Hotel Vilar America — Hotel in Bogota, Capital District

Many positives -- first, the staff are all VERY nice/helpful, bed was comfortable, location is good, breakfast is excellent, and the Stark gym nearby is really awesome (Scan QR code in lobby, they have a discount and good price for hotel guests).||BUT I had an unfortunate problem...I arrived late due to a cancelled flight. Check-in was smooth until I got to the room. It looked very clean but had a terrible smell (seemed like a pungent combo of body odor and excessive cooking of fragrant food). I went back to front desk immediately -- they did not have another room available but agreed to move me to a new room the next day. Given it was a 17-hour travel day due to a cancelled flight, I did not have the energy to find a new hotel at 10PM so I managed the first night...I slept 1st night with windows open under blankets. My clothes and my body smelled of this room in the morning, it was unpleasant to say the least. ||The hotel staff seemed well aware of the source of the smell!||The housekeeping manager was super nice/helpful! She arranged for a new room by 10AM and while it was a significantly smaller suite, it was nice and smelled good! Sadly, I had to negotiate and follow-up 3-times to get a credit for the difference. I paid for a larger suite with balcony and got a much smaller suite for 5 days. Initially, the manager did not think I deserved compensation but eventually gave a restaurant credit for the price difference (I agreed to downgrade because of the smell, they had no other rooms/options).||Neither room had a desk, but they did provide a VERY small desk upon request (Online booking websites and the hotel website all say a desk is included, but it was not standard in either of the 2 suites I experienced).||All other parts of my...

Overall, this is a good hotel but it entirely depends on the room. I stayed here two separate nights in two different room types. The first night I stayed in an Executive King room. It’s actually a very large suite with an open bedroom, living room, and dining room and the kitchen to the side. This was an amazing room. Extremely comfortable with full kitchen amenities including pots and pans, iron and ironing board. Fantastic. It was well decorated and a lot of thought was put into it. This is the room you will want to book if you have an extended stay or you value comfort above all else.

The second room I stayed in was a Standard Double and this room is located in the property across the street from the main building when you check in. This was a complete 180. The bed was hard, there was no decor, and it had a very barren feel. I’m glad I was only here one night, if I was here more than one I would have requested a move or to go to a new room. This is probably more suited for people who just want a bed and nothing more.

Not to mention in this evening an employee just walked into the room and his reason was he wanted to drop something off in the minibar in the room. What?! I had not requested anything and it was about 8:00pm so I was a little discomforted by that.

That aside, the hotel is located in an area filled with lots of restaurants and mini marts close by which is convenient. It’s also near a few colleges which makes it feel a...

To all travelers be aware: DO NOT STAY HERE. The hotel will charge you over $60 USD if you touch just one bottle of water or bag of chips as they consider you consuming everything in the snack bar. I had to check out early at 6am and when it was my girlfriend’s turn to check out at 9am the management suddenly said she owed $201,800 pesos for “snacks”. Worse was she didn’t have the money on her and they held her there at the hotel for over 3 hours until her sister was able to transfer the money last minute. Then she missed her flight home and had to buy a new ticket. Plus there was no running hot water, very cold in the rooms and the toilet would clog up every time. The building is very old even though they remodeled the front door. I wanted to move to a new hotel on the second day but they wouldn’t refund or address any of my concerns at all. If you see why it’s cheap compared to other hotels nearby Chapinero...