Room Mate Valentina

Set in vibrant Zona Rosa, a candy-coloured futuristic style saturates this addition to the Room Mate mod squad

With its vivid Pop-Art decor and location in one of the friskier parts of town, the newest Room Mate hotel certainly lives up to the ‘sporty and sexy’ attributes of Valentina. She is your imaginary friend who lives in the Zona Rosa and will show you its cosmopolitan delights before returning you to this groovy hotel. It is big and bold: 14 floors with 62 rooms bedecked with pods of geometric furniture, lit plexiglass partitions and curvy ceilings. It seems designer Tomas Alia has been inspired by both the swinging '60s and the space age in his really hip design, which is as far from bland as possible.

Staff are as bright and cheerful as the surroundings - the young reception team work behind a circular neon-blue desk etched with Aztec symbols; breakfast is served in a funky cafeteria with walls of lime green. In the lobby, white plastic cacti stand guard before a splashy rainbow of glass shells, while out front, friendly doormen stand ready to hail you a cab or point you to the nearest shoe shop. Like her former incarnation - she was once a tired business hotel known as the Marco Polo - Valentina has travelled far to take her place in the trendy gang of big-city Room Mates.

Highs

• Very central location off Paseo de la Reforma, one of Mexico City’s most beautiful boulevards
• Clever digital music system in every room that pipes in radio stations from around the world; WiFi is free throughout the hotel
• A sizeable buffet breakfast is served until noon every day
• 24-hour reception who can make restaurant reservations, book tours, arrange car hire etc
• Sited in buzzy barrio with lots of cool bars and restaurants, area and hotel suits a young crowd

Lows

• The hotel is smack-dab in the middle of very liberal Zona Rosa - some may find the surplus of sex shops and gay nightclubs a bit much
• Rooms are above a busy street in a neighbourhood of bars and restaurants so the night-time noise level can get quite high
• Lots of computerised gadgets means there can be technical difficulties with heating, air con and stereo speakers
• No pool or parking