There are so many problems with this place I almost don't know where to begin. But at the outset I want to say that the location is great, and that the hotel has potential even though it's not being maintained well. If you don't care about service or security, it's a comfortable enough place at a cheap price. But the staff is terribly incompetent and no one takes responsibility for the many errors committed daily. My stay was for 17 days, and on at least 5 of them they didn't bother to clean my room. Innumerable requests went completely unheeded, and there is no real security in the rooms because there is no chain on the doors, nor any other way to keep staff from entering. The worst offense came after 10:00 one night, as I was lying in bed: a couple came into my room because the "system" somehow listed my room as unoccupied, and the staff had given them the same room. Perhaps not surprisingly, there were multiple occasions when guests would be found screaming at the front desk staff at the top of their voices; they, too, were having problems of one kind or another, and no one was responding. There were also lots of little things. For example, my key wouldn't work, and I'd have to make trip after trip to the front desk to have it remade. The breakfast room opened late almost every day, and one day there was no milk. To make matters worse, the staff rarely apologized, and things never got any better. I'll be back in Montevideo next year, but I won't stay at the Balmoral again.
