Name: Palmetto
Address: Carrera 1; 8-50, Cartagena, Cartagena, Cartagena, 110010, Colombia
Rating: 6

Air conditioning

24-hour reception

Elevator/lift

General

Hairdryer

Shower/Bathtub

Rooms

Wheelchair Accessible

Accessibility

Luggage storage

Safe-deposit box

Services and amenities

Coffee/tea for guests

Restaurant

Kettle

Meals

Wi-Fi

Internet access

Internet

Multi-language staff

Languages Spoken

Parking

Swimming pool

Outdoor pool

Pool and beach

Sauna

Beauty and wellness

Location

At the apartament hotel

Bocagrande Beach

Castillo Grande Beach

Rafael Nunez International Airport

Palmetto

Cartagena

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

We liked this place for the spacious rooms, the nice pool and the private balconies with killer ocean views.  The hotel is right across the street from the beach, so the location is awesome.  They have security and front desk staff 24 hours a day, and they were good about guarding our luggage until we could check into our room later in the day.  However, the apartments in the hotel are managed by other companies that you have to deal with for any issues.  We were a little annoyed by late arrival of the management person for check in, but they were at least somewhat reachable on WhatsApp.  We spoke enough Spanish to communicate with them, but you might be in trouble if you are expecting them to use English.  Our apartment was sadly lacking as far as maintenance goes.  For example, the hot water wasn't working, so it was cold showers the whole time and the in-room safe was broken.  I suspect the state of your apartment depends on the company managing it and how much they feel like fixing.  Our place did have a kitchen, but the dishes, utensils and cookware were a hodge-podge that looked like it came from a trip to a thrift store.  We had to buy plastic forks, because they only provided 3 forks for our family of 5.  Otherwise, nothing is provided, not even soap and toilet paper, so be prepared to do some shopping.  The hotel does have a mini market with predictably high prices, but other options are only a few blocks from the hotel, including a Carrula Express and some bigger grocery stores a few blocks further.  In spite of the obvious issues with the place, we felt like we got a good deal.  We reserved on hotels.com and, even with the $COP 50,000 at check in and the $40,000 cleaning fee  at check out, it still ended up being only $US 85 /night for a 2-bedroom suite, which is much cheaper than most places in the Bocagrande hotel zone.  Anytime we were tempted to complain, we just stepped onto our balcony and basked in our awesome ocean view.  If you're looking for true luxury, this isn't the place for you, but if you're a family with kids like ours, this place is a good deal for the money.

Decent accommodations with ocean views

There are so many better places to stay.  The pictures tell one story.  The reality is quite different.  Only 3 slow hydraulic elevators for such a tall building with tons of guests/residents.  One of the elevators is almost always broken, and everyone crowds onto the remaining two elevators.  Many times, the doors would open and the elevator was jammed with people from other floors.  Oftentimes, people would ride up just to get a spot in the elevator for the ride down.  Space was that hard to get.  No a/c on the cars either, or it was broken like everything else.  By the time you ride down from your floor to the 2nd floor lobby, you were covered in sweat.  Then you need to walk to the other elevators to get from the 2nd floor to the ground floor.  That was another round of herding onto and off of another elevator with tons of sweaty and upset people.
On the plus side, the pool was nice.  They have a snack bar and a spa service on the pool deck level.  Nice people watching since the pool was 2 floors above the beach with glass walls all around.  Security is very tight to avoid beach people from just wandering into your private pool.  Overall, no need to return.  Other buildings have much better facilities and do not ruin your stay with the bad elevator situation.

Prepare to spend half of every day waiting for an elevator

5 minutes into my experience I wanted my money back. DO NOT STAY HERE! Front desk and staff are the worst I’ve ever encountered. 4 cockroaches within 5 min of entering the condo. WORST PLACE EVER!!!!!!

DO NOT STAY HERE!

Horrible.  Worst experience ever.  Dirty. Roaches everywhere. The apartment I rented was in a bad condition. Apt 2804. I payed in advance.  We didn’t stayed there because was so dirty. I have to book another hotel.  And guess what.  No money back. Bad business.  Is better options and new places to stayed in Cartagena Colombia. 

Bad condition. 

There are three Palmetto buildings in Boca Grande and none of them match the luster and extravagance that you might see in the photos.  The rooms are sufficient at best.  They are clean.  I guess that much I can say.  But the policies of the all three buildings including the Palmetto I am writing about are more then ridiculous.  It starts from the terrible checkin where you must provide every little detail to the security or it is likely that they will not find your reservation.  I was told a million times that I did not have a reservation, until I gave them the room number, person who took the reservation, and various other details.  The process took 40 minutes to checkin.  The person who is supposed to be in charge of the reservation is never there.  The security people are rude, inadequately trained, and not customer friendly.    Thinking of having visitors, forget it.  Even if you get through the embarrassing checkin and put on mandatory bracelets which you have to wear like a pet the whole time, they will take the visitors ID as hostage and tell the person that they have time limit.   Want to use the crappy gym in the buildings that is about the size of your large living room with just a few machines, forget about it unless you are paying by the hour.  The policies at the place are ridiculous.  The people are rude.  They are enforcers and not customer service friendly.  I recommend that you stay away at all cost although the rooms and the buildings are overpriced in the first place.  Believe me, do yourself a favor and look for other options.

Palmetto

Main amenities of the hotel

Location

Available rooms

Location

Description of the hotel

What other amenities are there?

General

Rooms

Accessibility

Services and amenities

Meals

Internet

Languages Spoken

Parking

Pool and beach

Beauty and wellness

Policies

Check-in terms and conditions

Additional information

Payment