Hotel Boutique Marboré — Hotel in Santa Marta

PROS:|- This hotel is one of the nicer options in Santa Marta. My friend and I had originally booked the family suite, but when we arrived, it was not available, so we were given two separate rooms for the same price, which worked out just fine. ||- I had a standard double room, and my friend had a superior double room. As far as I could tell, the only difference was that the superior double room had a balcony with chairs. ||- Both rooms were large and clean with an oversized double bed, crisp clean sheets, and a duvet. The bed was a little more comfortable than the standard hard-as-stone beds one finds throughout Colombia. Quality pillows. ||- A/C, Wi-Fi, and mini fridge all worked well.||- The bathroom was modern with a decent-sized shower and hot water. ||- The breakfast was simple but tasty - eggs, bread, fruit, yogurt or cereal, juice, coffee. The menu varied slightly from day to day. ||- The hotel was located on a quieter side street, 2 blocks away from the main park with nightlife and restaurants, Parque de Los Novios. The malecon (beachfront promenade / harbor) was only about a 7 minute walk away.||-There was a nice lighted terrace with a bar on the roof (fourth floor), though we never went up there because we were always out and about. ||CONS:|- I thought it was priced a tad higher than it should have been. ||- There was no A/C in the halls or lobby area. Not a huge deal, but Santa Marta is bloody hot, and you will sweat through your breakfast. The only spaces with A/C were the rooms themselves, and a small enclosed area directly in front of the reception desk.||- No elevator, so you will need to lug your bag up one or two flights of stairs. ||- The pool is really just for decoration. It's a "plunge pool."||- The hotel entrance faces a dumpy side street. There really aren't any views of anything from here.|||It was a nice stay, but if I returned, I would probably spend a few more dollars and stay at one of the...

Pros: Clean, nice room, good location, we got a very warm welcome from the receptionist when arriving by bus at 2AM, comfortable room, breakfast was just ok & no variety but it did the job. Common space on roof was fine but could be improved with some comfortable loungers / outdoor couches. We didn't use it, but had a mini bar in room with drinks and snacks for good prices.

Cons: A man who looked to be the manager had his phone BLARING while eating breakfast and again while sitting in reception. Super annoying, and it isn't that hard to put in a pair of headphones so guests can enjoy a quiet & peaceful experience. Weird shower set up. Would be nice to have a filtered water station in common area to cut down on plastic bottles. Even with these issues,...

On the pictures the rooms, and especially the bathrooms, look a lot bigger. The door to the bathroom is not easy to open and the shower stays warm for about half a minute, then its a cold shower for the rest of it. Also the airco takes a long time to bring the room to a comfortable tempature, even when you put it all the way down to 16°. Apparently last night the power went off, but they do have a very very very loud generator on top of the roof, that started working from 5am untill the rest of the day for us to have power. Its good that they have a back-up. But I think I rather wouldve had no power instead of the crazy loud noise that the generator produces. The staff is quite nice tho and the breakfast was good. All these things on top of eachother...