The Plaza Hotel, which is the best known and widest advertised, is operated by the Ritz-Carlton Company. It was built by the banker Ernesto Tornquist and leased to them. It is nine stories high, and cost nine million pesos ($3,843,000.00). Its rates are excessive for the service rendered. The rooms are small, its location is not central, and there is nothing to it that gives it the tone of comfort to be had at the other hotels, although the cuisine cannot be improved upon. Imagine paying twenty-five dollars a day for a small room with bath and vestibule, lunch and dinner, but not including breakfast. The Plaza is in much demand for private balls and teas, and is also much patronized by North American commercial travelers who wish to make a splurge, and impress their prospective customers with their own importance, or with the importance of the firm which they represent. An incident that happened in connection with this hotel should be mentioned.
Calle Bartolome Mitré, Buenos Aires
Looking east from Calle Florida
When Naón, the Argentine ex-ambassador to the United States, on a recent trip home wrote to his family asking them to get suitable apartments for him, his sister had a talk with the manager of the Plaza Hotel. The latter, seeing a chance for a hold-up, told her that Naón could have a certain apartment for five thousand pesos ($2135.00) a month. This figures out $71.17 a day. Naón refused to consider the matter and engaged a much better suite at the Hotel Majestic at a much cheaper rate. A month or so afterwards, while attending a reception at the Plaza extended to him by the American Universities Club, the manager servilely approached him, and asked him where he was staying. Upon Naón answering that he was stopping at the Majestic, the manager spoke deprecatorily of the last-mentioned hostelry, and told him he would do much better for him at a lesser price at the Plaza. Naón said that he should have done so in the first place, but on account of his trying to hold him up, he would not stop at the Plaza if he should put the whole hotel at his disposal free of charge.
The two best hotels in Buenos Aires, to my notion, are the Majestic and the Grand.
The Majestic is on the Avenida de Mayo, at the northwest corner of Calle Santiago del Estero, which is but two blocks from the Plaza Congreso. It was opened in 1910 at the time of the Argentine Centennial. It was rented that year by the government to house the foreign diplomats attending the celebration. The prices are reasonable; the rooms all have baths, and most of them are suites with parlors. The meals are table d'hôte and the food and service are excellent. The building is seven stories high, has a roof garden, and a corner tower. The parlors and writing room are on the third floor and are lighted from a skylight at the top of the five-story courtyard of pillared balconies. The Majestic is the residence of many foreign ministers and their families; of people of wealth and culture; and of the commercial representatives of the best European firms. It is no show place, but a hotel of quiet refinement.
