My wife and I booked a stay at the Hotel Francia during the off season in mid-January. While the location was nice enough being a couple blocks off the Zocala, we encountered several major problems. First off no one at the hotel spoke any English whatsoever which normally isn't a problem. We'd been traveling through Mexico long enough to roll with this situation by pulling out our trusty phrasebook and dictionary. Unfortunately no one at the desk could be bothered to even work with us. They simply launched into a few phrases too fast for us to undetstand (despite our repeated entreaties to slow it down) then went back to chatting with their friends or co-workers. On top of that we found out the room was more expensive than we were told on making our reservation. I pulled out the reservation claiming we would only pay a certain amount (in pesos) but the front desk's English got even worse, if such a thing could be possible. We finally just headed up to our room resolved to deal with the situation the next morning.

Now comes the really bad events. The hotel advertised remodeled rooms in the older section of the hotel being available. They weren't. All the rooms NOT facing directly onto the incredibly noisy streets below were closed off for contruction. My wife and I got probably a total of four hours sleep all told in fifteen minute intervals. The final straw was when my wife went out into the common area to read a book in the hopes of getting to sleep. When she came back to the room briefly, one of the hotel staff stole her English language book and everything else she'd left out there.

Needless to say we checked out the next morning and found a great hotel room right on the Zocala for the price we'd originally been quoted by the Hotel Francia. If my stay at the Hotel Francia had been a restaurant meal, I would have refused to pay. Perhaps when their current construction is finished and the old wing is re-opened it might be worth a return visit. Unfortunately until then I cannot recommend staying there even if you bring ear plugs. The traffic literally made our bed shake at a few points.

My family and I went online to look for a place to stay, we found Hotel Francia so we headed over to Auto Club to make the reservation but they don´t have this listed as a AAA rated hotel but we went with it anyways and we loved it, it was close to everything and didn´t need to take taxis which saved us alot of $ and the hotel was very clean I quess they had problems before but are now under new management and now keep it very clean. The only thing I was unhappy with was the onsite restuarant, it seemed to be very slow service so needless to say we only went once, but there are alot of places to eat all over oaxaca. So i hope this helps you on your trip to oaxaca.
God Bless,
Joe Mendez

Price was right, but you get what you pay for. The room was dirty and hot. The bathroom had only a thin curtain blocking the shower spray. The bathroom flooded whenever anyone showered. The towels were threadbare. The location is good, but I suspect that there are other budget hotels that are cleaner and nicer.

Oaxica is a fantastic place for sight seeing, arts and crafts, and hiking. The people and culture are very unique. Oaxacan cuisine is unbelievabe. For the best food venture away from the Zocalo. If you are traveling on a budget I recommend the Hotel Francia which is comfortable, friendly, clean, and beautiful. The Camino Real is also great (and much more expensive). I can't wait to go back!