The Charlee Hotel — Hotel in Medellín

I’m here now. A few things to know

If you plan on having any guests: family, friends, tinder date etc. In your room you must allow the front desk to photocopy their passport and you will be charged approximately $50 usd (160-170k cop) at current exchange rate. For. Each. Person. You do get one free guest. I tried to have my friend over to chat and couldn’t sit at the bar since they closed and couldn’t sit in the conference room since that was also closed and couldn’t go to my room since he had his government issued id that wasn’t specifically a passport. We ended up sitting outside getting harassed by countless aggressive beggars (worst thing about lleras). What is the point of having a beautiful room with nice chairs and view if you can’t use it?

Last time I was here the jacuzzi room I booked filled with yellow urine colored water for most of my stay.

If you need the internet, I’ve stayed here 3 times at different times of the year in different rooms. And I can say for sure that the WiFi does not work reliably unless you are in the common areas. May have to do with not being able to handle more than one or two people on it because it was fine at late hours last night. Cell phone data reception is sometimes poor as well so that’s not even a reliable backup.

Service is slow and inattentive from restaurant and hotel staff. Food is good though. Sometimes the restaurant is empty and food takes 40 minutes (I have timed it) breakfast service is also getting sloppy. The omelette person has been missing each time I’ve gone downstairs this whole trip. No one takes your order unless you ask. And I’ll sit there for like 30-45 minutes. I used to tip all the staff extra on top of included tips but am starting to resent the way things work here so I stopped.

Example would be staff knocking extremely loudly for room service next door 10 times at 1:42am on a Monday. Or if security visits you or anyone on your floor they will knock and act like they are the cops. Not a good feeling. 5 star looking spot, 2 star treatment

If someone is blasting music they won’t do anything about it unless you complain. Last time I stayed they didn’t do anything, in fact the guy at the front desk just kind of laughed it off. Don’t think he was one of the main employees though, it was late. Every night I’m here I’m blasting loud brown noise and wearing earplugs in order to sleep. At 8:42am Sunday morning it was too loud to drown out though and I was forced to just get up

There’s unavoidable noise that they say they can’t do anything about and they just say “it’s not our hotel”. No idea what this means since the building is not connected to any others. Last time I was here there was a room shaking noise of something slamming hard not sure if it was a door or some structural issue. Whoever it was must have been slamming their door with the strength of Hercules 3 times per minute. (If that’s what it was) you could literally feel the room moving for hours at a time. Not good for rest and relaxation. I brought up the issue multiple times to no avail

Housekeeping is great, the hotel staff are usually friendly. They’re just slow and don’t fix anything that goes wrong. Gym is great with a beautiful view but under construction upstairs and definitely gets a bit crowded.

Other higher end hotels like Marriott also charge very high visitor fees that might even cost more than the room itself. Do yourself a favor and just book an Airbnb somewhere. It’s cheaper and better with less hassle. You can still visit all the attractions and...

BEWARE! YOUR PRIVACY IS AT RISK!

BEWARE! YOUR PRIVACY US AT RISK!

I WOULD NOT STAY AT THE CHARLEE AGAIN AND WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE CONSIDERING IT.

PRIVACY:

I FELT AS I WAS BEING WATCHED - IN MY ROOM!

The bedside phone has a camera. And everytime you move it lights up (indicating possible recording). I ignored that until check out.

My second and last night there, I had drinks from the mini bar. In the morning I went downstairs to breakfast and returned within 30 minutes. The next time I left my room was to checkout. My checkout, like breakfast, was unscheduled and spontaneous.

I was surprised and ALARMED that at checkout they had already added to the bill the items I had consumed from the mini bar the evening prior.

Typically, at most hotels, this is added on to the bill even after checking out. "Incidentals" is why they request a credit card at check-in and incidentals like consumption from the mini bar is normally charged to the card on file after checkout.

I was surprised that they had so quickly tabulated our consumption as I was only out of my room for 30 minutes while I went down for breakfast.

Between the time of consumption and check-out , I was out of my room only 30 +/- minutes for breakfast, yet they somehow were able to fully and accurately tabulate my mini bar consumption. I found this odd and alarming.

I assumed there was some sort of electronic inventory system, but I asked how they were able to so quickly inventory and tabulate my consumption. I was told, at check out by the front desk clerk, that when I left my room, someone had entered my room to inventory.

That was very unusual as I went to breakfast very early. How did they know I was out of my room? It was prior to housekeeping making rounds.

That caused me to realize that the motion sensor detection in the bedside phone I had noticed was actually there to watch us.

SRRVICE: THE. front desk service was unprofessional and awful.

I made a reservation for two adults. When I arrived, my friend was not with me because she was arriving from Santa Fe later that evening. When she arrived, they would not let her in with her Colombian "cedula" or ID (she is a Venezuelan with Colombian residency). We had to pay for another hotel that evening so we could stay together as we had planned for our vacation.

She was very embarrassed by their second class treatment, likely because she is a Venezuelan immigrant.

I asked to speak with the manager that evening, the next day and also at check out my last day (I reserved and paid two nights, but only stayed one because of the above), but the manager was never available.

The convenient unavailability of the manager speaks volumes of how they treat and respect guests

The next day, the lady at the front desk was surprised my friend was not permitted the night prior and permitted her entry that evening with the same cedula as the evening prior.

LOCATION: I'llIt was very noisy, however, that is somewhat expected for Poblado.

COMFORT: The room was comfortable, but the shower was either too hot or too cold and the staff was either unwilling or incapable of...

How should I sum this up? Oh yeah, AMAZING!! These were some of our final days in Colombia and we were sad that the trip was coming to a close. We had visited Cartagena, and Salento and thought nothing could get better. Upon entering Medellin and then arriving at this hotel, we were blown away. Immediately a doorman, Mauricio met our Uber and took our bags. We were an hour early for our checkout time, but he kept us entertained and carried on conversation with us. Once we were able to check in, we got to our room, and were in awe. The room was massive, hosting a bedroom and a separate sitting room. All of the furniture was very fancy and looked very nice. The bed was extremely comfy and the room had a TV which actually worked, a luxury which we did not encounter in other hotels in Colombia. The room and hotel all around were very clean, well maintained, and luxurious. We made our way up to the rooftop and our jaws dropped. The rooftop boasted a 270 degree view of Medellin. And since it was taller than most of the surrounding buildings, we could see almost all of Medellin. The view was among the best I’ve ever seen in a rooftop. In the evenings, the rooftop was converted from a pool area to a high class restaurant. We could go up there and see the beautiful city while eating amazing food with delicious drinks. In the mornings, the hotel hosted delicious breakfast in the lobby which included: juices, meats, croissants, out meal, eggs, and much more. All of which were quite impressively delicious. But the most amazing part of the entire hotel was the staff. These were among the friendliest people I have ever met in my entire life. Mauricio, Jorge, and Santiago (just to name a few) we’re all EXCEPTIONALLY nice and helpful. Mauricio would always help us take our baggage wherever we went, Jorge would literally walk miles with us just to show us where the train station or some other building was. And Santiago always kept us company and engaged in conversation with us as we waited for our Ubers to arrive. And not just them, ALL of the staff were amazing and immensely boosted our experience to levels I never thought possible. In addition, the hotel has a gym with an outstanding view and great, new equipment, motivating me to workout which is a rare thing for me. Also the safety was amazing, we all felt incredibly safe and at home. The hotel had multiple security guards in front and there was a large population of Colombian police in the surrounding areas.

The only downside to this hotel was the pool deck closes at 5 PM so if you are touring somewhere for the day, you never got to use the pool as it was closed when you got back.

In conclusion, this place exceeded all of my expectations and if you need a luxurious, safe, and comfortable place to stay while visiting Medellin, this is the...