On John of the Sosua Palace's suggestion, I stayed at the guest friendly Hotel Hodelpa Centro Plaza in December 2003. (Another popular guest friendly hotel in Santiago is the Hodelpa Gran Almirante)

Hodelpa - Centro Plaza Hotel
C/Mella No. 54 Esq. Del Sol
Apdo: 459
Santiago, Dominican Republic
Tel: (809) 581-7000
Fax: (809) 582-4566
Hodelpa Centro Plaza Website

The rate I paid was $50 US per night plus taxes and fees.

My room was nice and comfortable and had a doorway leading to an outdoor balcony overlooking the city streets. The in-room safe was located on the floor of the closet. It locked with a key and was large enough to store my notebook computer.

In the hotel lobby are two computers with high-speed connections to the Internet.

There is a disco next door, but I did not visit it. They also have a restaurant, a gym, a masseuse, and laundry service, but I didn't use any of these either.

The only problems I encountered were with the elevators. There are only two and they are very small. The three days I was here, only one was functioning, and was not even fully operational. The doors would not open automatically after they closed upon returning to the hotel lobby. A long, firm laminated card would need to be grabbed from the lobby desk and inserted into the crack of the doors to trip a sensor before they would open. On one day, the elevator got stuck completely and I had to use the stairs to get to and from my room on the third floor.

I still enjoyed my stay here and would recommend it as a middle budget hotel. It is more expensive than the Hotel Colonial (less than $10 US/night) but much more secure. The Hodelpa Gran Almirante has a pool and is probably much nicer, but I did not want to pay $100 US plus taxes and fees per night.

Hodelpa Centro Plaza can be found on my Santiago Map at Blue 1.

The following TripReport snippet is taken from 2004/02 - RTGooch - RT Gooch Takes On Santiago, DR

HODELPA CENTRO PLAZA: 19° 27' 028" N, 70° 42' 129" W

The Hodelpa is right smack dab in the middle of downtown Santiago. In the daytime, this area is bustling with business, shopping, and people, people, people. At night, it is fairly desolate. You wouldn't want to walk around too much at night, but there are cabs waiting right in front to take you anywhere cheaply. My room rate was $50 plus taxes, and that includes a free breakfast every day. The rooms there are not opulent, but the bed is good, the water pressure works, and they are chica-friendly. No check-in required with your girl, just walk in and get in an elevator.

I unpack, change my clothes and am in a cab in 30 minutes heading to the Hotel & Casino Gran Almirante. This is one of the two casinos in Santiago, the other being attaced to the Hotel Matum.

For a business class hotel, I think this place totally sucked. The bed during my second stay was lumpy and the room facing the street might as well have been outside with all the noise from the street. That doesn’t include the crappy and smaller room I got stuck in my first night there that had a leak and drip somewhere that would have kept me up all night if I hadn’t been so tired. Maid service was ok and even though I left around 8pm one night, the room had been cleaned when I returned. The printer downstairs didn’t have a printer cartridge to print my boarding passes and I had to wait about 20 minutes for the bellboy to find one. Not recommend.

I'm going to Santiago in 2 weeks and I need hotel recommendations. I'm looking for a decent place: relatively clean, with a safe, a/c, and cable. Also, I want something moderately-priced, say $50/night. I called Centro Plaza yesterday and I was quoted a rate of $95/night before taxes - ouch! Any help would be much appreciated.

RT here.

I suggest you call back and price the Centro Plaza again -- $95 is way out of line.

If that fails, try the hotel Aloha Sol. It's a block away from Centro Plaza. One time, they charged me something like a $15 guest fee; the other time, they didn't. The rooms are small, but comfortable. They have a bunch of different size rooms, so you might want to negotiate an upgrade once you're there.

The place is right in your price range.

Here's there number: 809 583 0090. I don;t know what their web site is.