hotel boutique casona de usaquen — Hotel in Bogota, Capital District

We arrived close to 9 PM to check into Hotel Casona Usaquen, advertised as a boutique 3 star hotel. ||The hotel arranged our airport shuttle 50,000 Colombian pesos (plus tip!). We learned during our stay that people can get between 30,000 and 40,000 for this ride. We used uber back to the airport and paid 28,500 pesos! ||Everything about the hotel and our check in was smooth, we booked 6 months earlier and were travelling from Canads. We loved the old castle rustic maintained and polished look of the small boutique hotel. This feeling changed when the check in attendant took us to our room on the first floor that 6 months ago I requested a higher floor with a view. ||The room had the same rustic quality as the lobby and exterior of the hotel but it was a closet! We are two grown adults expected to move around in a room size you’d only find in Asia (our trip to Hong Kong!) ||I escalated to the attendant to change my room. She said they were sold out. I told her how is that possible when I booked 6 months ago with my special request and even then the hotel was not sold out for my dates! I insisted on speaking with a manager, but at that hour there wasn’t one. I pointed out to the attendant it is clear that because we were the last to check in for the day, they gave out all the better available rooms and figured we would accept this small room. The shower was barely 2x2 feet and water all over the floor no matter how much you tried to control the curtain. ||The attendant disagreed as to why we got the room we got. I told her this is not the experience you give a traveller from far that books 6 months in advance for a reason! She stated she cannot do anything and if anyone cancels on the morning she will let me know. We were there only for two nights and this was our 5th Colombian tour stop during our two week vacation. ||I told her she needs to fix this in the morning. When we headed out for a late dinner we saw a guest check out from another floor! When we returned from dinner I approached the attendant and said I want the room that just checked out. She declined that it needs cleaning and the room is allotted to another reservation in the morning. I advised her to assign that room to me and she can deal with the other reservation in the morning! The attendant agreed and by evening the next day after touring the 2nd floor room was now ours... DOUBLE THE SIZE!!! Large bedroom, LARGER bathroom, and ceilings so high with beautiful wooden beam finishings. This was the quality we have been paying for the entire trip at other accommodations and we didn’t need to negotiate for them! This hotel does include toiletries and they are a higher quality. The bedding and towels also a better quality than some 3 star hotels that I’ve stayed at. ||Putting our room size hiccup aside, this boutique hotel was simply cute on all levels! The attendant that had to deal with us Thaliam I give a lot of credit to because she never lost her cool and maintained her respect at all times. Her colleagues David and Lady were equally pleasant to see and talk too. The breakfast staff and room attendants do not speak English but they are very sweet and respectful. The breakfast is not a buffet, more a “American/continental” and it does the job, made fresh in front of you daily while you sit in the cute patio in front of the kitchen. ||The hotel is located in a super lovely European hidden area calls Usaquen, cobble stone roads and endless boutique/fusion delicious restaurants! You do need to rely on Uber (cheaper and reliable service) to get into the historical parts of the city, a good 30 to 45 minute drive. Similar to get to the beautiful Monserte mountain. There is TRAFFIC EVERYWHERE in Bogotá. You can’t get around it. Just when you think it dies down, it doesn’t. The traffic is everywhere. Their bus system is MASSIVE. We were not there long enough to try. But the buses have dedicated lanes in most cases and run around the clock it appears. ||All in all, we would stay at this hotel again, but never the first floor. The quality of the hotel is great and so is the location. The owner/manager needs to figure out a process to prioritize the oldest confirmed reservations regardless what time of day the guest is checking in. I work in hospitality in my home country of Canada and we never would dream of giving a bad experience to any guest, especially those who made the time to book in advance and are travelling from afar to experience...

Hi, this was one of the worst nights in a hotel : noise from 4am to 7am, poor service, lack of empathy, rooms attributed were wrong and bad. I checked-out a day earlier to change hotel. I won’t come back.

CHECK-IN Upon arriving for check-in, we informed that we had previously asked at reservation time for quiet rooms (not next to reception and restaurant, accordingly to previous reviews due to noise issues). Receptionist informed that there were no other rooms available than these ones next to the Front Desk & Restaurant and that he could not give us other rooms as we requested. We asked to cancel the bookings as they were not able to deliver the service we asked for : he replied that our bookings were non-refundable and proceeded to debit our credit cards. It is a shame.

ROOM We booked 3 rooms, which were all in inappropriately attributed on ground floor, 2-3 meters next to the reception and restaurant. Our main issue was the noise that would come from these as there is no isolation from the entrance room door. I woke up at 4am and was unable to get back to sleep. You can hear : the night receptionist watching videos on his phone/laptop with speakers on phone calls at the reception the entrance door bell (as entrance door is locked, people keep on ringing until receptionist opens the door : which lasted for 20 minutes around 5 am) guests on the 1st floor packing their luggage guests making early check-out and waiting in the corridor 3 meters away from your room, waiting for their transportation other guests flushing the WC the fireplace which burns all night long but fails to heat the room quietly The room door had grids and no isolation for heat nor noise coming from the reception 2-3 meters away. Windows have a view on a wall and doesn’t close (see picture), which make the room cold.

SERVICE While waiting to check-in, the gardener was watering the plants on the 1st floor terrace from the ground floor : he eventually managed to water the plants and some unlucky guests that were on the terrace that he did not see from below. They were soaked and weren’t too happy about this. Overall, rarely have I seen such lack of understanding from a hotel. I perfectly understand that rooms are given upon availability, but when : Guests inform the hotel in advance Also informed at check-in for a eventual upcoming issue, which ends up happening That nothing is done to improve the situation or compensate it with no cancellation fees for example. This is a pity.

I will not come back and will not recommend this hotel. Who would be okay to pay for a hotel if you weren’t able to...

It was my aunt, mom and me who ended up going to Colombia, we stayed in Usaquen, Bogota for one week. We went for a medical check up and some shopping. Highly recomend, if possible to stay 2 sundays; to be able to really enjoy "El Mercado de Pulgas" here you can fins a ton of artisinal works; from coffee to jewelry, apparel and knick knacks and much more, we stayed very close to this market, at place called: Casona De Usaquen Hotel Boutique, wonderfull quiant place, very close to many restaurant, close to Centro Medico Santa Barbara and Fundacion Santa Fe Hospital. The staff Hotel Casona are very friendly, whenever you need something, they are gladly to help. I stayed in the "Suite Terraza" lovely, large room with a private terrace. This was a lovely trip, we really felt safe in Usaquen and Nicole and Andrea and David did their best to let us feel at home, they were lovely host. Definitely coming back to Usaquen and satying at...