HOTEL CASA ABRIL II CARTAGENA — Hotel in Cartagena

I live in Medellin and travel extensively throughout Colombia (as a TripAdvisor Destination Expert for Colombia) and have tried literally a thousand restaurants, hotels/hostels, beaches, places of interests, parks, towns and cities here in Colombia over the past decades and so when I was in Cartagena last month I stayed for 4 days at Casa Abril II.||||I have read some of the "non-flattering" reviews, many are very dated 2 and 3 years old now, and there is some disconnect perhaps because these are old reviews and there have been great improvements to the hotel and property which I believe is the case as I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at Casa Abril II and without hesitation recommend it to others.||||During the day there is only workers improving the property. I was welcomed very nicely when I arrived, check in was no problem, my room was located on the second floor, everything worked in the room, it was clean, the bed was good, the room was relatively quiet at night so I slept good, the breakfast was simple but good, the kitchen staff are very polite and want to service you and they make sure your satisfied, the check out was quick, everything was GOOD and matter-of-fact I would be hard pressed to find something that was poor but no, I wold stay again.||||Staying in old town Cartagena can be pricey but this hotel is very reasonably priced so good value. The location is great as your in the old town but not in the beehive of the late night clubs.||||Again I enjoyed my stay and will stay again when I return to Cartagena...

Not a bad stay at all. So here's the skinny:||||This small hotel has only 7 rooms of all similar sizes so heavy foot traffic running through here is rare. I stayed in room 203. Rooms are ample size and well decorated. Hot/cold water with plenty of water pressure in the shower AC worked very well and was often welcome. Mattress is too soft and lacks support, but I got used to it. In-room safe and wifi router was right outside my door, so worked well. Fridge did the job in keeping drinks nice and cold.||||TV channels are super weak, very little to offer. Breakfast is sorely lacking - cereal, arepa huevo, bread/toast. Lots to be desired there.||||The building itself is functional and well located. Exito, restaurants and all sights are within easy walking distance. The terrace is kinda sad really. The "hot tub" was pretty scary, with a huge ball of black flies flying right above it. We skipped the whole terrace the entire week we were there. ||||Service was adequate. Eber the primary front desk guy, lacked much energy but was always willing to aid us and was nice and helpful. As far as the tours they offer, the people they work with outside of the hotel for tours are a joke. I would suggest that you look elsewhere when booking excursions. But that's just me and doesn't reflect directly against the hotel.||||All in all I would stay here here again and suggest...

Beware. We booked this place in part because of the terrace sea views. The day before we arrived, we received a message from someone in the hotel that the air conditioning wasn't working and so we would have to stay at the hotel's sister property, Casa Abril 1, a few blocks away. Upon arrival, we were given a small, dirty dark room in a clearly inferior property which had a vacancy sign in front and not sea views. We were exhausted from jet lag and were unable to do anything about this until the next day, when we visited the original property and found that it was nicer in every aspect. It was also fully booked the night before. During our inspection we found out that there had been no problems with the air conditioning from the maintenance man, Manuel. Upon confronting the desk clerk, she denied that the hotel had oversold its rooms and claimed that the air conditioning had been fixed, but the room was still too dusty from the repairs, which was clearly not true. She also claimed that the rooms in both properties were identical, but refused to show us any to prove it. It's clear to us that the hotel either oversold the rooms or wanted to make more money, so they shunted us off to an inferior property with a bogus excuse. We requested a refund or some type of compensation for this experience, but they refused. Please...