We just posted a review of the new Aubrey Hotel in Santiago, Chile, in the prime neighborhood of Bellavista. This hotel has gotten a lot of press in magazines, but since it just opened in late March, most of those reviews gushing with praise were put on paper before anyone had actually stepped inside.

Our correspondent, Chile resident Jimmy Langman, stepped way inside the first week of opening and spent the night. Here’s what he has to say about this 15-room upscale boutique hotel near lots of dining and drinking options:

For decades, this historic 1927 mansion was the digs for the Domingo Duran Morales family, a Chilean politician and businessman. Largely vacant since 2001, Will Martin of Great Britain and Mark Cigana of Australia saw the vast potential of the home as a hotel and bought it up in 2007. After 3 million dollars of renovations done over about two years time, they have created a classy boutique hotel unique to Santiago.

Each of the rooms is different, some modern, some more traditional. The best suite has “a colossal-sized room with a large bed, wide LCD television on the wall, a big bathtub for those who enjoy a relaxing soak, and terrace looking out at the pool.” If you you want a small and intimate hotel with personality in a prime area for strolling, check into the Aubrey. See our full Hotel Aubrey review here.

See more of the best hotels in Santiago, Chile.

This week we posted our review of Tcherassi, the much-talked-about Cartagena boutique hotel designed by Colombian fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi.

There are plenty of nice boutique hotels in Cartagena and we’ve got reviews of a few notable ones in our listings of Colombia luxury hotels. According to our reviewer Nicholas Gill, however, this one truly stands out from the pack.

“The seven rooms range from 400 to 1200 square feet and each is a little bit different—and named after a different exotic fabric from Tcherassi’s collections. Each room makes use of the original stone walls, still exposed, plus high ceilings, wood floors, beamed ceilings, walk out balconies, free Wi-fi, LCD TVs, and iPod docking stations. The top room in the hotel is Gazar, a three level 1,200-square-foot penthouse suite with a private rooftop pool and sun deck, plus an indoor/outdoor shower and soaking tub.”

If you’re looking for the hot hotel of the moment when you visit Colombia, or you just like to stay in places where the designer’s touch is clear throughout, see our detailed review of Tcherassi Hotel and Spa.

The St. Regis in Mexico City officially opened late last year, but it took us a while to act on that because we were caught by surprise. After all, the Ritz-Carlton there that was announced in 2007 never materialized (we hear it’s going to be an office building now) and Las Alcobas took a year after the lobby furniture arrived to start welcoming guests.

The St. Regis is for real though, as witnessed by the newest correspondent to grace our pages, Jim Johnston. He’s the author of Mexico City: an Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler. He’s also an artist, which made him a good choice to check out this sleek and suave hotel. The photos may remind you a bit of the interiors at Las Alcobas and no wonder—the two newest luxe hotels in the D.F. share the same design firm, Yabu Pushelberg.

“The interiors…are an eclectic mix of styles that recall everything from lacy Arabic scrollwork, to 1950’s Miami beach retro, to intricate Florentine tapestry designs. Floor to ceiling glass walls take full advantage of the urban landscape outside. It’s elegant but casual, serious but fun.”

The amenities are certainly serious though, giving the Four Seasons Mexico some serious competition. There are high-tech ones, like a TV in the bathroom mirror, and high-touch ones, like a butler on each floor.

It’s safe to say that road warriors who want to stay here to rack up some Starwood frequent guest points certainly won’t be making any sacrifices as a result. This big chain business hotel rivals the top competitors in town mentioned above and is a clear cut above the next tier of chain hotels led by the J.W. Marriott.

See our full review of St. Regis Mexico City.

LVMH Cheval Blanc Resort in the Alps

The world’s largest luxury goods company, LVMH, is extending its reach into hotels and resorts. Using the name of its Bordeaux winery, Cheval Blanc, the Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton company will add to its current French ski resort hotel with ones in Oman and Egypt in 2012 to start.

As with many hotel brands like Ritz-Carlton, the company won’t actually own the resort, but will put its name on them and take a management fee for running them. There will be a whiff of LVMH in the air though, with Givenchy spas and shops in the store featuring Louis Vuitton and Dior. I expect there will be plenty of their brands highlighted on the wine list and at the bar as well.

So far there’s no plans to enter the Latin American market with these hotels, but Terrazas de los Andes wine from Argentina will probably make an appearance and 10 Cane rum is pretty close—from Trinidad.

Whenever a city goes from relative obscurity to being “the hot place to visit” in the space of a decade or less, new boutique hotels pop up like mushrooms. The trouble with that, as I’ve seen personally in Buenos Aires and San Miguel de Allende, is that what looks great on a website often doesn’t turn out to be so great when you’re inside the doors. Then the staff disappears all day long and you’re on your own until sundown. So the challenge for us at Luxury Latin America is not adding new hotel reviews: it’s deciding which ones really deserve to be included.

Often I’ll put my faith in a writer who knows the city well, someone who is covering it for a guidebook or one of the high-end travel magazines. Like Nicholas Gill, who often covers the scene in Peru and Colombia for us. He says Hotel Boutique Anandá in Cartagena is one of the special ones.

Besides an obsessive attention to the design details and museum-quality artifacts throughout, Anandá is a better value than many of its competitors in town, with larger rooms and suites that don’t require much of a premium. With a nice rooftop pool and patio, plus an attractive courtyard restaurant, this is a good choice for a romantic stay in the historic Colombian city of Cartagena. See our full review of Hotel Anandá.

Other luxury hotels in Colombia.