Review: Park Tower Hotel – Buenos Aires, Argentina

3K

We arrived in Buenos Aires late in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve. It was certainly a lot warmer than Ottawa, but a bit windy.

Since we didn’t have eSIMs, we made our way to Departures upstairs where we found a cell phone shop and purchased SIM cards before we made our way out of the airport. I had to make sure to buy them at the airport since many shops were closed early that day.

We grabbed a cab and around 40 minutes later, we arrived to our hotel, the Park Tower, A Luxury Collection – Buenos Aires. This is the only high-end property within the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio in Buenos Aires.

Booked on a whim – flight planning to Argentina

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1. Park Tower Buenos Aires – Location

Buenos Aires is a huge city, and it is very spread-out. The capital has many interesting barrios (i.e. neighbourhoods). These include Palermo, Recoleta, Puerto Madero, Retiro and San Talemo.

I found that no matter where you stay in the capital, you’re bound to take an Uber or use the metro/bus to get around to explore the different neighbourhoods and points of interest.

The Park Tower Buenos Aires is located in the downtown area in the Retiro district. Sitting right across from Plaza San Martin, where you can’t miss the big clock tower, known as the Torre Monumental.

If you’re planning to get around Buenos Aires via public transport, you’ll be happy with the location of this hotel. It’s within walking distance from the main bus station, Terminal de Ómnibus de Retiro.

On the other hand, one thing going against this location is you won’t find restaurants, cafes or shops within steps of the hotel.

However, if you walk uphill adjacent to a park across the hotel you can get to Calle Florida (Florida Street). This is a pedestrian street, that has a shopping centre called Galerías Pacífico. There’s also other shops, restaurants and currency exchange businesses. It’s around a 15-minute walk from the hotel.

One interesting aspect about this property is it’s a hotel within a hotel. It’s connected to the Sheraton, which is much larger and has a convention centre.

2. Park Tower Buenos Aires – Check-in

As our cab pulled into the valet area in front of the hotel, baggage porters greeted us and assisted us with our luggage.

I felt that entering this hotel was like stepping back in time. The entrance had marble floors, English furniture, with a colour scheme of brown, cream and gold. It had a very classic design, which I didn’t mind.

We made our way to the front desk as we took in the opulent, but very beige lobby area. Once we sat down, the front desk associate warmly welcomed us.

Given how friendly he was, I decided to try my luck and ask if a suite upgrade was possible.

To my disappointment, he informed us that they’re fully booked. They prioritized suite upgrades to elites that have used their Suite Night Awards (SNAs).

He cheerfully informed us that our deluxe 2 twins room has a great view on a high floor!

As a Titanium elite, I was offered the option of complimentary breakfast for two, which is available at their restaurant, the St. Regis. The associate then asked me if I’m interested in late check-out, which I declined.

He also informed us that we had access to all the facilities available at the Sheraton next door, which included their gym, small indoor swimming pool, large outdoor swimming pool and the Sheraton Club lounge.

We were assigned room 2053, on the 20^th floor. There are 23 floors in this property.

With our room keys in hand, we made our way to the elevator to check out our home for the next four nights.

3. Park Tower Buenos Aires – Deluxe Room, 2 Twins

As we stepped into the room, we were very happy with how spacious it was. Yes, it wasn’t a suite, but there was ample room to sit and relax. Next to the beds, was a convenient seating area.

There’s a blue sofa with a wall of paintings in the background for decor. A  coffee table was facing it, resting on an oriental rug.

The coffee table had a welcome amenity of a muffin and 4 pieces of chocolates. While it was a nice gesture, I found the chocolates didn’t taste good at all. I didn’t try the muffin 🙂

Across from the sofa was a nice wooden desk, with not one, but two chairs, which I liked.

Our room had a nice large window, with a city view of surrounding buildings.

While we would have preferred double sized beds, we were fine with twin beds.

We really appreciated that we had two luggage racks, with one placed in front of each bed. Often, when I’ve stayed at hotels, most of them would only have one luggage rack, which is impractical and is a minor annoyance if you’re travelling with others.

I was also happy to see that they had slippers for us tucked into the night table between the two beds.

There were two closets with a minibar in between. I found that the closet space was tight, with no a lot of room, since part of the space was used to house a safe, an ironing board and an iron.

They included four water bottles, and replenished them with two bottles each day of our stay. I like to stay hydrated, so this was welcome. The one thing that surprised us was that there was no coffee machine.

We had a butler who checked in on us once during our stay. We ran into her once in the elevator and mentioned the absence of a coffee machine. When we returned later that day, we found that she left us a kettle with cheap instant coffee.

As for the bathroom, it came with a double sink, a tub, shower, toilet and one unexpected surprise!

It had a bidet! I had no idea prior to this trip that Argentinians used bidets like in the Middle East.

The bath amenities were of a brand I never heard of. Unfortunately, they weren’t good quality.

I’ll give them credit in that they were generous in replenishing any empty bottles.  We never had to request any bath products during our stay. They get high marks for including mouth wash, which I sometimes forget to pack.

4. Park Tower Buenos Aires – Breakfast

We had breakfast each morning at the St. Regis restaurant on the second floor. The restaurant area was cozy with abundant natural light thanks to the expansive windows.

The wait staff were dressed formally in black suit jackets. They weren’t the friendliest bunch, but we found that they were attentive and provided good service.

The way the breakfast worked was the waiter would take your beverage order and you can order eggs to be made as you like.

There was also a buffet with plenty of options including breads, pastries, fruits, cheese, cold cuts, salads, desserts and a few hot items like sausages and potatoes.

My favourite sweet was the strawberry chocolate tart. To my disappointment, it wasn’t available every day.

There was also a decent juice selection, but no fresh OJ was to be found!

Overall, I found the food was generally better than the breakfast fare you would find at a typical Marriott hotel in North America. It just didn’t knock my socks off. I’ve had better breakfasts at Marriott branded hotels elsewhere.

5. Sheraton Buenos Aires – Dining

While we had breakfast daily at the St. Regis in the Park Tower, we dined once at the Buono Italian Kitchen at the Sheraton next door. We ordered a salad to share as a start, which came with no dressing. We also ordered a vegetarian pizza, where the toppings were heavy with red onions.

We found that the service was practically non-existent. We had to work hard to get the attention of the waiter. I definitely don’t recommend dining here. You can find better restaurants outside of this hotel.

6. Sheraton Buenos Aires – Sheraton Club

Since we had access to the Sheraton Club, we decided to check it out.  We walked over to the Sheraton and took the elevator  to the 22nd floor to get the the lounge.

I went to have a look at the food offering on display. They had sandwiches, cold cuts, processed cheese, some desserts and beverages. It was nice that they replenished the food items regularly, but the food was very subpar to put it kindly.

I was really glad that I had booked the Park Tower, instead of the Sheraton. The breakfast at the Sheraton is in their Club lounge and if the small bites were anything to go by, the food would have likely left a lot to be desired.

The lounge did have nice views of the city and the clock tower, which is a nice space to relax, when it’s not too crowded.

Note that the lounge had very limited hours. They opened at 2 p.m in the afternoon and closed early at 8 p.m. I found it odd that they closed this early. I would expect this in a hotel in Ottawa, but not in Buenos Aires!

7. Park Tower Buenos Aires – Facilities

When it came to facilities, the Park Tower only has a small gym. However, guests of this hotel can access a much larger gym as well as both indoor and outdoor swimming pools at the Sheraton.

You just need to head to the second floor and walk through a footbridge to access all these facilities.

8. Park Tower Buenos Aires – Booking

With Marriott Bonvoy’s recent elimination of their award chart, I found that the hotel award redemption ranged from 33,000 to 42,000 points per night based on different dates I looked at. I booked four nights at this hotel.

I decided to redeem two 35K certificates I had. One of them was set to expire soon, so I figured I might as well use it. For the second night, I had to top up the certificate with 5,000 points since the redemption cost was 40,000.

For the third and fourth nights, I paid cash and the rate was $246.86USD per night. This is a corporate rate I used that I’m eligible for through my employment. The standard rate was going for $366USD.

The total cash cost is $493.72USD when I initially booked it. However, when I landed in Buenos Aires, I noticed that cash rate was lower for the two nights I booked. As my booking was within the cancellation window, I cancelled it and re-booked the nights at a lower rate of around $320USD for the two nights.

Then when I went to check-out, the front desk associate asked me how I would be paying. This is when I found out that paying by a foreign credit card meant that I didn’t have to pay the room tax of 21%!

The total cost for the two nights ended up being about $250USD! In hindsight, it was a mistake on my part to use my certificates for this stay.

Conclusion

My overall impression of the stay was mostly positive. The front desk associate and the concierge were friendly and helpful. The breakfast at the St. Regis was solid.

It was a great benefit to stay at a small property, while also having access to all the facilities along with the lounge at the Sheraton next door.

The location was convenient as it was a short Uber ride away from many sites and attractions. I generally found the hotel was very clean and well-maintained. However, the hotel is showing its age and can benefit from an update.

The main drawback of this hotel is it only has rooms that offer a king bed or a room with two twin beds. If you’re a family or have a party of more than two, this can be an issue. Unless, you manage to score the impressive St. Regis Presidential Suite! This suite takes up the entire 23^rd floor and includes three bedrooms!

I found that this 5-star hotel represented great value for money if you can book via a corporate rate. We enjoyed our stay and would consider staying here again. Although next time, I’ll use my SNAs in the hopes I get one of their elegant suites.

Next, I’ll be doing a review on the Hilton Buenos Aires. Stay tuned for how it compares to the Park Tower, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Buenos Aires!