Banyan Tree Puebla

Beautiful, clean hotel with impeccably decorated rooms and common areas. Good location a short walk from the main square. The staff, from the maids all the way up to the general manager, were among the friendliest and most professional I have ever encountered. I highly recommend the hotel.

We stayed at this hotel while visiting Puebla for the first time with our two sons ages 16 and 11. We had booked a double suite but when we arrived we realized the “queen” beds were too small for sleeping two people. The hotel staff quickly suggested a bigger room (#414); which had a king size bed with a big living room area where they placed two very comfortable twin beds for our children. It worked perfectly. However during our stay we noticed the hotel lacked maintenance of that particular room: the beautiful metal tub had a leak, every time you opened the faucet it would leak from the back pouring water straight to the floor. Then the powder room faucet had a tiny hole that would shoot a thin stream of water which would stain our clothes when washing hands there. The shower head was full of lime and looked like it wasn’t cleaned recently. The metal sink and tub had yellow stains around the drains. The iron provided had a retractable cord that kept retracting by itself every time I would slide the iron over clothes which was extremely dangerous. The hairdryer didn’t have the noozle attachment making it look and perform like a motel hairdryer. The staff is very friendly and courteous. We thought the breakfast at the restaurant on the 2nd floor was quite good. The spa staff is also extremely courteous, and pleasant unfortunately I felt like the services were not as good as others offered in other hotels. I paid for a whole body exfoliation but the lady didn’t do my armpits and elbows which are key for exfoliating.

The hotel itself is beautiful, and despite being in the city center, it feels peaceful. The room was very comfortable as well. However, the food and service did not meet five-star standards. 1. There were often no staff at the entrance to open the door 2.we requested room service for hot water and tea bags but nothing arrived even after an hour. 3. This was our first hotel stay in Mexico outside of the all-inclusive resorts in Cancun, so we weren’t sure what to expect, but the food felt quite average—though breakfast was good. The most disappointing part happened at checkout. First we prepaid the hotel but still got charged for the room again, they corrected it after confirming with someone else on the phone. Also, We had experienced several instances of being given short change at restaurants in the city, so I started checking more carefully. To my surprise, when I paid the remaining balance in cash, the front desk gave me 100 pesos less in change. Whether it was a mistake or intentional, this should not happen at a five-star hotel. I hope the management provides better training for the staff.

Spacious and clean rooms. We ate at Pasquinel and Saffron for dinner. Both were delicious. The morning breakfast was also quite tasty. Angel took very good care of us. We will definitely stay here again when back in Puebla!

Banyan Tree is one of those prestige brands and this location has a Michelin key, so expectations run pretty high on reputation alone. To make matters worse (or to set our expectations higher) we were using an AMEX promotion or some such thing that provides automatic upgrades and free breakfast and credits–all for which you’re paying AMEX for anyway). That said we were very impressed with our junior suite upgrade: the king sized bed, immaculate black tiling, massive antique furniture, ample closet space, shower room in marble and large freestanding soaking tub. All nice features, all pretty much standard for this sort of hotel. The problems began with certain quirks of the “technology”: don’t bother trying to pair an iOS device to the TV; the lights are centrally controlled by a set of mildly confusing panels that still frustrate even after you’ve figured them out. Case in point, the “reading light” setting in our junior suite reduced the lights to such a dim glow that reading was impossible, and if you tried to brighten the lamp the lights for the whole room blazed up :/ The kicker was the climate “control” which did not function and the fact that the windows in our junior suite were sealed (as a result of a multi lane highway at the foot of the hotel). We had maintenance look at the AC and they claimed to have fixed it but the room remained above 74F (around 23C) no matter the setting on the panel. This resulted in sweaty, broken sleep and another call to the front desk at 2AM to beg for a fan. The service is very responsive, no complaints there at all, and they arrived with a fan filled with ice water (it’s a model I’ve only seen in Mexico) that blows a cool, ice-cooled breeze. This device only really helped though if pointing directly at you and it had to be hauled onto a chair for that! In addition, the LED lights on the shelving didn’t work, the handheld shower head in the bathroom had no pressure, and the front door did not close or lock properly. A lot of maintenance work needed to be done to room 224. Luckily they moved us to a better room. Because the staff is so attentive and smart, they put us in another, larger suite with a balcony door that opened and that faced an interior courtyard rather than a dusty speedway. This larger suite cooled down to 19C, but the bedroom suffered the same window issue (all the bedroom windows were sealed shut). Hotels are primarily for sleep and I think that more of them need to actually focus on sleep and circadian rhythms in particular. That means more black out shades, better temperature control (cooler is always better for sleep with 65F as the target ambient temperature). Buttons and appliances shouldn’t glow in the night, and that damned electrical panel next to both sides of the bed was like a Christmas tree. The TV blinked red. The closet’s lights didn’t always turn off when the door was closed. Providing sleep masks is the cheapest and easiest way of solving the lighting issue, but rooms need to be dark for sleeping. Climate control needs to work, and work flawlessly, and access to fresh air should be provided. Again this was not the fault of the staff, just the design of the hotel. The worst aspect of the hotel’s design is the location of the hotel. To reach the historic center you are forced to cross over an eight lane highway with two additional lanes of bus rapid transit. The lights are quirky and do not remain lit for long. Gaming this crossing was a frustration, but getting it wrong could easily mean death or serious personal injury. If you expected to walk to the center from this hotel, change your reservation or expect to rely on ride-share apps instead. Final tip: don’t bother trying the Thai food at the hotel; better to risk your life and head into town.