On the one side, I don't want to judge too harshly about this hotel because it is has certain benefits you can enjoy, such as really high ceiling in the rooms, very complete breakfast with wide range of exotic fruits, nice lounge/swimming pool area next to it, and it is right in front of the ocean.

But on the other side, I can not avoid mentioning aspects which made me dislike this place. First is unbelievably slow internet, and that is for the price of high speed internet ($45 a day). Even checking email was a great problem. It can be ok for few days, but when you are locked for a week there unable to do most simple stuff on your computer it is just frustrating. I called the service person, who said he will fix it in ten minutes, but literally nothing changed after that, it was as turtle speed as before. There was row of other troubles I experienced, but they were less significant. For example, right when I arrived to my room, I found my bathroom in a complete disaster - sink was leaking and there were lots of water all over the floor in the bathroom. I had to call 3 times maintenance until they brought a person to fix it (he did it quickly then).

Be aware that at the concierge desk they don't provide you with good information about restaurants. I was looking for Churrascaria, and only places employee recommended were in Botafogo, Downtown and near Maracana - in other words very far places. And she did not mention two absolutely amazing churrascarias which were right in walking distance from hotel, one literally 30 meters from it, and another about 15 minutes walk (to the east direction). And for the sushi place, she would only tell about restaurant in Leblon (quite far), although there are as well some other ones.

Just a tip about tour guides they offer at a hotel - I would not recommend bus tour to Corcovado and Sugar Loaf, it is in total 4 hours of traffic and 15 minutes of actual sightseeing in each place. It is better instead to go on your own and take a beautiful train to Corcovado, and to Sugar Loaf you can walk or bike and then take a cable car. I would definitely recommend rental bike service ($20 dollars an hour), although, you can also rent bike at a rental bike station, it is also cheaper. But the best option is to go to a football game - pricing is very sensible and the whole service is enjoyable. However, the best places in Rio are the ones, where tour guides won't carry you, such as best night clubs and dancing zones in historical center or Tijuca forest where you can spent hours of amazing walks or hippie fair in Ipanema and San Cristoforo fair where you can find lots of unique things and atmosphere.

So some of the guests are a bit showy and some of the suites may look a bit tired now but this is still one of the most iconic hotels and the staff cant do enough to ensure you have a great stay. It helped that we were offered a free upgrade but despite that would still have given 5 stars for the location, ambience and very good food. (which isnt always the case in Rio)