Hotel Regatta Cartagena

Breakfast was excellent, with good quality and plenty of variety. Claudio deserves a special mention for greeting me each morning with a warm smile and a great attitude, which made it even nicer. At Regatta Hotel, my room was spacious, very clean, and had a beautiful sea view. The A/C was quiet and the beds were comfortable, so I slept really well. I had a great stay in Cartagena and would happily return. Highly recommend.

The view was spectacular, and the hotel was beautifully located. My room was very clean, and the staff were super friendly. I especially loved the fresh fruit selection in the mornings. I felt welcome throughout my wonderful stay and will definitely come back.

The hotel felt significantly overpriced for what it offered, and the stay was disappointing from beginning to end. The beds were extremely uncomfortable, the Wi-Fi was unreliable, the supposedly included breakfast was unpleasant, and the pools were small and underwhelming compared with the photos. We paid a premium based on the listing and reviews, but the experience felt misleading. It doesn’t come close to a genuine four-star standard, and there are much better options in Cartagena for comfort, service, and value. We repeatedly asked the front desk to fix the internet. Each time they said someone would come, but the problem was never resolved. Reliable Wi-Fi is a basic expectation at this price.

I spent almost two hours trying to sort this out, and was physically in the room for only 5-10 minutes while on the phone with Experian. I’m sending Experian and my bank, Navy Federal, all the photos, videos, and reservation details. Please be careful: I felt the hotel tried to get me to accept a room that didn’t match the listing, then pressured me to pay even though their own platform said I could leave. I don’t feel they respected guests’ rights or safety. I had booked through Experian because the listing showed a gorgeous king-size oceanfront room with a sitting area, twin beds, and two bathrooms. The photos looked beautiful, and the option to “pay at the hotel if satisfied” made me feel safe. I arrived expecting that room. Instead, the first room smelled of mildew, had a queen bed, and didn’t match the listing or layout. When I asked about the twin beds shown in the photos, staff took me to a second room that smelled sweaty and humid and had the same mismatched setup. I calmly showed them my reservation photos and said I would leave if they didn’t have what I booked. The staff spoke with the manager in Spanish over a radio, then showed me a third room on the 16th floor. As soon as the door opened, there was a wave of mildew. Half the lights didn’t work, the A/C was off, the safe was broken, the room was dark, and the ocean view was just a sliver between buildings. It looked nothing like the bright, clean, full-oceanfront photos Experian had advertised. This was especially upsetting because I had just had major surgery and needed to rush back to my surgeon to have all my inner thigh stitches redone. I left my bags temporarily because the hotel promised to fix the problems and find the room shown online while I was away. Three hours later, I returned and nothing had been fixed: not the lights, the A/C, or the safe. I refused to pay under the Experian agreement, which said “Pay at hotel if satisfied.” I wasn’t satisfied at all. Experian support told me directly I had no obligation to stay. But when I tried to leave, the hotel tried to stop me until I paid. I was alone in a foreign country, one hour out of surgery, and felt pressured and intimidated to pay for a room that wasn’t what I booked or what was advertised, and wasn’t even sanitary. No traveler, especially someone recovering from surgery, should be put in that position.