Sofitel Bogota Victoria Regia

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.

Well, let me just say that I’ve stayed here several times before in the past. And I always liked it. This time my flight was arriving very early at 7 AM. So I called the weekend in advance and saw if I could check in early. I had booked my hotel with points that I had accumulated on Expedia. I had leftover points as well so if I needed to book a second night so I could check in early I was going to do so. I called the front desk and they notified me that if I waited until the day before I could probably inquire about an early check-in. They told me that if he would apply, but it would be better I do this. I asked him if I just spoke two nights would be better and they said just wait and see until the day before. I was very happy with this and it seemed like they were trying to help me. The day before I called in and they said yes early check-in was available and to go ahead and book my night. So I booked it using my points and I had extra points available. When I arrived, they told me that the check-in early fee was $330. This was actually more than the rate online for a full night. The man at the front counter was very polite as is most of the staff. I was kind of dismayed and told him that that was a lot of money for just checking in early. He said sorry and that was the policy. I understand the fee would apply for an early check-in, but to be more than a might be rate I thought was ridiculous. The thing that drove me insane was I could’ve used my points to just book an extra night if I needed to. It’s a beautiful hotel. Staff are nice, but I will never say her again.