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El Panama Hotel, Panama City FF-021 (Panama)
Unused H.S. Crocker card FF-021, quite brown with age on the reverse. Grade: 3
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Hotel Torresol, Bariloche (Argentina)
Unused 4-1/8″ x 7″ card, very heavily aged and foxed on the reverse. Grade: 3
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Hotel Continental, Buenos Aires
It seems the name is now the 725 Continental Hotel, with mixed online reviews but at least it’s still alive. The card is unused, very old and heavily browned with age. Grade: 3
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Claridge Hotel, Buenos Aires
Online reviews for this property are rapidly deteriorating, and everyone seems sad about it. The 4″ x 7-1/8″ card is unused–and, like the hotel, significantly aged. Grade: 2
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Mar del Plata, Hotel Provincial, Casino y Rambla (Argentina)
A stately view of this seaside resort on a very old, unused card 543. The card is notably aging, not unlike the hotel itself–based on online reviews, a recent one of which says the property would be perfect for a murder mystery. The name of the hotel now, by the way, is the NH Gran Hotel Provincial. Grade: 2
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Punta Ninfas, Patagonia – El Pedral Lodge (Argentina)
The unused card has a travel agent’s sticker on the back. As for the property, it gets great online reviews. Grade: 4
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Jugoslav Hotel, La Paz (Bolivia)
This is an accordion-style folio of 16 fold-out photos, in postcard style but individually they are not postcards because each side of each panel has a photo. So you unfold the insert and see eight photos on one side and eight on the other. One panel has the Jugoslav Hotel. The back cover has a person’s name in the address area. Though hard to evaluate, we’ll assign Grade: 3
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Beni, Trinidad, multiple views (Bolivia)
Unused card with Prefectura, Hotel, and Catedral. Aging slightly. Grade: 1
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Los Tajibos Hotel – Casino, Santa Cruz (Bolivia)
The unused card does say “Hotel – Casino” but online now it’s clear the casino is gone and the hotel is also a convention centre. It gets good online reviews, so give it a try and bring this card with you. Aging card, shows some handling. Grade: 2
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Joao Pessoa – PB – Tambau Beach with Tambau Hotel (Brazil)
If the name of this hotel is now Tropical Tambau (we think so), online reviews recently beg management to speed up the renovations. People love the location. (We can’t say.) The aging card was mailed in 1999 with two different stamps and two faint postmarks. Grade: 2
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Maceio/Alagoas, Hotel Jatiúca (Brazil)
Mailed several years ago with two stamps and large but indistinct postmark, along with an Airmail label and the sender’s name and address on a sticker. Aging. Grade: 3
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Hotel Gloria, Rio de Janeiro
The hotel you see here was built in 1922 and closed for renovation in 2009. Things went murky after that, and in 2014 there was a forced sale, but the property is to open again (as of this writing, anyway) in 2016 before the Rio Olympics under the management of Switzerland’s Acron. Time will tell; we won’t. The card was mailed in 1972 using a postage meter. (As irony, it was mailed to Switzerland.) Grade: 2
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Hotel Tirol (Treze Tilias – SC, Brazil)
The hotel is still there, and gets reasonable online reviews. However it also seems there aren’t a lot of hotels in Treze Tilias–or at least they don’t get reviewed. Unused card. Grade: 1
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Hotel Antofagasta (Chile)
Unused card with lots of streaking on the reverse. The hotel itself? Really mixed online reviews, but it’s still there. Grade: 3
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Cordillera, Hotel Portillo (Chile)
If that’s the hotel in the distant background, it’s not the star of this unused old real-photo card. Grade: 2
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Lago Todos Los Santos, Hotel Peulla (Chile)
Not postally used, but in 1990 someone wrote the date and location on the address area. As for the hotel, online reviews didn’t really encourage us to stop there for any reason–not that we would ever get there, of course. Grade: 4
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Carrera-Sheraton Hotel, Santiago (Chile)
Rarely do we run into as many dead ends as we did when we tried to do some online research about this hotel. If it still exists–we don’t think so, but maybe under a different name?–it’s definitely not a Sheraton now. In any case, the card is older, aging, and unused. Grade: 2
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Viña del Mar, multiple views (Chile)
The six views are all identified in the Spanish caption on the back. These include Castillo Wulff, Reloj de Flores, and Hotel del Mar. Unused Hispapel card 32-08. Grade: 1
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Hotel Guarani, Asuncion (Paraguay)
Mailed in 1972 with stamp and partial postmark. The card has aged noticeably. And so, apparently, has the hotel–now known as the Guarani Esplendor Hotel, with good reviews for some things (particularly the location) and mixed reviews for others. Grade: 2
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Hotel Guarani – Vista Nocturna, Asuncion (Paraguay)
From 1975, not postally used but with a message in Portuguese completely filling the reverse. Grade: 4
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Huaraz, Laguna Churup (Peru)
Unused card issued by the Sipan Hotel from Miraflores in Lima. The view has nothing to do with the hotel, of course. There must have been a typo during printing, because a tiny matching sticker that says “Hotel” has been appended in the caption area on the reverse. That’s at source. Grade: 1
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Lima-Sheraton Hotel (Peru)
Unused, official card from the hotel, which is now called Sheraton Lima Hotel & Convention Center and gets good online reviews. The card has aged quite a bit, and has captions in Spanish and English. Grade: 2
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Punta del Este, Edificio del Hotel Casino San Rafael (Uruguay)
First, have a look at our entry 30900781. Same hotel (of course), different card, different maker. This one comes from Ediciones Impresora Uruguaya Colombino, No. 800, is unused and has an abrasion under the caption where some writing had been removed. Grade: 3
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Montevideo, Parque Hotel y Playa Ramirez (Uruguay)
The hotel seems still to be there, now also as a casino, but online reviews are not too encouraging. Imposing location, though. Unused Ediciones Impresora card No. 384, aged. Grade: 2
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Rivera, Hotel Casino (Uruguay)
Continuing a short series of unused, clearly very old real-photo B&W cards of this border city with Brazil. All cards are significantly aged but otherwise clean. This structure is still there, now called Rivera Casino and Resort, and surrounded by far more modern buildings. It gets very good online reviews, so go … but first, buy this card and bring it to them. They might give you a free spin of the wheel? Grade: 1
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Caracas, Hotel Tamanaco (Venezuela)
Very old, unused, aging B&W real-photo card of what is now the Intercontinental Tamanaco Caracas. Talk about polarising online reviews! We’re not political, we just want to offer the card. Grade: 1
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Caraballeda, Hotel Macuto-Sheraton (Venezuela)
Opened in 1963, host to many beauty pageants and probably a brilliant property at the time, then bad things happened. We went searching for online reviews as usual, leading us to this Wikipedia entry which we cite in detail (sorry, it’s long) because it’s interesting: “On 15 December 1999 occurred tremendous rains that led to horrible mud slides. This occurred all along the coastal area that makes up Vargas state but was concentrated in Caraballeda. Sadly, the debris flows that had occurred in the past provided the only flat places where structures could be built. During the night 1.8 million cubic meters of rocks and trees flowed through Caraballeda. Many buildings were washed out to sea. The ones that remained were filled with 8 feet of sand and debris. The Macuto-Sheraton Hotel was so damaged that it was abandoned. Also the Melia Caribe hotel. Of the 300,000 people living on this part of the coast the government of Venezuela estimated that 15,000 died.” Ouch. As for the card, it was mailed sometime in 1966 or later, with two stamps and partial postmark. Grade: 2
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Barbados Hilton Hotel
Things have changed a lot for the Hilton Barbados Resort since this (unused) card came out, though we don’t know when that was. The card R26495 has aged significantly but is otherwise clean. Grade: 2
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Greetings from Aruba, The beautiful Palm-Beach at the Holiday Inn Hotel
Unused, older and aging card with significant smudging on the reverse. Grade: 3
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The Willard Hotel (Washington, DC)
When we worked in Washington, long ago, this grand old hotel was basically derelict. No longer. Unused linen Curteich-Chicago card 6B-H1383. Grade: 1
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Hotel Lotte World, Seoul (South Korea)
Unused card from the hotel itself. Grade: 1
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Hotel Alexandria, Famous Marble Lobby (Los Angeles)
Ancient, unused postcard with minor age-appropriate abrasions around the edges. Heavily aged. To our surprise, the hotel seems still to be there as a mix of rooms and apartments, but online reviews don’t make it sound like a place we would want to stay. Grade: 2
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Chicago, The Seville, A furnished Apartment Hotel (USA)
Here’s something from a 1986 article in the Chicago Tribune: “One year ago a seasoned photographer said the Seville Hotel ‘looks like the bombed out buildings in Beruit–only worse’. But today, after a $2.4 million facelift, the former speakeasy and transient hotel is back in business as the Grand Seville, a 60-unit apartment project that represents one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the historic Buena Park neighborhood.” We hope it turned out as well as that; we hope you live there; and we hope you buy this card. Unused. Grade: 1
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Morrison Hotel, Chicago (Illinois, USA)
We are once again indebted to Wikipedia for this: “The Morrison Hotel was a high rise hotel in the downtown Loop area of Chicago … It was designed by the architectural firm of Marshall and Fox, and completed in 1925. The hotel was demolished in 1965 to make room for the First National Bank Building (now Chase Tower). Standing 526 feet (160 m) high, the Morrison Hotel was the first building outside of New York City to have more than 40 floors. At the time of its razing, it was the tallest building to have ever been demolished anywhere in the world.” We promised to tell you the stories! Card mailed in 1931, with stamp and postmark. Grade: 1
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Hotel Russell (New York City)
Unused, aged old card from the hotel itself, which became the Sheraton Russell and is now permanently closed. Grade: 1
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Queen’s Hotel, Montreal
An online search about the status of this hotel now is going to confuse you. Our description of this postcard, of the property at 700 Windsor, won’t: unused. Grade: 1
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The Seaway Hotel, Toronto
From an online source called Toronto Modern, this: “Now operating as a Four Points by Sheraton, the Seaway Hotel no longer exists in its original state. The dining block has vanished, replaced by a new condominium tower, and the guest wing has been reclad in beige stucco and encrusted with tacked-on classical pediments and mouldings. A clumsy, boxlike Post-Modern portico has replaced the boomerang entrance canopy. Seaway Towers was demolished in 1993 for a new ramp onto the Gardiner Expressway.” Unused card of the hotel first built in 1954. Grade: 1
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Le Chateau Frontenac, Quebec
Now “Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac,” iconic and with wonderful reviews. We’d stay there if we could but it is so far away from here … Unused, aged, vintage sepia postcard. Grade: 2
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Hotel Ford (Montreal)
We are grateful to Wikipedia for telling us this: “Opened in 1930, the 750-room hotel served as CBC-Radio-Canada Montreal headquarters from 1936 to the early seventies. Located at 1425 René-Levesque Ouest, it is now an office building.” (Didn’t remain a hotel for long, did it?) Unused card, extremely heavily foxed on the reverse. Grade: 4
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Milan, Hotel du Nord et des Anglais (Italy)
Unused hotel postcard from this long-gone property. Grade: 1
