Beltran de Santa Cruz is in the heart of old Havana and in a great position for the area's major attractions, as well as paladares, cafés, and bars. The hotel is part of a Cuban chain, but don't let that put you off. Recently refurbished, it was formerly a colonial merchant's house. You enter by a huge wooden door and are in the reception area, beyond which is the beautiful courtyard. In the corner is a bar where you can also opt to eat breakfast, joined by the inquisitive parrots who love a bit of crusty bread. The rooms are on two floors, and all overlook the courtyard. Each room has shuttered doors that can be opened to let in light - ours had no other window and really needed the shutters opens although this limits your privacy.
There were two large beds, a bathroom with a bath, and a lovely wash basin set in an old dresser at the far end of the room. There was a TV with all the US, stations as well as some Cuban ones. A small fridge was very useful for chilling some much-needed water.
Breakfast was very disappointing - some coffee, some weak orange juice, and toast with butter or jam. We got much better breakfasts when staying in casas, so this was a real letdown considering we had paid around 70€ for the room.
Our other gripe was that the air-conditioning was not working and the room was so stifling and airless that we would have left had we not paid in advance by credit card and thought a refund unlikely. We asked for a fan, and the receptionist said that there were none but he would phone the other hotels and see if he could borrow one. He also said he would call out the engineer for the air-conditioning, but he never came. Returning to our room after a night out, the room was horrendously stuffy, so we went back to reception to be told there would be no fan. After some argument about the whole thing, he said we could have his fan (there was no fan in reception to be seen) and that he would bring it to the room, but he had to have it back by 8am (we had not been thinking about such an early call). Reluctantly, we accepted the offer, but were bemused on checking out the next afternoon to find that the fan was used inside the locked store cupboard in which our luggage had been stored after checking out. The precious fan was doing nothing more than blowing air around our rucksacks! Very odd indeed.
So long as the air-conditioning is okay, this is a lovely place to stay: full of character, clean, and comfortable. The okay breakfast was mean, but otherwise it was a lovely way to end our trip to Cuba.