Hotel Viñas del Sol

I’ve stayed here twice this month and simply cannot understand the high praise. The place may have been 4+ star material many decades ago, but it no longer is. My 3-star rating is very generous. The Good. Rooms are relatively large. Grounds are attractive. On-site restaurant has a nice wine list and you can buy a bottle to take to your room. Hotel staff are friendly. There is a mini fridge in the room. Which I always appreciate. The Bad Both rooms I stayed in had more things broken than working. The last room had not a single electrical outlet working anywhere near the bed, which meant the bedside lamps didn’t work and my phone was plugged in across the room. The pillows are horrible blocks of cheap foam. The AC is loud and slow - when I arrived both times the rooms were insufferably hot it it too hours to get the temp down to something I could sleep in. My first stay I simply could not find a way to get dinner. I felt lucky to even get a menu! So I gave up and walked the 2 blocks to a minimart and bought wine, cheese and bread. (The minimart was tiny and crowded but the owners lovely!) The second stay went much better. There is a desk in th e room, which I appreciate as a business traveler. Though the room has ample space to position this more logically, they placed it in both rooms opposite the foot of the bed. Meaning that the chair basically could not be used, turning the desk into little more than a place for the coffee and tea set to rest. By the way, they told me at check in there is coffee in the room. There was not, both times (fortunately I carry my own). Toilet seats would not stay up in neither room. And with horrible lighting this made midnight use problematic. How hard is it to buy the right seat for the toilet? The internet is slow and erratic and my software security alarms kept going off. But it did work and was available everywhere, although using several different log ins which is a little crazy. The hallway lights are motion activated. For the first stay most of the sensores didn’t work, so I had to use the light on my phone to navigate and then find my room. The second stay the sensors worked but the timers were shockingly fast - I could not take 2 steps before they turned off. When I got to my room I was faced with a pitch black hallway and a darker room, with no idea where the light switch was hidden. Short Comment I cannot find a compelling reason to ever stay here again. For the smallest investment they could fix everyone one of my complaints. That they do not suggests they don’t care much about us.