Hotel Review: Radisson Miraflores Decapolis, Lima Peru

Disclosure: I’m really behind on trip reports, so this hotel stay actually happened in January 2014. Although I try to take good notes, some aspects of trip report might be a bit fuzzy.

I booked a weekend trip to Lima, Peru on a whim, largely because I saw a good fare on The Flight Deal (an awesome site that all travelers should subscribe to). Since I was just staying for a long weekend, I only needed 2 nights at a hotel, and I ended up booking at the Radisson Miraflores Decapolis for 38k Club Carlson points (last night free). From talking with my friends who had spent time in Lima, Miraflores was described as a hip area to be with lots of good food and shopping (not that I care about the latter), and I can confirm that it was a good location for me to walk around and explore.

My flight from the US arrived around 1am, so I jumped in a cab to the hotel. Since I was tired and don’t speak Spanish, I just got a fixed price taxi from the airport, which was 45 soles (~$15 USD), although they first tried to charge me more by pointing to a sign that was confusing.

At check-in, they gave me a room on the 11th floor, which is the highest floor of the hotel that still has rooms. But they didn’t tell me that only one set of elevators would get me to my room, and so I ended up wandering up the wrong set of elevators and getting lost when all I wanted to do was sleep. I had also inquired about late check-out since my return flight was departing at 2:30am, but the front desk refused to offer anything except on day of departure. In general, the front desk staff was extremely unhelpful throughout my stay.

Breakfast in the morning was decent. The service was great and attentive, but the food itself was mediocre. There’s also a made-to-order menu, and it was fine for me to order multiple things off of that menu.

The roof of the hotel has a cool bar/lounge/pool area. There wasn’t that much usage during the day, but it was more busy at night. I’m not sure that I’d seek this place out if I weren’t staying at the hotel, but it could be a place for a chill night if you’re already there.

Numerous reviews online had also mentioned that you get a free $10 bar credit for staying at the hotel. I’m not really a drinker, but given that I was in Lima, I thought I might as well take advantage of it and get a Pisco Sour one night. Before I ordered, I confirmed with both the front desk and the bartender that I would get a $10 credit as a hotel guest. But at check out, I saw that I had a charge for the drink (which I drank approximately 10% of), which led to a somewhat awkward exchange. The person checking me out said that award stays weren’t eligible for the $10 bar credit, while I said that numerous people had confirmed that I was eligible, and then we just kinda stood there for 30 seconds with him looking exasperated at me. Granted, it was only $10, but I wouldn’t have ordered the drink otherwise… Anyway, after me looking pathetically at him, he waived the charge.

It was also an ordeal to get late check out. As I said before, every time I asked, the front desk said that I could only request it on the day of departure. So a little after midnight on my day of departure, I asked the front desk for late check out, and they said I needed to ask in the morning. So I asked when in the morning, and they said they weren’t sure, but the earlier the better as it’s first-come-first-served. I asked why they couldn’t take my request now, and they just kinda shrugged at me and were unhelpful, so I asked them to write down my request for the next shift. Granted, I don’t stay in hotels that frequently, but the whole situation seemed a bit ridiculous.

Finally, the internet in the hotel was painfully slow. I actually ended up using the 2G connection on my phone for all of my internet needs rather than the hotel wifi.

Overall, the hotel has a pretty good location in Miraflores and Club Carlson offers some awesome values with the last night free on award stays, but I probably wouldn’t stay at this hotel again. The service was generally pretty unhelpful, the wifi is not useful, and the hotel isn’t anything special. But perhaps my requests were unreasonable and my experience anomalous, as lots of the reviews of the hotel are pretty positive, so it’s probably a case of YMMV.