La Plaza Arequipa Hotel Boutique

Location in front of Plaza de Armas

The rom are small

Very central, helpful staff and very clean

All good

Location couldn't be better, right on the main square, with a stunning view of the Cathedral and other colonial buildings, and a perfect basis to walk around the historical center of Arequipa. The rooms were lovely, modernly decorated and of a good size, although the bathroom was very small. Beds were very comfortable. Our room at the back of the hotel was relatively quiet, except for some outside noise and music. Reception personnel was correct, but we barely saw anyone during breakfast, except for a lady that prepared and delivered eggs to order. Breakfast is served on the (semi-public) balcony looking over the square, with a few basic options to choose.

Our kids' room was on the front of the hotel, and turned to be extremely noisy, as it seems to be a parade, festival, event etc. every day on the square. Highlight was the election of Miss Arequipa that caused an electricity outage in the whole historical center for hours and went on (at an extremely loud sound!) until almost 2am. Not the hotel's fault of course, but not the place for you if sleeping well is a priority. Breakfast was very poor, we were expecting more after having wonderful experiences in more modest hotels in Peru. I couldn't sleep the first night, because of a strong perfume on bed sheets and cushions. When I asked the next morning, I was told that indeed they spray everything with a disinfectant after making the beds. They offered to change the sheets so I was able to sleep alright the next nights, but it was a terrible start for someone with allergies. Other than the balcony at the front -which is accessible to public and vendors as it's adjacent to other public venues and restaurants - there's no common or relaxing areas other than in your own room. The hotel has no ironing service or irons available for your clothes.

The view.

Terrible value for money. There are multiple crucial problems: - Cleanliness: on both nights we found hairs in the bathroom door (see picture) which is not acceptable when paying 100 dollars a night; the facilities are also poorly kept; - Breakfast: extremely sparse selection, just a small table with a couple of items. Worse than all other (much cheaper) hotels we stayed at in Peru. Butter, cheese and milk left out in the sun for hours. In a country of beautiful fruit, they only had apple/orange; - Location: however beautiful the view is, it quickly becomes a problem. Rap battles (including loud speakers) until 1 am, and military parades (with megaphones, trumpets, drums, the whole works) in the plaza de armas, waking you up at 7 am, making it impossible to rest; Besides, we tried to rest, read and enjoy the balcony with the view on multiple occasions, but a group of musicians were there every single day playing loud music for hours, and asking for money afterwards, which made it impossible to rest; - Staff friendliness: asked for a bottle of water one evening to take an antibiotic and the staff simply said he didn’t have one, nothing more, and made no effort to help. All and all, it is not at all worth the money and you can’t even properly enjoy the view.