Sofitel Baru Calablanca

Very nice hotel with great facilities. Beautiful manicured gardens. Good beach and a good selection of restaurants. Staff all very friendly and always keen to help. The beach does suffer from a bit of coral pollution but the hotel is working on keeping this down to a minimum. That said it doesn’t impact the enjoyment of the beach. The only downside is the last 6Km from the main road to the hotel which is pretty much off road. This isn’t the hotel’s fault but rather that of the local government.

Great people and service, from the arrival, to brakfast, pools and beach. Food is delicious.

Found the facilities to be top notch. The service, however, was not up to par with the facilities. The front desk, in particular, was inflexible. Two examples (there were others): 1) I was arriving by boat, a 55 ft boat. I was told the maximum size boat allowed in the dock was 40ft, which is understandable. I asked how I could tender from my boat to the dock. Front desk/concierge had no clear answer, other than I had to arrange myself. When pressed, they said they would inquire further. I got a message later stating that it would cost PS$500k of the service. The service is a 10 meter tendering service. I found that outrageous. 2) Before arriving and upon arrival I asked the front desk if I could make changes to my reservation (when I called the question was can I arrive 1 day later, when I arrived the question was can I depart a couple of days before original date. The front desk answered, in both occasions, that I could, but I would have to pay for all nights. I communicated with Expedia and they said the penalty would be 1 night, but it was doable. I told this to the front desk and they still said NO. I found this to be dishonest. I kept the written reply from Expedia. In addition, your hotel is in Cartagena. A beautiful location, with beautiful people. But you've trained them as if we were in France. Their demeanor was stiff. Addressing us by mousieur and madame sounds unnatural in my personal opinion in such a setting. And the motive (food, etc) was more Mexican than Colombian.

Excellent service, beautiful place

The Sofitel Baru was great for our group of friends. I’ve stayed many times and it seems that the resort has improved their customer service and follow through. The restaurants were better in terms of service - waiters more attentive, food prepared as requested, drinks arriving quickly. The resort has added a few free experiences - such as coffee education - that are nice diversions in the middle of the afternoon. There are two areas for improvement - the pool attendants, both waiters and staff need to be more present. It was an effort to get someone to bring a drink/food and to move the umbrellas. - many of the doors to the rooms are covered in mold. We asked that our door be cleaned and it looked need after someone attended to it. The resort needs to undergo a program of maintenance for the entire property.