Barrio Norte’s bright boutique-style Design Suites (Marcelo T. de Alvear 1683, tel./fax 011/4814-8700, www.designsuites.com, US$218–254 s or d) has a heated pool, gym, restaurant room service, and daily newspaper delivery (of the guest’s choice). Each of its 40 suites has cable TV, a telephone, Internet and fax connections, a kitchenette, a minibar, air-conditioning, a strongbox, and a hot tub.

Near Puerto Madero, across from the Plaza Fuerza Aérea Argentina, the mammoth 742-room high-rise Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel (San Martín 1225, tel. 011/4318-9000, www.starwoodhotels.com, US$240–301 s or d) gets the international business trade but also many tourists. It offers a large fitness center and swimming pools as well as two restaurants.

Now under international-chain control, Retiro’s landmark (dating from 1909) Marriott Plaza Hotel (Florida 1005, tel. 011/4318-3000, www.marriott.com, US$224–345 s or d) has undergone modernization without losing its German baroque charm and elegance.

Monserrat’s Hotel Intercontinental (Moreno 809, tel. 011/4340-7100, www.buenos aires.intercontinental.com, US$215–350 s or d) consistently makes best-hotels lists in magazines like Travel + Leisure. Affordable for what it offers, two-thirds of its 315 rooms are nonsmoking.

The Loi Suites Recoleta (Vicente López 1955, tel. 011/5777-8950, www.loisuites.com.ar, US$303–520 s or d) is the toniest link of a stylish four-hotel chain. With some of Buenos Aires’s most innovative design, it makes magnificent use of natural light.

Favored by business travelers and international entertainment figures, Retiro’s highly regarded Caesar Park Hotel (Posadas 1232, tel. 011/4819-1100, www.caesar park.com, US$339–526 s or d) now belongs to a Mexican luxury hotel chain. Rates include an extravagant breakfast buffet, but it can’t match the established historical elegance of competitors like the Four Seasons and
Alvear Palace.

Since 1928, the Alvear Palace Hotel (Avenida Alvear 1891, tel. 011/4805-2100, www.alvearpalace.com, from US$665393 s or d up) has symbolized elegance and luxury—not to mention wealth and privilege. This is one place that, despite devaluation, maintains both its standards and its prices—ranging upwards of US$5,000 for the royal suite—for accommodations with Egyptian-cotton sheets and Hermès toiletries. Francophobes may find the ancien régime decor cloying, but it consistently ranks among the world’s best hotels in Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler.

Rivaling the Alvear Palace, but with French architect Philippe Starck’s own distinct style, Puerto Madero’s Faena Hotel & Universe (Marta Salotti 445, tel. 011/4010-9000, from US$425 s or d) has recycled a historical granary into a cutting-edge hotel and “experience” whose interior is a hybrid of Parisian classicism and avant-garde sensibility.