Hi everybody,
Being in Playa del Carmen, we booked through booking.com at the Hotel Tequendama Suites in Bogotá. As I have told you in other posts, we were quite disgusted and wanted to avoid Airbnb as much as possible.
The Tequendama has a building that is a hotel and another with suites with a work area (desk + chair) and kitchen. The only bad thing is that it does not have a washing machine and the laundry service is expensive. We found a laundry 15-minute walking that charged us 4000 COP ($ 1) per kilo of clothes.
The fear we had was firstly if the internet was going to work well and secondly, the kitchen equipment. The Wi-Fi worked perfectly, but the kitchen was poorly equipped. We complained and they brought us more things for the kitchen, but there are still many basic things missing if you are going to cook during your stay.
We had planned to use Uber to go from the airport to the hotel, but since there was no Wi-Fi at the airport, we had to take a taxi (60000 COP). Then we saw that the shuttle offered by the hotel was cheaper: 45000 COP.
In order not to extend the post too long, I summarize the good and the bad of the Hotel Tequendama Suites:
Pros
- Good breakfast. They made us a vegan breakfast, even when they don’t normally offer vegan options; but it was almost the same every day.
- Cleaning and daily amenities. (Although in the “cons” I detail the issue of cleaning)
- Good service.
- The Internet connection is good and stable. We were working 8 hours a day and we had no problems. ATTENTION HERE because we asked to change to a room with a better view and when they changed us, there was no internet, so we had to go back to where we were before. So, keep in mind that there are apartments with no Wi-Fi.
- 24h reception.
- Very quiet. There’s no noise. This gave us a lot of quality of life and more coming from the noise hell of the accommodation in Playa del Carmen.
- Spacious. Enough space for storage and put the suitcases.
- Good workspace. (Desk and comfortable chair)
- Spa with jacuzzi, sauna and Turkish bath. However, there are restrictions to use the spa
Cons
- The kitchen has less than the basics and that is a problem if you expect to cook during your stay because, even if you complain, they will not be able to bring everything you need. I needed a pasta strainer, bowls and a good knife and they said they didn’t have anything.
- The gym is small and does not have much.
- The apartments are cold and don’t have heating. The only way they solve it is by giving you a blanket.
- Regarding cleanliness: I do not like that the floor of the room is covered by a carpet; also, the carpet was completely disgusting. In addition, the utensils they used to clean were more dirty than clean. The surfaces and the bathroom were clean, but the floors were not. In addition to this, the cleaning service is not regular and many days I had to call reception around 17h because the suite hasn’t still been cleaned.
It is very important to take care of cleaning, disinfection and vacuuming, especially when the accommodation accepts pets and considering that by that time we are still living in a pandemic.
Still, I enjoyed not having to clean. In my house I cleaned very little because I kept everything impeccable; we don’t wear shoes inside and I have the robot that vacuums the floor every day. But on Airbnb’s, I lose a lot of time cleaning daily because most of the accommodations are disgusting. At Tequendama, I noticed how much extra time I had thanks to the fact that we had this service included.
Now let’s talk about the area. The hotel is well located to visit the center of Bogotá, the museums, and the Monserrate. You can get to all these places on foot. The downside is that the area is ugly, run down, dirty, and full of beggars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much homelessness. It also feels very insecure (even when there are police officers everywhere) To make life from day to day it is better to stay in Usaquén.
In conclusion, we had a good stay at Tequendama Suites and more coming from the horrible experience of Playa del Carmen. Although perhaps I would recommend it more for a short stay. By the end I was already a bit upset by the little glitches. But for the offer that there is and the quality / price ratio that you can find, it is not bad. What is certain is that the hotel would gain a lot of potential if they remodeled the apartments (I think it needs urgent restoration).
Bellow you have the link to my YouTube channel: