Grand Victoria Boutique Hotel

The Grand Victoria Hotel has many plus points - a gracious old building, attractive rooms, friendly staff, and a good central location. Unfortunately the hotel is unable to provide a basic requirement: a good night’s sleep. The hotel holds many functions during the day and the evening, but unfortunately the lay out of the hotel (all rooms overlook internal atriums, and all windows open ONLY to the atriums) means that any evening functions disturb guests. On our first night the music stopped at midnight, and we were then able to sleep (although we were woken early by the setting up of breakfast service on the floor immediately below us). On the second night the music was deafening!!! and went on until 1.30 am. At 2.30 am the staff started dragging furniture along the floor below us, to set up for another function the next day. We got only 4 hours sleep. Our complaint the following morning was met with fulsome apologies and agreement that the extended disturbance was unacceptable (and an admission from the staff member that noise disturbance for overnight guests is a regular problem) but no adjustment was made to our bill. When we insisted we were given a discount of 10% - inadequate for the loss of a good night’s sleep. A further point to note is that because the windows only open to the internal atrium they have to be kept closed. As a result our room was terribly hot, and had neither a fan nor aircon. We were so disappointed that what should have been an enjoyable stay was marred by noisy functions on both nights, and we’re especially annoyed that we were kept awake until after 3 am on the second night.

This hotel is housed in a lovely building right in the centre of Loja, so that it was easy to walk everywhere. We received a warm welcome at the front desk from Maria, who spoke good English and was very helpful throughout our stay. Our room overlooked the street so that — unlike many of the other rooms — it had natural light and was quite bright. On the downside, there was a constant problem with the lack of hot water, which the staff failed to understand and were unable to remedy. Our key card worked on the first day of our stay but had to be re-configured on each subsequent day of our stay. The breakfast was definitely sun-standard, such that on the third day of our stay, we went to a café in the adjacent square. We note that past reviewers have raised some or all of these reservations and it is disappointing that they have not been addressed. It would be nice to think that the management will act on these reviews, rather than (as appears to be the case) simply reciting the same anodyne formula.