Home Hotel

For our four year anniversary last week, Jon surprised me with something that we have never done before - left Gretchen with a sitter for the night.  Granted, we have spent the night away from Gretchen before, but she stayed with her grandparents, so this was a new first, albeit a minor one.  We were less than 10 min away, and her sitter was our beloved Candy, who has known Gretchen since before she was born (literally, she started helping us when I was still pregnant).  I worried it was going to be hard to leave but when Candy showed up she brought two of her wonderful children, Gretchen started repeating "bye, bye" to Jon and I while dragging her playmates to her play area to demonstrate her toys.  I'm still not convinced she knew we were gone.

We stayed in room 14, a highly recommendable room

We headed out for the night to a place called Home Hotel (Honduras 5860: 4778-1008, Palermo Viejo), which was recommended to Jon by a friend.  Ironically, it is the same hotel where we stopped for a drink a week before prior to my birthday dinner at Tegui (my choice for celebrating both my 29th and 31st birthdays).

First, the hotel: Home Hotel has an interesting concept, basically, the couple that owns the place were married in Buenos Aires and virtually all of their wedding guests were from out of town.  The guests had trouble finding suitable places to stay, so after the wedding the couple created a hotel "that we and our guests would like to stay at".  Without knowing this backstory, I guessed that the concept was something like "modern amenities meet your childhood home's wallpaper", which somehow works out quite nicely.  Upon checkin, the receptionist gave us, by far the best packet of city information we have received anywhere else.  This packet included a map of Buenos Aires, a more specific map complete with recommendations in Palermo Viejo, a list of spa options and prices, and a 51-page visitor's guide booklet with restaurant, shopping, bar, club, tango, art gallery recommendations and a drawing of a cow with labeled parts so that you can order meat with confidence.  Needless to say, I was really impressed by this packet.

As I mentioned before, the hotel has an interesting 1970s-wallpaper-meets-flatscreen-TV feel to it, but it goes right along with their theme, Home.  It is exactly what you see in people's homes, and there is a quaint and welcoming feel to it.  Don't be deceived by the yarn cross-stitched room numbers, there is a full mini-bar, nice bath products, fuzzy robes, black-out shades, an outdoor balcony and chocolate cookies on your pillow.  My only complaint about the room, and this is certainly not specific to this hotel, is the hairdryer was terrible. Weak. Mounted extremely low on the wall with a super-short-super-coiled cord.  Worst of all, it was one of those that you have to constantly push the button to get it to work - like they're afraid I'm going to turn on the hairdryer and then leave for dinner.  So, next time I bring my own hairdryer and everything is copacetic.

Now for the Spa:  I booked a facial appointment at their spa, and was not disappointed.  The room was clean, quiet, smelled nice and had a comfortable table to lay on.  The products used were nice and left my skin feeling quite nice.  The spa is open to hotel guests and non-guests alike and have a full range of skin care, massage and reflexology options to choose from. My appointment was with Cynthia, she gave a great facial, a mean shoulder and arm massage and spoke impecable English.

And lastly, the Bar: We stopped at the bar for a drink before heading out to dinner at Las Pizarras Bistro.  We chose the bar the weekend before because it was close to Tegui and it was recommended by TimeOut Magazine as a place with great drinks. The drink list is short but interesting with drink ingredients like capers, cucumber, jalapeño, mint, basil, honey, grated ginger and egg white - though not all in the same drink.  I had their Green Martini which includes cucumber vodka, fresh basil and capers which Jon stuck to his favorite, the Mojito, which had at least a full cup of mint leaves in the glass.  These drinks were interesting and fun, though the bar lacks a bit of the mainstream options that people tend to look for on a drink list.  When we met at the same bar with a group, a friend ordered a strawberry daiquiri, and they didn't have that or anything even remotely close to it to offer as a second choice.  The other part of the bar that seemed out of place is the furniture.  The first thing that comes to mind for me with this style of furniture is an office building break room, or a hospital waiting area.  For the amount of class that the rest of the hotel gives off - this furniture has got to go.  There is a beautiful outdoor garden and pool area that, unfortunately, didn't have any heaters, so it went unused during our visit.

A great stay at a great hotel - and the perfect night out for our anniversary.  Home Hotel is a comfortable place to stay in a great part of the city - and the amount of information they give you when checking in is worth it's weight in gold.  Bravo to Four Years of Marriage!