Home Hotel Buenos Aires

Rooms and decor

Picture a 1940s brick house in the liveliest part of Buenos Aires. A big wooden door opens onto a high-ceilinged lobby of industrial lamps and deep velvet sofas, coffee drifting over from the bar in the corner, staff greeting you like a friend who dropped by. That's the first impression at Home Hotel Buenos Aires, the first boutique hotel in Palermo Hollywood, open since 2005. Argentine-British couple Patricia O'Shea and Tom Rixton fell for the old house and restored it corner by corner into a design stay of 18 rooms and 2 suites that feels more like a friend's home than a hotel. The charm isn't lavish luxury — it's the small details that telegraph the owners' taste, from the hand-picked British wallpaper to the owner's vinyl collection spinning in the lobby. No two of the 20 rooms are alike: pastel florals in one, 70s geometrics in the next, indigo bird-wing prints in another, each paired with warm-wood mid-century furniture, old leather chairs and brass lamps. Standard rooms run a compact 18-22 sq m in the European boutique style, with a soft queen or king and a clean-lined bathroom.

Food and amenities

The heart of Home Hotel is the courtyard garden. Walk through the lobby and out past a wooden deck and you reach a flower garden running roughly 20 metres deep, with an outdoor pool ringed by hardwood daybeds, sand-colored umbrellas and carefully kept greenery. On a soft Buenos Aires afternoon this is the small heaven — some guests read all day, some couples sip Malbec with a plate of empanadas, and by evening the daybeds turn into a cocktail corner under string lights. There's a small rooftop terrace too, good for watching the city's rooftops at sunset. The lobby cocktail bar and cafe are open to non-guests, which makes them a favorite meeting point for the city's music and fashion crowd, especially Wednesday to Saturday when a DJ plays light sets. Breakfast is homemade and served in the lobby or carried out to the garden — fresh bread, Argentine butter, dulce de leche, eggs to order, seasonal fruit and good coffee.

Location and getting there

You're right in Palermo Hollywood, the creative quarter packed with parrilla steakhouses, cocktail bars and design shops, most within a 10-minute walk. The trade-off is transit: the nearest metro, Ministro Carranza on Line D, is about a 12-minute walk, which isn't ideal with heavy bags or in the rain. The fix is a taxi or Uber, which are far cheaper here than you'd expect — often just a few dollars across town. The city airport Aeroparque (AEP) is roughly 15 minutes by car, while Ezeiza international (EZE) runs 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. The most common review note is the location: central to Palermo Hollywood but a 12-minute walk from Ministro Carranza metro, so plan on taxis. Second is room size — some standards are a tight 18-22 sq m, and anyone with two big suitcases or a stay over 4-5 nights will be happier in a larger room or suite. Third is noise: the surrounding bars and restaurants run to midnight or 2 am on weekends, and street-facing rooms catch some of it, so request an interior room beside the garden when you book. Last, there's no full spa or gym — treatments can be arranged in your room, but if you expect a big-chain wellness setup, this isn't it. If the trip is about atmosphere and design, Home Hotel punches above its price.

Our take

After reading hundreds of real guest reviews, Home Hotel Buenos Aires earns its reputation as a designer's-house boutique — the flower garden and pool, rooms where no two match, a lobby bar locals actually use, and a location in the most creative quarter of Buenos Aires. If your trip looks like breakfast in the garden, a walk to the neighborhood's best design shops and parrillas within 10 minutes, an afternoon by the pool, then Malbec with the music crowd after dark, this fits beautifully. If you want a full-chain spa and gym or a big room with a sweeping view, it may feel too small and too informal. Overall we give it 9.1/10 — best for couples and design-minded travelers who value mood and the owners' taste over big-chain polish, and one of the better-value stays in Buenos Aires this year.