Sofitel Bogota Victoria Regia

Summary: a super Sofitel property in a great location with excellent staff. An ideal Bogota base. I liked: Staff - all staff I encountered were friendly and went above and beyond to make my stay enjoyable. Security staff were also very friendly and watchful. I observed them making a note of what vehicle I left in when I had tours and then checking with me when I returned - this made me feel very safe and secure. The standout team member was Camilo who assisted me via email before I arrived to arrange airport transfers and was on hand every day with a smile to greet us and offer assistance if we needed anything else. Room - the room itself was nice, the bed was very comfortable and I slept well all six nights. I appreciated the L'occitane products in the bathroom. Gym - there is a small, but functional gym available with enough cardio and strength equipment to get a decent workout in. There was a rarely seen hotel gym smith machine, the equipment is older Life Fitness range. Location - the hotel is in a great location, with multiple restaurants literally opposite and more a short walk away. We had no issues walking around at day or night, area felt very safe. Parque El Virrey is a very short walk away for those who like walking/running outside. Areas for improvement: Communication - the front of house, check-in team spoke a high standard of English, there was a language barrier with some of the team in the bar/restaurant where Google Translate and some patience will be required. Restaurant - some inconsistencies in the restaurant. We dined there for two nights and I ordered the same thing both times. Night one the Angus steak (Corte Angus Certificado) was very good, well cooked and I enjoyed it. The second time the Angus steak was a horrible cut of meat that was 3/4 fat and basically inedible. Room - while overall I enjoyed the room, there are some issues. As someone who is tall, the shower head is less than 6 feet high, meaning I needed to duck to use it or use the handheld shower wand. The bathroom door would jam and require some force to open, for privacy I didn't like the window in to the bathroom that couldn't be blocked. The Claro TV Box would constantly stop working and need to be unplugged and replugged in to the HDMI slot, someone less technical might not be comfortable doing this. Conclusion: If I returned to Bogota, I would have no issue returning to this property.

The experience here was quite bittersweet, I face a problem I never had before in the hotels I went, literally the staff couldn’t speak at all English. Normally you hope if you go to a 5 star hotel you can have a normal conversation with them. But here it was so frustrating to even ask for breakfast. They have a problem with the staff and their English, and somehow they should improve it or either change to people qualify for that work. There were some that tried to speak and show me the things around the hotel but I couldn’t get a word. Besides that, I found really good the food service, every dish shows a impecable work specially the pastry area, they made an amazing work and I really recommend to go and try their desserts. The hotel is in a really good area, I found it safe and quite magical at night, surrounded by mall centers and good restaurants as well. So try to improve your English, this is the best advice I have for this hotel. The only good conversation I had was with a pastry chef once, surprisingly this guy had a really really good English, maybe was the best English I heard here in Colombia and he also spoke in Italian which is my mother language.

Stayed for one week. Hotel rooms nice and comfy. Hotel has a real problem with service quality, the have more than enough staff, they’re just not attentive to customers, also very few speak English. Breakfast was most disappointing, only 3 hot items on the buffet and one is always chicken and rice rest of the offerings is sandwiches, pickles and meats, not hugely exciting. Trying to get a coffee is like rolling the dice. If you are asked for a coffee 50% of the time it will come out 10-15mjns late with the wrong order the other 50% it will just not turn up at all. Dinner service, food was presented well but low quality, ordered steak and it was just a ball of gristle a waste of money. Bar service was terrible, despite being pretty much the only person in the bar it would take 10-20 mins for get a bottle of corona ?!?!? Staff were just apathetic and not interested. I ended up eating and drinking in the Four Seasons next door where the service was excellent, staff were friendly and food was fantastic and good value for money.

Seriously?! These folks are NOT ready for prime time. It’s not third world (we discussed this over dinner and concluded definitely second world) but OMG their idea of hospitality would be a joke if they weren’t charging first world prices. That kinda takes the humor out of it. New Year’s Eve party would be comical but for the fact I had to sit there at their maximum decibel levels and every time we complained that we had to scream at each other to have a conversation they’d turn the “music” louder. Their new years dinner included warmed up leftovers from breakfast (the empanadas at breakfast were outstanding, but warmed up for dinner not so much), and between the mediocre food and the mind numbing noise they called music it left us wanting to leave early. Like I said these folks just aren’t ready for prime time but they charge top dollar for their comical attempt at “hospitality”. E for effort guys.

Lovely hotel. Staff was incredibly helpful . The room was a bit dated but very nice . The bed was very comfortable. The room was peaceful and even though facing a busy street, was not noisy at all. Turn down service every evening. The breakfast was great. The room was great value for the quality. My only complaint was that the toilet in my room (606) was not flushing optimally.