Hotel Real Elim International

The spacious room and bed were a plus, and we had a nice view over the sugarcane fields behind the pool. The airport location is convenient, and the hotel offers a free shuttle, but after our long flight the pickup was frustrating. We were first told to wait at our exit, then redirected to another terminal. The car was there when we got there, but the driver was inside getting coffee and showed up 15 minutes later. For a hotel rated five stars, I expected more. The shower was poorly maintained and covered in limescale. Breakfast was disappointing: few choices, and by 8 AM most of it was cold and stale. The mini arepas were very oily and cold, and the waffles had no butter or spreads. The coffee and hot chocolate weren't hot or fresh either.

We waited two hours to check in, then were assigned two rooms that already had guests in them. Later they put us in a closet with a shared bathroom, saying that was all they could do at 1 AM. The whole experience felt scary, unreliable, and dangerous. Please be aware. In my view, this was a clear fraud.

I slept well on the firm bed, and the room was at 25C/75F with two fans. The air conditioning wouldn't turn on, and the bathroom was small. This is a clean, new hotel, handy to the airport for my overnight layover, with a shuttle and restaurant onsite. Park and ride is available too. The shower has three unfamiliar knobs for the overhead, lower, and handheld sprayers. It took me a minute to figure out that the bottom one turns it on and off. There was bottled water, tea, and a carafe for heating water. I skipped the instant coffee. In Colombia, I expected real coffee, and hope they add some local coffee.

The included breakfast had a good selection, and getting to the airport was easy with multiple shuttles in both directions. The shower fixture had months of grime from improper cleaning. At dinner, the small onsite restaurant left our table uncleared for almost an hour.