Formerly Casa Fayette, Casa Habita is a boutique hotel part of the Design Hotels brand affiliated with Marriott Bonvoy. Casa Habita is also part of Grupo Habita, a boutique hotel development company based in Mexico. The hotel was 9 floors, 31 rooms and 6 suites and is located in Guadalajara’s Lafayette neighborhood which is known to be trendy and an up and coming area for access to restaurants, bars, and shopping.
Originally, the hotel was a house built in the beginning of the 20th century before it was revamped into a hotel which opened in 2015. While modern, the hotel does feel older than it is; think rooms with an industrial like feel but touches from the 40’s. The common areas feel like they’re holding on to the art deco days but with a classy hipster vibe.
The hotel has a restaurant, a bar, a spa, a terrace with a swimming pool and lounge area, and a gym.
These are the available room types:
- Standard King
- Balcony Suite with a city view and 1 Queen bed
- Deluxe Room with a King Bed, balcony and city view (two of these rooms have 2 Queen size beds)
- Junior Suite with 1 King Bed and city view
- Suite with a separate 1 King bed/bedroom, City view and balcony
All rooms have these amenities: A/C, rain and telephone style head showers, minibar, TV with LED screen, Bluetooth speakers, safe box and organic bathroom amenities.
Casa Habita also offers the following services: Laundry, WI-FI, business space, vintage bicycles, tours, parking lot with valet parking, security and 24hrs room service.
Why Casa Habita?
When looking at visiting Guadalajara, we looked at numerous hotel options and narrowed it down to 2: Casa Habita in Lafayette and Aloft in the Financial District. While Aloft was half the price of Casa Habita, we chose Casa Habita because of its location as it is a lot closer to most of the things we wanted to experience and it would be possible to walk compared to Aloft which would require us to use Uber/Lyft more often. We also knew that both these hotels offer little to Bonvoy Titanium members as far as benefits and so we didn’t feel as though we’d be missing out on perks at either hotel and we did feel that Casa Habita has some services we’d use like the car service, drink vouches, and maybe even the bicycles. We were also only in Guadalajara for a short amount of time and so we felt it was worth splurging to stay at our top choice hotel.
Our Stay:
We arrived at check-in time and we’re looking forward to getting access to our room in order to freshen up before going out to explore. At check-in, we were warmly greeted and offered some chilled water which was nice. We were also informed that we had been upgraded: we had booked a Balcony Suite but we were upgraded to a Deluxe room on the 7th floor. In the end, we realized this wasn’t much of an upgrade other than having a bit more privacy and a better view as the room wasn’t that much bigger and didn’t include a balcony which would have been nice. In retrospect, we should have declined the upgrade for the room that had the balcony.
When we exited the elevator, we were surprised by the whitish carpets in the hallway and bright red walls but it seemed to fit the atmosphere. What was pretty interesting was the crystal ball like fixture on the door which had the room number on it. It had a bit of a “Shining” feeling which was fun and quirky.
Our room was really bright and we loved the floor to ceiling windows and polished concrete floors. We had a nice view of the neighborhood and city in the distance. We were facing west which meant we had the sun beating down on the room which made it quite warm as the air conditioning unit was installed near the bathroom and even setting it at 16 Celsius didn’t seem to cool the room down but thankfully the windows opened. If it was summer, we could see how this room could get really warm and that it might not be comfortable for those who like ice cold rooms.
The bathroom was well designed with the toilet at the far end, the sink and vanity area in the middle, the shower against the outdoor wall and everything was in beautiful marble. While some people have complained about the blue towels, they are actually very light blue and if they were not laundered properly, you’d notice in the same way as if the towel was white. We also enjoyed the bath products which were their brand but felt very high quality.
The bed was super comfy with nice linens and a sunken headboard that also had a shelf for storage and lots of charging outlets. The bed faced the wall which had a small off-centered TV which would have been better suited to a nice piece of art or something since the TV seemed in a weird spot and out of place. The chair and table in the corner was a nice spot to just sit and read. This is also where we were delighted to enjoy the welcome treats they left for us!
The room had a mini bar fridge stocked with non-alcoholic drinks and alcoholic drinks; the beer was reasonably priced at about 30 pesos. They also had snacks for purchase.
As for storage, the closet was part of that headboard piece and included space for luggage, to hang clothes up, some drawers. They provide bathrobes and slippers which was appreciated and Max used the slipper for the pool.
We used the pool one evening and pretty much had it to ourselves. The pool water was refreshing without being too cool or too warm so no complaints from us. We used our drink vouchers to get margaritas from the pool bar which we really enjoyed.
On our way back to the room, we noticed they had a bottle of Herradura tequila and we’re offered a shot to taste it as it was the front desk agent’s favorite. Jason doesn’t usually like tequila but enjoyed this one due to how smooth it was without the burn.
Services and Amenities:
We didn’t use the gym but when Max asked about it they said it opened at 08:00 and a key was required from the front desk. People have commented that the gym is small and the a/c doesn’t work well so if a gym is a priority for you, you may want to stay elsewhere.
While the restaurant and bar looked nice and get good reviews, we ate and drank off-site instead. We would definitely have dinner at the restaurant if we had an extra night. There is also a cafe onsite but we are unsure if it is part of the hotel; the setting is nice and we enjoyed coffee and pastries there one morning.
We were debating whether or not to use the bikes as they looked nice and fun, but we decided to just walk instead. If you are there on a Sunday, we do recommend taking advantage of the car free street from 08:00-14:00 to get to the historic centre. Read our blog post for more information about car free Sunday in Guadalajara.
We inquired twice about using the car service; an Audi drives you within a 5 km radius but both days it was unavailable because none of the staff onsite were allowed to drive the car. We did find this slightly disappointing and something the hotel should have tried to remediate that for us since it is something they advertise and offer.
Overall:
We really did enjoy our stay at Casa Habita despite the disappointment of the car service and the temperature in our room due to the air conditioning unit; we would definitely stay here again due to how convenient the location is to the Americana and Arcos Vallarta neighborhood, and close enough to the historic centre. We also found the staff and service at Casa Habita excellent which makes a difference. We did feel that staying at Casa Habita as a big part of our enjoyment of our trip to Guadalajara in the same way that Ignacia House made our visit to Mexico City that much more special. While we do prefer boutique hotels, we would also probably be inclined to try Aloft next time due to the price difference between the two properties. We left the city looking up other Grupo Habita hotels for our next adventure due to how impressed we were overall with our stay at Casa Habita!
Do you prefer boutique hotels over standard chain hotels? Is budget the primary factor for when you chose a hotel? Does the length of your stay determine where you choose to stay?
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WeLeaveToday 
Sometimes the ease of the big chains is nice but overall I really enjoy staying somewhere more boutique or small. With a more local vibe and unique decor, it’s usually more fun. This one looks great. And as we may be heading to that area later in the winter, I’ll definitely be flagging it!
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