Hi there,
The first time we were touring Mexico, we started with hotels for 700 pesos per night and went down until we reached 200 pesos per night. That is, less than 5 euros per person per night.
The funny thing is that for that price there were great things. I mean a new room, spotless, with amenities and WiFi. Even uglier places made up for the wonderful hospitality.
Having traveled almost all of Mexico staying at good hotels, we arrived in Mexico City with a reservation made at the Mexicali Hotel. It was around 700 pesos per night and it was relatively close to the Zócalo.
After being scared by people at the airport and the Uber driver, we arrived at the hotel in a bit of a bad mood. In addition, we realized that the price of the room on the poster at reception was much cheaper than what we had been charged by booking.com. We complained, but they did not give us any solution.
The lobby area was ugly and dirty. Also, the lighting was very poor. Prices per hour were also announced at the reception, so that hotel was more for sexual encounters.
The corridors of the hotel had almost no light, I don’t know if it was so that one wouldn’t see the dirt or not see the people who frequented the hotel. The room was just as dark with all the lights on. You couldn’t even read a book in that light. I looked down at the floor and there were balls of hair.
The receptionist’s management was mediocre and the only thing they offered us was to pay more money for a superior room with more lighting or to put another lamp in the room we had. Since I was not happy with any solution, they called the manager and offered us a coffee to wait for him.
The area where we had our coffee was disgusting and the coffee was terrible. The manager turned out to be Spanish and told us that this hotel had always been for prostitutes and that now they were trying to clean up their image, focusing more on tourism. He offered us the best quality room they had for the same price we had paid and gave us free breakfast for our entire stay.
It should be noted that the room they gave us had actually the price we were paying for the booking.com reservation. In other words, they were simply giving us what we had paid for.
Still, the guy was very nice and handled the problem perfectly.
The “superior” room was also very mediocre. Larger and with normal lighting, but old and worn. In addition, the cleaning was still poor, especially because of the hairballs that you always found on the floor.
The next morning, we went downstairs for breakfast and the first thing we saw was a cockroach coming out of the kitchen. Then we walked into the breakfast area and one of the bartenders was washing his hair at the bar sink.
Breakfast was fine because it was a buffet and with a lot of variety, but we ate it with a bit of disgust because of everything we had previously seen.
The room wasn’t conditioned for the cold either, and although temperatures don’t drop too low in Mexico City, if there isn’t good insulation, you get cold. We asked for an extra blanket at the front desk and were told that they didn’t have any blankets.
In the end, I had to put on my street jacket, scarf, and more layers of clothing because otherwise it was impossible to sleep; Still, I caught a cold.
The area was ugly and at night it was a bit scary. The good thing is that we had the metro station next door.
The first night we went out with Uber because of the fear that they had put in us, but the following days we were relaxed in the area. Also, there was a police station next to the hotel.
The experience at this hotel was absurdly horrible. Thanks to the fact that we claimed, we had the corresponding room and breakfast, but it is evident that this hotel is very far from washing its image, especially since the staff was very incapable and too much cleaning was missing. If I compare it with the hotels in Costa Rica, perhaps it is not so bad, but for me it is a “never again”.