The Camino Real chain is known for high-end Mexican hotels. The Camino Real El Paso is not their best property. It is clean. The staff is friendly. The rates are low. It is close to the convention center and museums. It has many meeting rooms. After that, all is mediocre.
It's an old property that needed a full renovation. Instead, Camino Real gave it paint, plaster, and carpet, then called it quits. The furniture and decor is inexpensive, unimaginative and old-fashioned. Bath fixtures are dated and well-used. It's basically a one-bar-of-soap hotel. Literally. Take your soap from the sink to the shower, then from the shower to the sink. Table tops and counters are a cheap synthetic stone that gets water marks. All furniture in the rooms is the same dark-red, nubby, synthetic fabric. The TV is a big, blurry Zenith from a decade ago.
The Dome Bar has spectacular bones, but the hotel skimped on lighting and furniture, making it little more than a cavern. Poor management shows everywhere, from miserable service and food errors in the cafe to non-existent bell hops and door staff. The Caesar salad? Chopped romaine tossed with some sort of creamy dressing. No croutons, no Parmesan, no sardines, no evidence of the traditional makings of a Caesar. Not quite as good as what they might serve at Denny's.
Parking? Do it yourself. Under the hotel. No security; not even a gate at the entry or exit. Dark and scary. Don't go down there. For that matter, while El Paso is a safe city, you are still four blocks from Juarez and there is no security in sight anywhere. None.
It's not a dump. It's not a hell-hole. It's not full of vermin, and there is no standing water in the lobby. But it's a half-hearted effort, a low-end convention hotel. If you like to eat at the Cracker Barrel, you won't mind your stay.
Finally, about location. For a convention, good. Very close to the convention center, art museum, history museum, and other civic assets. But what the city has tried to do is clean up tacky, messy, old downtown El Paso by pouring in construction money. They went too far the other direction--they sterilized the place. All the civic improvements crowded out everything else. No office buildings, no community, no activity. There are few restaurants and bars, and they are not active in the evenings. Here's how dead it is down there: Nobody could find a Starbucks.
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