Hotel Dorado Plaza Bocagrande — Hotel in Cartagena

Room / Air Conditioning Situation Dec 10th - We arrived early to the hotel. They gladly held our bags & gave us vouchers for food. We returned to the hotel at 12noon & they gave us our rooms 3 hours early. When I entered my room I noted the room was warm. There was no working thermostat in the room & it was very hot outside. When we returned later our room was still warm. We told the front desk & they advised that maintenance would check on it. We ate dinner & then returned to the room. I called the front desk multiple times & was told each time that maintenance was on the way. At 11pm I went downstairs & demanded to be moved to another room. They eventually moved us. Thermostat in the new room was not working but it was cooler. Dec 11th - Found out that our daughter husband & 2 granddaughters slept on the floor Sun b/c it was so hot in their room. We advised the front desk. Again we were told that maintenance would come up within the hour. We ate breakfast & returned to the room to wait. We kept calling down & being told that maintenance was coming. I had to go downstairs & plant myself at the front desk demanding that my family be moved. The front desk could not advise me until 3pm if there would be a room available. At that point I demanded to speak to the manager. I went to the manager’s office & once again explained everything that had occurred since our arrival. I told him that I no longer believed anything they were telling me as it was the same B.S. they told me the night before. He checked & advised that he did not have any rooms but he guaranteed me that he would have a room for us with a working air conditioning at 3pm. I requested a much later check out since we had spent the morning waiting for maintenance. He gave us until 1pm the standard extension & didn’t make up for the ½ day we wasted. Maintenance finally came up to the room. They advised mgmt that the air wasn’t functioning properly. The front desk stated that they would advise us at 3pm “if” there was a room available at that time. I angrily reiterated that there was no question of “if”. As my family was getting ready to get on the elevator a bellhop came up with a room key to have them moved. This room had a working a/c. Dec 12th & 13th - Found small roach in our bathroom each day. There was no water in the 2nd tower for 6+ hours. Hot water disappeared from our room in the 1st tower. We showered with lukewarm water, then cold water. I didn’t call down to the front desk to complain since we were leaving the next day & I was tired of having to complain for basic necessities. Never felt like we were being rushed to leave the hotel after we checked out. Elevators - Only 1 of the 2 elevators were working in each of the towers the entire time. It would take anywhere from 10 minutes to over 30 minutes to get on & get upstairs. Guests - DO NOT stay here during Dec or any other school vacation time unless you want to have to deal with hundreds of teenagers hogging the food elevators bar lobbies & all common areas. Some were nice & polite but most were rude & obnoxious ~ cutting in line at the restaurant & the bar & taking over the pool area. Food - DO NOT try to go at start of the meal hours. Wait 30+ minutes to avoid being trampled by teenagers & adults. The food was DELICIOUS! Plentiful & a good variety each day. There were some items that were not good like the tasteless spaghetti. But there were other choices that it didn’t matter. They should have more than 1 location for drinks in the restaurant. Staff - The male staff overall were all very nice. The female staff in the lobby not so much. 1 of the ladies Beccera Toro Evelyn Jhovana gave me attitude on Mon when I planted myself in front of the front desk. She backed off when she realized my attitude was much bigger than hers. Hector went out of his way to assist us every time he saw us. He ran down & up 12 flights of stairs when the room key for our 1st room...

This hotel is all inclusive, great location, near restaurants, mall, beach is public, good transportation, the staff is very friendly and ready to help you, located 10 minutes drive to walled city. The activities and the shows at night are good.|This hotel is very old and need an update. The food was to salty specially the soups, at lunch and dinner there were not too much choices, every day was almost the same ,they only change potatoes for casava or yellow plantain. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was at the only available restaurant. Snacks, was very poor service they used to put one table and one person with empanadas, first come first served.|The rooms were very smelly that I needed to request a change, fortunately, there were not problems.|The bathroom has not place to put toilet paper, the shower curtain was terrible short and in bad condition.(changed at my request). The door missed the chain.|The pool is not big enough for many people especially on weekends. The good thing about the pool is that people is not allow to drink or eat around. The bar has no good beer, the one that the offered was local and terrible, no brand names. |Lastly, very important that staff keep the booking made by tourists and paid for, I did pay for a room with two full beds and they gave me one with king bed they argued that we were a couple. Why they care about it?|Definitely I won't recommend...

I was in cartagena in December last year, where I shared with my family and stayed at the Hotel "Dorado Plaza", there were very nice and friendly people in the hotel, there were also service people who looked after us well and provided us with everything we needed, the hotel was perfect, the food, activities, and all the moments inside the hotel were very good for me and my whole family.||||The beach was very close to the hotel where there was a beautiful view of the sea, the beach was all very nice, the people there felt they were having a good time and enjoyed it as well as my family and I, there was a lot of service from the people there, selling food, food, snacks, and drinks, everything could be found on the beach in cartagena, there were also jet skis and we mounted them, we went very far on them and had a great time. We tried new things.||||We also visited the murmallada city of cartagena, where we had a good meal in a good restaurant which I don't remember the name now, we also enjoyed a rich ice cream and passed through the streets. We then took a ride in a car which was pulled by a horse, and this gave us a tour and gave us lots of interesting facts about the city. We then toured the streets and enjoyed the local art, people doing acts and crafts. The experience was very enjoyable...