Agata Lodging House

The neighborhood in Pereira is nicer, and the place smells nice, with a rustic boutique look, quirky furniture, glossy wood surfaces, and English quotes on the walls. Service, though, was only in Spanish. It’s basically a big house, which isn’t inherently bad, but it’s not what I expected from the Expedia listing. There were no mountain views, bar, roof deck, or other advertised hotel amenities. It might work if you only need somewhere to leave your things, but I wouldn’t expect much privacy or a reason to spend time there. My first-floor room faced the front of the building. I could hear traffic, dogs, every check-in and conversation downstairs, and even both sides of a speakerphone call clearly over my TV. The road leading up is rough, and parking is just street space for one compact car, maybe something as small as a Smart car. The bath towel ripped in two places while I dried off. The bathroom is tiny, though that seems typical. Its light and fan run on a 15-minute timer you can’t control. At night the sudden bright light made it hard to fall back asleep, and once everything switched off while I was showering, leaving the windowless bathroom completely dark until I got out and opened the shower door. There’s no 24-hour access or front desk person either. I had to leave for work at 5:30am and found the doors locked and bolted, with the lights off and nobody there to let me out. The bed is very firm, though not totally uncomfortable if that’s what you like.

It’s in a quiet part of town and seems well managed. The paper-thin windows let me hear people in their rooms, as well as the kitchen staff and people in the social areas. My main issue was the bathroom light, which turns on automatically and can’t be controlled. I don’t like switching on a light at night, and this one went from dark to painfully bright so quickly. It bothered me a lot and made it hard to fall asleep again. I was grumpy the next day.

A comfortable place to spend the night, with comfy beds and a great location. The breakfast tasted awesome, though the portions could be bigger.

I woke up to freezing water and spent half an hour trying to get it hot. Reception didn’t answer until another half hour had passed. When I finally got help, they said I’d have to wait an hour because they needed to go to another guest’s room to turn off some gas. Really disappointing.