Casa Mamá Waldy - Bar & Hostel — Hotel in Cartagena

DO NOT STAY HERE! When I was looking at hostels for Cartagena, I came across Casa Mama Waldy and was happy to see that the vast majority of their reviews are positive. Yes, there are/were a few negative ones but I figured the positive reviews outweighed the negative, so why not. This was a mistake. I should have listened to those reviews because my experience at this hostel has been horrible.||||Here is what I will say for some positives:||-It's in a great location. It's very close to restaurants and to the center of the Old City.||- One couple I met told me "We're used to staying in places with roaches and mice, so this is an upgrade." I add this in to say that experiences can be relative. If you're on a trip where you're expecting to rough it or are used to staying in some not so great places (mice, rodents, very unclean, etc), perhaps this hostel will do.||-Decent for short stays less than a week. No more.||||Below is a description of my experience at Casa Mama Waldy. It's the same experience I described to Hostel World. Because of my time at Casa Mama Waldy, I was pretty upset, so please pardon any typos. I'll also summarize the main takeaways at the bottom. Okay, here we go:||||Hello,||||Since starting my stay with Casa Mama Waldy there have been several issues. To start, the room was not clean. It smelled, the walls looked like they needed to be wiped down, trays had been removed from the walls but not repaired, the door frame was cracked, and several other issues. Upon arrival, I knew I was not happy with the room but I had already booked it, my card had already been charged, and at the time I had nowhere else to stay. Because I'm not new to travel, I have stayed in some less than comfortable places. I decided to give myself a week to see how I feel before making any other decisions. However, after a week (where I found myself staying out as late as possible to avoid my hostel), I knew I'd have to do make a decision.||||I approached one of the hostel receptionist and asked about a partial refund. Because I wanted to be polite, when he asked me why, I told him I was considering traveling with some friends and wanted to move hostels. He told me partial refunds were not allowed. I explained again that I was more than happy to pay for each day I was there and did not want a full refund, only partial. He told me it was still not allowed.||||One night when I found myself with nothing to distract me, I was back at my hostel much earlier than usual. While sitting in my room, I noticed some odd coloring on the wall beside my desk. Leaning closer, I realized that the coloring looked like mold. I took photos and videos to send to some friends to get their thoughts. They also told me they thought it was mold, as well which could possibly explain some of the eye watering, sneezing, and coughing I experienced when I first arrived.||||Because mold is a health issue, I decided it was time to leave. Again, I approached the front desk and spoke with the receptionist Maria. My Spanish is very bad and Maria spoke the best English, so lots of my communication was with her. This time I finally told her that I planned to leave and that it was because I was unhappy with the room. I also told her I believed there was mold in the room and showed her a photo. For these reasons, I asked her for a partial refund and again told her I would be leaving. At the last time of me speaking with her, I had not selected a new place to stay yet, so I did not know when I would be moving but told her I'd inform her when I did. She told me, she'd talk to her boss but believed her boss would say no.||||That upcoming weekend I had a trip to a neighboring city. I hoped Maria would get back to me before then. Between us speaking and me leaving there were about 3 to 4 days. Maria was not at the hostel those 3 to 4 days which I found odd. I left from my weekend trip, and found a new place to stay while I was away. When I returned, I stopped by Casa Mama Waldy to grab a few  additional items because I had left several things in my room. Again, Maria was not there. I went ahead and moved to my new lodgings, though I would stop by the hostel two more times (including yesterday) and each time Maria was not there. I received no email, no text, no Whatsapp message.||||Because I had accidentally taken Casa Mama Waldy's towel and still had their keys, I knew I had to stop by again to drop these items off. I also thought I may have left some things behind in the room, so I decided to do a final sweep when I dropped everything off.||||I stopped at the hostel yesterday afternoon and was surprised to see that the room had been cleaned and was being prepared for another booking. I still had the room booked until Oct 5th and no one had reached out to me to update me on the issue Maria and I had discussed. There was no conversation. They simply started booking out the room again. While some may think they were simply cleaning the room, I know that is not the case because I was told twice that the only way to have my room cleaned was to ask for it to be cleaned specifically and to drop my keys off at the front desk.||||I approached the receptionist about this and she told me "Well, Natasha, we didn't know where you were. We all were wondering, so what were we supposed to do?" I stared at her and asked her to repeat what she said because I was shocked. She then said, "It's only cleaning" which was not what she had said initially. I also know that is not how cleaning works at the hostel. I tried explaining to her that I was upset and why I was upset. She told me to contact her boss which I have done via Whatsapp. ||||I returned the towel and keys, then left. A few hours later I would contact her boss (informing her that since they were booking my room while I still had it, and due to the entire experience I certainly wanted a partial refund now. She also admitted in her message that no one knew where I was and that they should have contacted me.) who told she had to contact her boss now (the boss of the boss it seems). She tried providing evidence that they hadn't booked the room which I did not accept because the "evidence" was as simple as clicking a button on a computer and altering a booking. ||||This entire experience feels ridiculous. From the dirty walls, to the mold, to the smell, to the horrible communication, to them booking my room without telling/before I had a chance to ensure I had moved all of my things, my entire stay with them has been horrible.||||||As of today, Meri (the boss who I never actually saw at the hostel) has not gotten back to me with a final response.||||Takeaways:||-Mold||-Not clean||-Booked my room without my consent or...

DO NOT STAY HERE! When I was looking at hostels for Cartagena, I came across Casa Mama Waldy and was happy to see that the vast majority of their reviews are positive. Yes, there are/were a few negative ones but I figured the positive reviews outweighed the negative, so why not. This was a mistake. I should have listened to those reviews because my experience at this hostel has been horrible.

Major Takeaways: -Mold -Not clean -Booked my room without my consent or acknowledgment -Damaged facilities

Here is what I will say for some positives: -It's in a great location. It's very close to restaurants and to the center of the Old City. One couple I met told me "We're used to staying in places with roaches and mice, so this is an upgrade." I add this in to say that experiences can be relative. If you're on a trip where you're expecting to rough it or are used to staying in some not so great places (mice, rodents, very unclean, etc), perhaps this hostel will do. -Decent for short stays less than a week. No more.

Below is a description of my experience at Casa Mama Waldy:

Since starting my stay with Casa Mama Waldy there have been several issues. To start, the room was not clean. It smelled, the walls looked like they needed to be wiped down, trays had been removed from the walls but not repaired, the door frame was cracked, and several other issues. Upon arrival, I knew I was not happy with the room but I had already booked it, my card had already been charged, and at the time I had nowhere else to stay. Because I'm not new to travel, I have stayed in some less than comfortable places. I decided to give myself a week to see how I feel before making any other decisions. However, after a week (where I found myself staying out as late as possible to avoid my hostel), I knew I'd have to do make a decision.

I approached one of the hostel receptionist and asked about a partial refund. Because I wanted to be polite, when he asked me why, I told him I was considering traveling with some friends and wanted to move hostels. He told me partial refunds were not allowed. I explained again that I was more than happy to pay for each day I was there and did not want a full refund, only partial. He told me it was still not allowed.

One night when I found myself with nothing to distract me, I was back at my hostel much earlier than usual. While sitting in my room, I noticed some odd coloring on the wall beside my desk. Leaning closer, I realized that the coloring looked like mold. I took photos and videos to send to some friends to get their thoughts. They also told me they thought it was mold, as well which could possibly explain some of the eye watering, sneezing, and coughing I experienced when I first arrived.

Because mold is a health issue, I decided it was time to leave. Again, I approached the front desk and spoke with the receptionist Maria. My Spanish is very bad and Maria spoke the best English, so lots of my communication was with her. This time I finally told her that I planned to leave and that it was because I was unhappy with the room. I also told her I believed there was mold in the room and showed her a photo. For these reasons, I asked her for a partial refund and again told her I would be leaving. At the last time of me speaking with her, I had not selected a new place to stay yet, so I did not know when I would be moving but told her I'd inform her when I did. She told me, she'd talk to her boss but believed her boss would say no.

That upcoming weekend I had a trip to a neighboring city. I hoped Maria would get back to me before then. Between us speaking and me leaving there were about 3 to 4 days. Maria was not at the hostel those 3 to 4 days which I found odd. Later, I would find out that Casa Mama Waldy had been booking my room without my consent while I was gone or even informing me. I had wanted to check the room for anything I left behind but they had already booked it out and never told me. Horrible experience. Resp: CMW you lied multiple times in your response. I have...

Mama Waldy An interesting stay. We moved here from a really bad hostel stay in a different district., therefore expectations were not too high. However this place let us down repeatedly.

The dorm was average, my mattress was well used and facilities basic. I get the impression our dorm was the only not renovated? We had a lot of mosquitos due to the open lay out of the hostel, affecting the sleep. Whilst the hostel itself is quite pretty, this is only surface deep and the potential is wasted.

During our stay we had no water, no electricity and thunderstorms flooding the hostel [the roof was under construction). The storms were independent to the electricity and water which were also separate issues apparently, intermittent throughout our stay. When the WiFi did work it was only in the social areas that were the humid temperature of outside. Frustrating to sit there sweltering and then there be no water to shower. Staff didn’t seem to want to be there. To be fair to them, when it rained about 7 appeared and were frantically sweeping the 3 inches of water from the hostel, standing in the downpour inside (I think the construction workers). This was ironically my only shower. The breakfast lady, wow, well she was a treat, rude to both me and a friend.

Everyone in our dorm left early. I’m not sure if it was bad luck all around with the main problems, but it was certainly not worth the money and nobody would stay again. This place is reliant on old reviews, what happened to...