Hotel Santa Catalina Cartagena — Hotel in Cartagena

I don’t want to give this place one star because of two employees. When we arrived Saturday May 28th, my wife and with my 1 year old we’re asked to pay for the stay. We paid for our 7 nights. Due to the conversion rate and the dollar being alot stronger on may 28th it ended up in our favor when they converted to the dollar. My wife and I both approached the concierge on Friday June 3rd and asked if we had owned anything on the hotel bill. Angelo who was a fantastic concierge had told us, “‘no, you only owe 174,000 Colombian pesos” which we were fine with because of what we ate on the rooftop. He had suggested that we pay Saturday June 4th before checkout. On Saturday June 4th my family and I were getting ready to leave my wife stops at the front desks and asks for the bill to pay the remaining balance for the food. We then we’re showed the bill and we’re told to pay an additional 100,000 Colombian pesos. Everything was typed up except for the additional charge of 100,000 Colombian pesos was written out. We were told it was an error on there end and they have to charge us this additional amount. My wife and I were outraged about this, they wanted to charge us more because the dollar on may 28th was stronger then on June 4th. It moved A total of 400 pesos within a week. Even if they did make a “mistake” like they said they did. There were two gentleman working at the time of check-in and were working together. How come they did not catch each other’s mistake? Another lady came out who did not state what she did there, but was telling my wife and I that “you do not understand anything” and as I told them I paid the hotel upon arrival I will not pay more for my accommodation, only for what I ate and drank. A few back and forth and I stated I will not pay the extra 100,000 Colombian pesos. She then asked the security guard to go get the police!!! Never did I threaten her or anyone in the hotel. The police officer arrived and did not speak English. I was shocked that a hotel representative, who’s job hospitality, would call the police on a nonviolent, nonthreatening, just a “mistake” on there end situation. The chief of the police then arrived as he spoke English and asked us for our story. The chief then told the the hotel front desk that, if no one was threaten, nor is there any violence, that there was no reason for them calling the police and that they should be ashamed that they could not handle a situation that was a mistake on there own end. The chief later then asked me to go outside with me and said “sir you paid for your accommodation, you do not have to pay for anything additional” and I replied that I want to pay for what I was charged for but I do not want to pay for there 100,000 Colombian pesos. After the chief had spoken to them they were happy about dropping the additional 100,000...

Overall great experience at Santa Catalina. The front desk staff were very friendly and willing to help without being pushy. Air conditioning in the rooms was excellent. The breakfast was tasty, and the location was really nice - close to the meeting points for all the tours we were doing, and everywhere in the old town and getsemani neighborhood was very accessible by a short walk from the hotel. There were also a couple of good bars within a block of the hotel (including Alquimico, one of the world’s top 50 best bars), so for nightlife we did not have to go far, though I will say if you’re a light sleeper you may have trouble as there’s noise from people on the street late at night. It didn’t bother me though, and the benefits of being nearby the action far outweighed the noise.

One easy thing I would highly recommend the hotel consider doing is replacing the pool chairs. After a long and hot day of touring the city my friend and I were looking forward to relaxing by the pool, but the chairs were really uncomfortable and there was just no way to sit or lay down in them without feeling a bar sticking into your back. The only other negative experience was the car service the hotel used to get us a ride to the airport - we thought we were safe from the overcharging you hear about with taxi drivers and tourists because the hotel called the car for us, so we didn’t confirm price before getting in and the driver ended up charging us twice what Uber or a regular taxi cost (and what it cost us to go from airport to hotel). We suspect it was to cover the speeding ticket he got while he was driving us there. All in all I don’t really fault the hotel for this and compared to NYC taxi prices it was not a big deal, but I’m including this because I think a small thing they could do is talk with the driver and confirm prices beforehand for guests, so this doesn’t happen.

Santa Catalina is definitely a wonderful hotel to stay in if you’re visiting Cartagena - I would recommend to any friend looking for accommodations. Thank you to the staff for an enjoyable stay and hope my...

The location to stay if you have a mini trip to Cartagena - right in the middle of the action but no problem sleeping. We were at the front of the hotel, 3rd floor just above the main door so whilst we could hear noise at night, the patio doors did a great job of insulating us from most of this. Had a twin room with 2 double beds which worked well for us as 2 adults and 2 children. Staff were friendly and helpful, coffee and biscuits available in the lobby. Nice pool area on the top floor, not many loungers but then again it's not a big hotel. Bar and sundeck also on the top floor, only slight piece of advice would be to turn the music down in the day - at night no problem, but in the day people want to chill out and have a swim or read a book rather than have thumping dance tunes giving them a headache!||Room was great, clean and modern. Breakfast was superb - a la carte and a choice of cereal, juices, cooked meals to order. Did a good walk around Cartagena and felt safe, also headed up to Bocagrande although less impressed with this area.||Texas Resto Bar was a good option for food - go for the medium priced steaks as the quality is superb, less so for the cheaper cuts of meat. Very reasonable prices for drinks and food though. I think we were lucky as there weren't many cruise ships in during our stay which meant it was manageable to navigate the narrow streets. ||Hotel pick up from the airport was expensive so we grabbed a taxi at 1/4 of the cost but a hotel arranged taxi from the hotel back to the airport was far more...