The newest major hotel in Buenos Aires, this Recoleta gem opened in July of 2006. It is situated between the Alvear Palace and the Four Seasons. Despite its initial historic impression, it's among the most technologically sophisticated hotels in the city and makes the most of an extensive modern art display that changes every 45 days.
The property consists of two buildings connected by an underground passageway, with only landscaped gardens visible from any window. The main building is the imposing aristocratic Palacio dating from 1934, with glass chandeliers, original marble columns, and a spiral staircase that greets arriving visitors. The history lesson stops there, though, as the designers skipped the period look and went straight to the new millennium in its decoration and in the new Posadas building across the garden. Most of the common areas, including the reception with its subdued light and leathered walls, would not be out of place at the MALBA modern art museum a few miles away.
Just off the lobby, the Palacio's Vinoteca (wine bar) is refreshingly unusual, with its long marble table surrounded by barstools beneath a sculptured rose glass chandelier that mimics a grapevine. Two smoked glass enclosures display a wine collection of more than 7,000 bottles, while the adjacent Cheese Room preserves 35 varieties of handmade cheeses. The nearby Oak Bar is the only place that permits smoking indoors.
Two restaurants serve guests: the Palacio's Duhau Restaurant mirrors the building's classic Francophile heritage in style and menu, while the Posadas building's Gioia is a contemporary design restaurant with high ceilings and a modern Italian menu. The former also serves afternoon tea, while the latter hosts the breakfast buffet. Both spill out onto garden terraces when the weather permits. In all of these, guests should expect prices on the level of urban hotels in North America.
The impressive Ahin Spa has what may be the city's best-equipped gym (with a full-time personal trainer), the largest indoor swimming pool at 25 meters, and five marble and oak treatment rooms with adjacent gardens: one wet suite, two standards suites, and two spa suites with special bathtubs. An art gallery, a florists, and upscale boutiques provide diversion; all are open to non-guests as well. A staffed business center supports extensive meeting facilities serving from 8 to 240 banquet attendees.
Lining the corridors, commissioned sculptures and paintings entice guests to linger, plus each guest floor has a dramatic painting facing the elevator. Rooms in the original building have higher ceilings, restored architectural features, hardwood floors, and more traditional touches. All include an array of useful gadgets and tech touches: two cordless phones can receive calls anywhere in the building, bedside buttons control curtains and lights (which brighten and dim gradually), safes have laptop outlets in both 110 and 220 volts, and "night mode" bathroom 
lights keep guests from getting blinded when they get up during the night. Personal bars and large flat-screen TVs with DVD/CD players are standard. The custom semi-circular desks allow service to just bring up an extension, but note that the chairs are not ergonomic. Well-designed baths have two entrances, with a dressing room, large tub, separate shower stall with rain shower, separate WC, and an array of toiletries.
Of the 165 rooms, 39 are suites, though the numerous "Park Suites" are really larger one-room junior suites with an additional sitting area, Bang and Olufson stereos, and double vanities in the larger bath. All suites also feature a glass wall with a curtain between the bath and bedroom. Rooms that face the interior garden have a better view than those facing out, but some guests might appreciate the novelty of looking at the neighboring Vatican embassy. Housekeeping checks in three times daily and both room service and concierge service run 24 hours.
Guests in the newer Posadas building can utilize a separate entrance and lobby open until 1 am. Guests in wheelchairs may find the underground route from one side of the property to the other a little indirect, given the multiple levels, but all the rooms are suitable for the handicapped. A large bilingual staff-to-guest ratio and top-tier Hyatt management have allowed the Duhau to raise the competitive bar for everyone else in town.