The day before leaving for Santiago, I called the Hotel Plaza Londres to confirm and was assured we were booked; however upon our arrival after an overnight plane flight we were told that we could not stay there, as a "delegation" had booked ahead of us, and so we were shuttled down the street to their 'Hostel'. The place was marginal on cleanliness, hot-water was not a given but rather erratic (better chance early in the morning), we shared two towels for most of the week. The old building had obviously been quite elegant in its day and could be again with much renovation, but currently the place is shabby with a very musty smell even with windows open. My main concern was the type lock-set on the door that didn't fit well and was just the push button variety that can be opened with a credit card. There was usually someone on the front desk, and on a more positive note, the staff was friendly. Only other positive comment was the location, which was just off Alameda Avenue and so convenient to Metro stops and central Santiago, however I would never again attempt booking Hotel Plaza Londres. This was our first trip to Santiago, plus we are not fluent in Spanish. We made a few attempts to locate another hotel, but time (due to business) did not allow a lot of looking. We often stay at smaller boutique hotels when traveling and can prefer them to a 4-star, however the Londres Hostel was most unsatisfactory.