody had told us this, we were suddenly rushed and had to deal with an entirely avoidable problem right before leaving for the train station.
What was most disappointing throughout the entire stay was the general attitude and lack of attention from the staff. On multiple occasions, I saw employees talking among themselves while guests were standing directly in front of them waiting for assistance. There seemed to be a recurring disconnect between the level of service you would expect from a luxury hotel and the service actually being provided.
Any one of these incidents could perhaps be dismissed as an isolated mistake. Taken together, however, they show a consistent pattern: problems with the reservation, benefits being denied, a late room, poor pool service, unnecessary resistance over basic requests, a disappointing spa experience, an outdated room, and poor communication regarding checkout.
For a hotel that presents itself as a five-star property and is part of The Leading Hotels of the World, the level of service was shockingly poor.
This was not a minor disappointment or a case of one employee having a bad day. The problems were repeated throughout our stay and across different departments of the hotel.
This is the farthest thing from a five-star experience I have ever had. The service was poor, the room was underwhelming, and the staff repeatedly made simple things unnecessarily difficult. I would not recommend Hotel Las Arenas to anyone expecting the level of service, attention, or hospitality associated with a luxury hotel."
