Hotel Campestre La Tata

The food was delicious and well prepared, and the staff’s warm hospitality made us feel at home. It’s a stunning place in a very convenient spot, just a short distance from Parque del Café. I’d wholeheartedly recommend it for a memorable stay.

We paid a high price for Colombia and expected service to match, but the treatment we got was abysmal. The staff seemed intent on belittling and mistreating us. The Wi-Fi didn’t work in our rooms, even though they said it worked everywhere, and each time we raised it, we were made to feel at fault. It took hours for senior management to get involved. They ultimately said we were wrong, offered no fix, and left us feeling put down. We also found the food prices unreasonable for what we received. I can’t imagine how much harder this would have been if we hadn’t all spoken Spanish. The hospitality we’d experienced elsewhere on our trip was completely absent here. This hotel is a stain on Colombia’s culinary heritage. Save your money and don’t come here.

We booked three nights, but the rooms we were offered were both unsuitable. One was beside the road in the parking lot and half the size of the room we’d paid for. The receptionist did try to help, which I appreciated, but different staff gave us conflicting explanations about the Wi-Fi and rooms, and it felt like we were being lied to. When my partner first raised the lack of Wi-Fi on the night I arrived, they blamed the rain. The next morning reception said it was only available in communal areas, then said it would work in rooms if I had a Samsung. Some workers said there was no Wi-Fi in the rooms, even though the hotel advertises Wi-Fi everywhere. The manager later claimed it covered the whole hotel but sometimes didn’t work with the latest iPhones. Neither my partner nor I has the latest iPhone, so I questioned how relevant or accurate that was. It took an hour of asking before we could speak with someone in authority, and we had to call after an hour and a half to get the manager involved. Not having a manager on site every day seems unacceptable for a hotel. During the conversation, I didn’t feel valued or understood as a customer. They first offered to refund the two nights we hadn’t used, but we felt that was unfair given what seemed like false advertising and services we hadn’t received. After more discussion, the manager agreed to refund everything except dinner and breakfast. They planned to charge 100,000 COP for a dinner of rice and soup, with the soup microwaved in front of us. I said that was far too much for food of that quality. After a long conversation, the manager agreed I could pay what I thought we’d received was worth. I appreciated that, but it didn’t feel professional and left me feeling bad, which I thought was the intended outcome. The refund paperwork also seemed unprofessional and incomplete. We asked them to add addresses, dates, letterhead, and the signatures of the accountant and manager, since they said both were responsible for the process. They had to draft the document three times, and it was still missing important details, including C.C. numbers, which matter in Colombia. At first they only gave me the manager’s electronic signature. When the accountant got bothered, though I don’t know why since it wasn’t her money, she came over and tried to sign with a pen. I asked for it to be printed, and she crumpled the paper and threw it in the bin. When she brought it back, her C.C. number was missing. She wouldn’t look at me, screwed up her face, and said, “ay niña..” It was extremely rude, especially from someone in an important hotel position. The whole thing began with tedious lies and showed a lot of unprofessionalism. I did appreciate that they worked with us, but their attitudes were inadequate for the service industry. I apologized and said I didn’t want trouble because I dislike confrontation, but they made me feel like I was the problem.

We were excited to visit after reading the reviews, but now I wonder if many were written by the owners’ friends. We paid around US$125 per night, a lot for Colombia, and got very little for it. The hotel is old and basic. There’s no air conditioning, which you need during the day, and the blackout curtains weren’t adequate, so the sun was in our faces at 6 AM. The water pressure was terrible, and there wasn’t even a bar of soap. Wi-Fi only worked in the lobby for most of our stay, then somehow started working in the room on the last day. The room should have cost $40-$50, not over $100. Lunch at the restaurant was one of the worst meals of our trip and one of the most expensive. A woman at the front desk was very unfriendly and snapped at me when I asked for a hammock on our balcony, even though all the other rooms had one. The stay was essentially a disaster, and I recommend avoiding this property.