Hotel Marie Real Cartagena — Hotel in Cartagena

I really did not enjoy my time at this hotel, the service was terrible and the room was in bad condition! My friends and I will never come back here.||It started with having to book my friend a separate room because I couldn't change the booking date online, despite the fact that there were plenty of rooms still available. And then when I tried to contact them about this, I never got a reply. My friend arrived first, and that seemed to go well and then I came a few days later. I really understand that I am in a foreign country, so I tried my best in Spanish but none of the staff spoke any English at all. So in my best Spanish I tried to explain to the receptionist (Lucho) that my friend was already here. He kept claiming he wasn't, though his name was clearly written in the reception book. My friend came down after a while and he managed to properly explain to the receptionist what was going on. The receptionist showed me my room that was actually an apartment, and Tom already had an apartment as he was upgraded. So we asked whether we could just share the apartment and forget about the second one. I would have understood if it wasn't possible, but Lucho told us it would be fine. That we wouldn't have to worry about it and that he could cancel it. We thought everything was great! Until a WEEK later, when Lucho decided that this was the 'right' time to be telling us that we were actually paying for TWO apartments! Which was around £1000 (which is very expensive even for a touristic city like Cartagena). He had never told us this before and he never gave us the key. My friend is a fluent Spanish speaker, so it wasn't down to language as even I understood that Lucho had agreed to cancel the room. So Lucho obviously wasn't happy that we told him we never agreed to that. And he started getting quite angry, raising his voice and being incredibly rude. Telling my friend that he didn't understand it because of his Spanish. Lucho then started putting words in my mouth saying I had told him that money wasn't a problem, that I had 4 more friends coming and that I 'apparently' wanted a bigger room. Which I couldn't have said as my Spanish is not that efficient. So a very strange situation. This was all at 12am by the way, an odd time to be confronting your guests! We were not happy and, unfortunately we couldn't leave as we were here for our research and spent every day at meetings and travelling between cities/places (e.g. Santa Marta and Barranquila, Isla Palmas). I saw a few days later that my booking had been cancelled online, so that was a relief because we thought it would be over now. He can't possibly make us pay for two apartments. But we were horribly wrong! My friend checked out before me and paid the apartment. It was around £350 (he got a discount for the upgrade). I left a day later but got stopped at the checkout because apparently I hadn't paid the other half. Which was very strange as on booking.com if you get a hotel you pay one price despite the second person. So we told them that, and the other receptionist was a bit more understanding after we told him everything that had happened. But then Lucho came down, and he was not happy. He told me I had to pay (£400!!) and that it was all my fault. That I had just not understood him and that I should check their hotel reviews because they are all good (who even says that!!!). I was in a hurry, so I ended paying despite being really upset about this. We spent around £800 pounds on an apartment that didn't even work, had terrible service and for that price we could have stayed in a 5 star hotel!||Ontop of that, the gas hob didn't work so we couldn't cook. And we told several staff and they never did anything. The fridge had to be replaced because it didn't work. The light in my room broke, then the one in the hall. My aircon often froze. And they also never told us about breakfast. I also found it very uncomfortable to be there as not only was the receptionist (Lucho) very rude, but as I would be leaving every night he would run down the stairs after me. I think to open the door, but he didn't say anything. He just would run down after me. The communication in this hotel is terrible! I feel like I've overpaid. Would not recommend it for anyone, especially tourists who speak a little or...

We had a pleasant stay of 2 nights in a private room off an apartment in this hotel. ||The hotel is unassuming and a bit difficult to find. Google maps seems to have two locations listed, and the actual location is on Carrera 9 just past the intersection with Calle 36 and across from an Éxito (not the department store, which is a few blocks away). I just showed my taxi driver the location on my phone because even using the official street name didn’t help. ||Once you find it, it’s very easy to get anywhere in the Old City. The plaza de San Diego 4 blocks away has a particularly fun vibe at night. Having the Éxito across the street is also very convenient (though the lines are seemingly always long). ||The hotel contains apartments with common areas and kitchenettes, a shared bathroom, and 3 private bedrooms. We didn’t really understand this before, but it was fine. I think another room|in our apartment was occupied, but we never saw anyone. Only the bedrooms have AC (it works very well in there) so aside from using the WiFi (which was weak in the room), we didn’t use the common area. There is a common fridge, which we were excited about, but it wasn’t working. ||The staff was friendly and responsive. The bed only had one sheet when we arrived, but they promptly brought an additional blanket upon request. ||Breakfast on the 5th floor terrace was included. One day it was an arepa with toast and the next it was scrambled eggs. It also included fresh fruit, coffee, and juice. This was great and very convenient. ||The door closes around 9 pm and then you need to ring a bell to get in. We appreciated this layer of security. The rooms also had a locking closet so we felt comfortable leaving valuables behind. ||Overall, this was a comfortable and fairly affordable stay in a hotel/hostal hybrid. My one warning would be that messy apartment-mates could make the shared bathroom situation...

Check in was a disaster. The elevator did not work for the first day. The manager could one find one safe key. ||||There was not any hot water and very low water pressure. Several times during our stay the water would shut off without warning and you could not shower or flush the toilet. i was in the shower once when the water shut off and i had to wait 20 minutes for the water to come back on. ||||The Jacuzzi on the roof is a joke. It is an inflatable Jacuzzi that only has room for two people and is more like a child's toy for the back yard. ||||The rooms did not have refrigerators in them but there was one in the common kitchen area. We wanted to use the stove in the kitchen but we had to pay extra money for the manager to turn on the gas. we purchased beer from the hotel bar and the manager kept the change and would not give it to us. ||||Kelly and the housekeeping staff were wonderful and tried to help and make our stay better even with all of the problems. The manager was not as nice and always had his hand out for more money. ||||The rooms were clean and the air conditioning worked. If you are going to stay at this hotel even after reading this review i would recommend that you only book one night and see for yourself how bad it is because the manager will not...