Hotel Estelar de la Feria

I’d stayed with this chain for years, beginning in 2004, and sometimes made several visits in a year. In Bogota I used this hotel and the one on calle 100, as well as Estelar hotels in Santa Marta, San Andres, Panama and Peru. After this experience, I won’t stay with the chain again or recommend it. The main problem started at check-in on November 24, 2017, when I arrived with my wife and son. He’s a US citizen, born in the USA, and has an American Passport. The reception supervisor, Ricardo, demanded a Registro Civil de Nacimiento. I explained my son didn’t have that document because he’s American. Ricardo then said hotel policy required my wife and me to prove our blood relationship to him. I looked into the policy and couldn’t find that requirement. I also checked Colombian law, which, as I understood it, requires notarized parental authorization when someone other than a child’s parents checks them into a hotel, and applies only to Colombian children. My son is American. We showed our IDs and passports, which met the Colombian and US requirements, but Ricardo kept insisting on more paperwork. I eventually told him to call the American Embassy and sort it out. I was furious that he expected me to prove I was my own son’s father. We ended up filling out a pile of forms and signing things. I’m still angry about how it was handled. We had no issue with Immigration or customs, so I don’t understand why Ricardo made this such a problem. If this is required, the hotel should say so in its check-in information. Apparently a DNA test at the front desk would satisfy him, even though my son and I look like twin water drops. The rest of the stay wasn’t good either. The service was terrible. The internet worked for only half an hour, and I’m still waiting for the wake-up call we requested. We booked and paid for a king size bed but got two single beds. Unbelievable service. The one person we can praise is ISRAEL, who treated us very well at checkout. He was polite, professional, courteous and diligent, and even brought me a cup of coffee at 3:30 in the morning. That’s the dignity and respect I was used to, unlike having a supervisor question my fatherhood. But I will never book at an Estelar Hotel again.

The rooms were spacious and clean, the food was nice, and the service was good. It’s a handy spot near the fair. The only downside was possible noise from outside.

There are plenty of stores nearby, and the location is excellent. The rooms were comfortable, and the service was great.

It feels elegant and secure, with lots of stores around. The airport is really close too.