Hotel Monterrey — Hotel in Cartagena

We just spent one night and wanted to share the experience. ||First the positives:|Location was very convenient to access the walled city|Rooftop pool and bar area-nice views |Staff was friendly ||The negatives:|Even though hotel is in a tourist area, staff doesn't really understand English much, which caused some issues with mis information ||Hotel is "old and charming", but unfortunately that meant the room was dark||First our safe didn't work and they weren't able to fix it.||Then our TV had the same problem. They offered to move us to a new room, but at that point, we had already unpacked and didn't want the hassle of packing up. I suggested that we get a discount on the room or a free drink and there was no response. ||The third thing was that there was no hair dryer in the room. Had to wait for one to be brought up. Each of these issues required us to wait for someone to come to the room...wasting our time during a short stay.||The next am we asked for two bottles of water when we were leaving and were charged for them...I would have thought as a gesture of customer service they would have at least comped the water. ||Was definitely not up to our...

This hotel is in an amazing location. It has a small rooftop pool with a bar and a beautiful view of the city. The staff were extremely helpful and welcoming, the breakfast options were varied and delicious, the rooms were extremely clean and the beds were comfortable. There was construction outside the front of the hotel for the duration of our stay, and I was pleasantly surprised that would couldn't hear any of it from our room!

There are just two reasons I give 4 instead of 5 stars: 1. Our bedroom balcony door did not close all the way, so I was woken up early by the sound of breakfast set up which was quite loud. 2. The rooftop bar didn't always have someone there, even in the evening which was such a missed opportunity as we would have loved to sit up there and have drinks.

I would absolutely stay here again and...

I have stayed in Bocagrande several times. Never again. Staying here was much better. The location is perfect. The hotel had all the colonial charm that you expect from Cartagena. Staff is super helpful and friendly. All the rooms have balconies, but some are tiny and some are interior, looking over the central courtyard. The rooms have everything I needed and everything working 100%. A/C was very cold. Bathrooms nicely appointed. The pool is small, really just for wading or dipping, but the pool area is great, with excellent views that the bar next door charges a big cover to see. The beaches in Bocagrande suck. The boats to the Rosario Islands leave from the dock next door to the Monterrey. I will be back for...