SACRED STONE Boutique Hotel

staff is great. They picked me up from the train station and after knowing I am heading to Machu Picchu at 5:40am. They packed breakfast for us at 5:30am. Great service.

Pros: The location is great, and the view behind the hotel is nice. Also, the beds were comfortable. Cons: NO HOT WATER!! We had two rooms on the 4th floor, which did not get hot water. After complaining multiple times, we got lukewarm water at night 10pm. However, the next morning, the water stopped completely!! I could not take a shower, but my mother was unfortunately in the middle of her shower when it stopped. I think they intentionally turned off the hot water to save money. The hair dryer was not working either. It was a terrible experience after a long day of exploring Machu Picchu. Also, the breakfast was pancakes & croissants, plus slices of bananas, pineapple, and papaya. The family at reception seems friendly, but this hotel is definitely not worth the money we paid. The name & pictures and reviews are misleading!

We would love to say how the stay was, except we were not able to actually stay there due to the dangers presented by the unkept property and by the failure of the hotel to actually provide what was told to us when we made our arrangements. The stairs were under construction, leaving the sides open to our young children to potentially fall to serious injury, my father in law had knee/hip problems and we were promised a room on the first floor but upon arrival we were told the room was up the unsafe stairway. They were also constructing a new terrace where the railing failed to offer any real protection from a fall. When this was brought to their attention they were unwilling to uphold what they agreed to upon us booking our reservation. For the safety of my family, we had to go to another hotel and the staff first offered a one night refund but when we followed through with leaving to another hotel they withdrew that and refused to refund anything at all!

The staff was so nice, I 100% recommend to stay here

El hotel está muy bien ubicado, personal amable, el desayuno es promedio. El hotel no es estilo boutique. Se nota que hay mantenimiento en las instalaciones pero de forma poco profesional. Solicitamos una habitación con vista a la montaña y no era así.

First of all, I don’t like leaving negative reviews of hotels — if it’s a chain, then that’s one thing, but when it’s just a single hotel, I feel like I’m hurting someone’s business. But there’s some major problems here, and they’d be fixed pretty easily. The first thing you’ll notice upon entering your room is the musty smell. Some other reviews have mentioned it, but it’s really overpowering. It smells like you’re entering the damp basement of an aging home where the sump pump broke ten years ago. I cannot express how humid the room was. There was literally no air circulation whatsoever. I asked at the front desk if they had a fan, and was told “No, but you can open the window!” Which would make sense, except the windows of most of the rooms open to a hallway. Yes, the hallway is open to the outside, but it doesn’t face the river. There’s no breeze at all. Plus, the way the windows are situated means that if you open it, anyone walking by can just look right in. I was sitting on the bed at one point, and someone walked by and just scooted the curtain over and poked their head inside. Yes, Aguas Calientes is a humid environment. It rains a lot. But it was far more humid inside the room than outside, due to the air just sitting and stagnating. At one point I took a shower in the morning, and the walls of the bathroom were still dripping wet at night — which would explain the bits of mold growing on the walls. And that’s kind of the core of the issue here. If the hotel doesn’t care about the comfort of their guests, then that’s one thing. But by allowing the rooms to remain so wet, they’re damaging their own property. Dehumidifiers aren’t that expensive. And this hotel isn’t exactly cheap compared to others in town. They could easily take what they make off of one room for one night, and buy one. There was also a separate issue with the hot water. There were multiple times where there was no hot water in the shower, and at one point, the water completely shut off in the middle of a shower. The first time, the guy at the desk said they’d turn it on and to give it ten minutes or so. Now, why they’d turn off the water is beyond me, but I get that there’s some things I may not understand about the structure of the building. But this happened repeatedly. One of the employees (owner?) said something about all the guests using up the hot water in the morning. Another guest was told that the city had shut off the hot water — which makes no sense, because I’ve never heard of a city anywhere running hot water heaters. If they’re having trouble with their hot water heater, they could do what a lot of hotels do, which is have individual heaters in every bathroom. I’ve stayed in hotels in far less pleasant areas than Aguas Calientes where they had this kind of setup. Anyway, I wish I could give this place a glowing review, but I can’t. Trying to sleep with no shower and in a place where it’s so oppressively humid is a challenge, to say the least. I will say that the beds were clean and that one of the guys at the front desk was friendly.

The beds were clean. One of the guys at the front desk was friendly. Otherwise, my time here was less than pleasant.

First of all, I don’t like leaving negative reviews of hotels — if it’s a chain, then that’s one thing, but when it’s just a single hotel, I feel like I’m hurting someone’s business. But there’s some major problems here, and they’d be fixed pretty easily. The first thing you’ll notice upon entering your room is the musty smell. Some other reviews have mentioned it, but it’s really overpowering. It smells like you’re entering the damp basement of an aging home where the sump pump broke ten years ago. I cannot express how humid the room was. There was literally no air circulation whatsoever. I asked at the front desk if they had a fan, and was told “No, but you can open the window!” Which would make sense, except the windows of most of the rooms open to a hallway. Yes, the hallway is open to the outside, but it doesn’t face the river. There’s no breeze at all. Plus, the way the windows are situated means that if you open it, anyone walking by can just look right in. I was sitting on the bed at one point, and someone walked by and just scooted the curtain over and poked their head inside. Yes, Aguas Calientes is a humid environment. It rains a lot. But it was far more humid inside the room than outside, due to the air just sitting and stagnating. At one point I took a shower in the morning, and the walls of the bathroom were still dripping wet at night — which would explain the bits of mold growing on the walls. And that’s kind of the core of the issue here. If the hotel doesn’t care about the comfort of their guests, then that’s one thing. But by allowing the rooms to remain so wet, they’re damaging their own property. Dehumidifiers aren’t that expensive. And this hotel isn’t exactly cheap compared to others in town. They could easily take what they make off of one room for one night, and buy one. There was also a separate issue with the hot water.

Great location. Window facing the mountain has a staircase, so you need to draw the curtain most of the time and can't enjoy the view.

Even thought the stay was short we had a great experience with the staff and very accommodating and the breakfast was delightful. Ohhh the sound of the river at night it was amazing.