I had a very bad experience in this place (I can't call it "hotel").
I've been there with my girlfriend and when we arrived we couldn't believe we were paying about 200 USD for such a place. The room was ridiculous small and it had no windows, no natural light at all, no shelves, no local air conditioned, no privacy... It was very noisy (a strange bird starts to sing extremely loud at 6AM and the cleaning staff starts to work at 7AM) and the bed was very small too (it was more appropriated for just one person).
The staff was not professional at all. They were always unavailable. Even for leaving the building we had to wait for several minutes for someone from the hotel, because we had no other way to open the door that gives access to the street!
Breakfast was not the buffet kind and we had to ask several times for coffee, fruit, bread... Things were coming very slowly and in ridiculous small portions... There’s a very heavy atmosphere among the breakfast tables, since all the guests seem to be very annoyed with the rooms they got (I heard some comments) and with the unfriendly treatment they receive from the staff.
Before and during my stay, I tried to contact the hotel several times by phone but the only answer I got was an answer machine saying silly things about "boutique hotel" that made me waste a lot of money without reaching any of the results I wanted.
The beautiful photos you can see on the website are very far from reality. That’s not what you find when you reach the place. The word “universe” (from “Vainuniverse”) makes you think that this place belongs to the “Universe Chain” (to witch belongs the Hotel Faena) – but it doesn’t! This place belongs to no chain at all – and perhaps this can explain the lack of professionalism.
There are many other options that I visited in the area and all of them are by far better.
The night we arrived, we said to Mr. Blaz, at the front desk, that we wanted to change room. There was a room with a small window available, but we were told that the only person in the world that could allow the change of room was Julieta Vince. Anyway, Mr. Blas "was not allowed" to contact Miss Julieta that night. Since he didn't want to contact her, I personally sent her a mail, explaining that if that was the room they had for me, I wouldn’t stay at that place any longer. I didn't get any answer from her for two days. I also left several messages at the front desk, but I never got an answer.
When Julieta was finally available, at my request to speak with her, she tried to speak with me by phone...I refused that and only then she showed up to speak with me personally. She offered me an unacceptable offer (sleeping one more night at that "prison cell" and then change to a room with a small window). I said I wanted to leave. After some discussion and no excuses at all, the manager was called (that was the first time I heard about this “manager”) but all I got from him was paying an extra night of penalty for leaving earlier!...
Before that, however, he tried to convince us to stay offering us a glass of wine and some “tapas” to “compensate” us for any inconveniences. Can you believe such a nonsense and impoliteness?!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
I recommend this hotel for:
An amazing honeymoon, A romantic getaway, Girlfriend getaway, Older travelers, Tourists
I do not recommend this hotel for:
Young singles, An amazing honeymoon, A romantic getaway, Girlfriend getaway, People with disabilities, Older travelers, Great pool scene, Families with young children, Families with teenagers, Tourists
I selected this hotel as a top choice for:
Museums / Cultural / Historical sites
Management Response
BuenosAiresVbh, Owner
(Management representative)
Nov 11, 2008
I just learned by a fellow Boutique hotel´s owner that there was a way to comment the reviews we receive… so after all the effort Mr. JSR-70 put in this large review, the least we can do as a hotel (unlike JSR-70 opinion, we still think we can be called hotel) is give a detailed answer to his review.
1) Independent Hotel:
First, Mr. JSR-70 says in his review that we try to fool our guest about being part of a chain to which the Faena Hotel supposedly belongs!!! What Mr. JSR-70 doesn´t understand (fortunately most of our guests do), is that one of our assets is not being a big chain hotel, meaning that in the 1-year restoration of the 1915th building, we could freely seek for the balance between maintaining the feel of a traditional house of the 1900s, combined with state of the art comfort. The latter was a very hard and detailed task and even though we had put considerable effort to this entrepreneurial project, we know some people may not appreciate it, and rather go to a classic hotel… and it´s perfectly ok! However, it is misleading when they blame the hotel for their mistake and actually very dangerous when they can freely slander the hotel, making up lies that could badly harm the reputation of the hotel, because they had to pay a fair penalty.
2) Rooms:
As many Boutique hotels, our rooms are all different sizes. The room JSR-70 is referring to is one of the smallest ones we have (std. room) even though it is around 25 square meters, which we think is a good size for a room. However, if you are looking for a bigger room, please choose an upgrade. Regarding the windows, this particular room has the original restored 1900th century glassed door, with the original top window that can be opened (of course they have black-outs and curtains, and the windows are tinted for your privacy). Moreover, you can check the photos on our website, because, even though JSR-70 doesn´t agree, I assure they are from the actual hotel (with no Photoshop!!!). Following the same line of thought, if you are carrying a lot of clothes, please try to book a room category higher than the one JSR-70 chose, but if you are an average traveler you will be fine in all our rooms. All the rooms have local air conditioning, but we did have a problem for some time where we had to control the AC from the reception, but now you can set the temperature from your room.
3) Noise:
About the noise, our cleaning staff starts in the morning with the common areas, which are isolated to the rooms and they move to the rooms later when the guests have already woken up. Finally, we have no domestic animals in the hotel and even though we always do our best to please our guests, we are very fond of wild nature, so there is nothing we can do about the “strange bird” JSR-70 refers to… apologies…
4) Beds:
The sizes of our beds are 1,40 mts. and 1,60 mts., which I think is a normal size for beds. Moreover, I have a 1,40 mts. mattress in my house and my wife and I sleep perfectly OK… and I am a pretty tall guy (1,82 mts.), however, if you need a bigger bed, I would recommend a higher category than the one JSR-70 chose, because being a bigger room, it can fit a bigger bed.
5) Staff:
About JSR-70´s comment about the staff… the comments we get on our guest book, on the surveys the guest kindly fill and in Tripadvisor, almost all our guests give outstanding remarks about the staff (and I know they deserve them!)… most of our staff have hotel management studies, professional experience (local & international) and what´s most important, they love what they do (it´s a major point when we interview candidates).
6) Breakfast:
Our breakfast is indeed “not buffet”, therefore everything is fresh and we give a tentative menu, but we suggest our guests to combine menus or even ask for things outside the menu, and we do our best to please them (the latter is not only suggested by the waitresses, but also written in the menu). Also, you can ask for as many coffee (Nespresso) or tea cups as you like.
7) Particular situation with JSR-70:
The story is quite simple. This JSR-70 booked a standard room, checked in, and came to the reception demanding to have an upgrade to a bigger room… we told them we could give them the upgrade from the following night, given that the hotel was full for that night. They didn´t say anything and then they showed up late in the afternoon at the reception, saying they were checking out, and that he didn´t want to pay the cancellation fee (even they were aware of it), and that they wouldn´t even pay that same night. We explained them that any hotel in the world has to refuse other reservations to honor the ones that are already made. Moreover, after we explained this in several ways and by different members of the staff, JSR-70 started yelling and speaking badly about the hotel to the astonished guests that were staring at them at the lobby, and started threatening us that if we charged them a penalty, they would give us a bad review on the internet. We weren’t really going to give up on a situation we knew it was fair because of a threat, but when we saw that they were molesting the other guests, we told JSR-70 that we were going to charge them 50% of the penalty, and they agreed.
Then, after several weeks, we saw that they had posted this malicious review all over the internet, talking extremely bad about our staff and the hotel.
Please make no mistake: We definitely appreciate the honest feed-back of our guests. Moreover, we encourage it, by a multiple-choice survey we give our guests upon check-in, together with a letter asking them to review us in Tripadvisor (this is also remained it on our periodic newsletter). What is more, this honest feed-back actually gave us several times the opportunity to improve, but we do make the distinction of a feed-back review (even if it´s negative) and a malicious review that only intends to hurt the image of the hotel.
So, you can read all the reviews Vain has in Tripavisor and our blog (you can go through our webpage)… and also read all the comments JSR-70 left in different hotel reviews in Tripadvisor... and make your own conclusions…
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.