The Brown, Guatape

We came for lunch and the view. When we first came in the lobby is the most beautiful thing and smells like a spa surrounded by plants felt so exotic We had lunch at Pisno and Ginis was our services. The food was really good. We want to come back with the family and stay at one of the villas.

The service was excellent, the views are spectacular. There was one issue where the room didn’t have hot water. Being so late I didn’t want to hop out of the shower just to call maintenance, but my wife did. They came immediately and fixed the issue. Great job! Shout out to Angela from the restaurant for excellent service as well!

I would give this resort a zero star review if it was not for the kindness of just the waitstaff. The Brown/Luxe deserves a zero for several reasons. If you don’t have time to read my whole description, just know that the reception and management are duplicitous people who don’t care that you’re spending hard earned money and precious time. I say all the below to warn people so they don’t wind up in my situation. First, when we arrived (after booking through *******) the check-in process was a nightmare and we became acquainted with a manager and her reception staff. They demanded paperwork that was not listed as a requirement anywhere on either their website’s policies or on the policies they communicated to us through *******. I identified that their request was listed nowhere. The receptionist said she would create an exception and asked for alternative documents from us. We obliged and provided them. As soon as the receptionist had printed our documents for her records, she demanded that we pay an additional 19% of the total cost of our booking if we wanted to remain at the hotel. When I asked her why, she said because we did not have the correct documents. I requested the receptionist and her manager refund the full amount of our booking because we were not at fault. It is duplicitous and slimy to refuse to refund us for not bringing documents that we had no way of knowing we should have brought with us. They refused to refund us. The only two paths forward were to 1) eat the cost of the full reservation and find lodging elsewhere, or 2) pay them an additional 19% of the cost and stay. Second, even though we had agreed to pay the added percentage, we realized that this hotel holds itself out to be a “luxury” stay when it doesn’t even measure up to be a 4 star hotel. They offer and advertise spa packages and massages for around 80-90 US dollars. Missing from the description is that some unknown individual would perform the massage and related services but only in our own hotel rooms. There was no spa. Third, for a “luxury” resort this establishment again fails to measure up as one of the other guests on the property had a party with loud nuisance like music until 2 am in the morning. Fourth, this resort and its management is completely unserious and **** like when it comes to their handling of customer disputes. Instead of working to remedy tensions, the receptionist and manager aggravated the situation by calling their security guard to stand in the corner of the lobby while we tried to resolve where we would go and what we we would pay for staying at this hotel. Fifth, as part of their “included” services the reception staff told us they would provide us transportation back into Guatape. Without any other options, seeing the included services as a solution, we booked their “transportation” to Guatape. We were only informed of some unknown cost associated with this transport and it was not written anywhere what the rates were but we