Review of Novotel Medellin El Tesoro

After Cartagena de Indias, second step of my Colombia trip and a very interesting one : Medellin. This city name strikes some fears to most people in the world and most of your relatives and colleagues will tell you that you are totally crazy to go there ;-)

Well, it is true that Medellin was the most dangerous city in the world 20 years ago, but it’s not the case anymore and the city has engaged into a deep transformation and has become a touristic spot (now about 500K/year). It shows very well that there is some hope even for the worst places, with some goodwill of everyone. Of course, not all problems have been solved, but what has been achieved in Medellin is truly incredible and I enjoyed spending some time there. It is for sure a not-to-be-missed place it if you visit Colombia.

Of course, to enjoy a city/a place, you need also a good hotel, I am sure you will all agree with me on this forum :-). Accor options are limited, but I noticed the Novotel El Tesoro that looked nice on the website and I decided to go for it (3 nights). And it was an excellent choice ! This is an ex-Atton hotel. Atton is a Chilean hotel group that has a significant number of properties in South America and that was bought by Accor recently.

This Novotel is in a tall building in a modern and fancy residential neighborhood of Medellin, in the heights of El Poblado, and is directly connected to the big El Tesoro shopping mall. It is at approx 15 min taxi ride of the nearest metro station or the part of El Poblado where you have plenty of cafés and restaurants.

It didn’t start very well : As for Cartagena, I emailed the hotel 2 weeks before stay to arrange the transportation from MDE airport, using the email address (Accor) available on the hotel webpage. Never got a response, even after a 2nd email. I solved the problem asking my butler in Sofitel Cartagena to contact them. Novotel is contracting this service to an external provider and I was cc on the email sent by the Novotel to this company to book the service. I noticed that the email address they used was an Atton.com one and not Accor.com. Maybe the integration is not fully completed on the IT side ? Then I landed in MDE at 22:00 to discover that the driver was not there… I called the hotel, hoping that he was on his way. They hold the line with me while they were contacting the company, but at the end it seems that the transportation company forgot… They said that they can send me a driver but there was no way I wanted to wait for so long (a driver coming from downtown Medellin), so I took a Uber.

Arriving at the hotel, they were very apologetic of course. Check-in was quick. The drink voucher was not given spontaneously. I asked for it the next day (as I initially thought it could be already placed in the room).

The main lobby :

I booked a Deluxe room/king and got Executive/king (the highest category). But they gave me a really nice and big corner room that had a separate area with 2 armchairs. Almost a Junior Suite. And the view was stunning overlooking all the Medellin valley. I could not stop watching it.

Welcome note and amenities were on the desk : a local fruit, a Novotel Medellin-branded notebook, a pack of Colombian coffee and a magnet. 

There was an Espresso machine with 2 capsules. A sign (Atton) was saying that the 2 1st capsules were free and that after it was costing 3000 COP/cap (ca 1 USD). Really nickel and diming, but this policy was not applied to me. Capsules were replaced and it wasn’t charged.

Other amenities included slippers and bathrobe. Very comfortable bed and the room was very quiet which is something I always appreciate.

The hotel is not new but is very likely recent and everything was spotless.

About the view, I wanted to share with you some pictures taken from the room at different times of the day and with different weather conditions. Beautiful !!

There are 2 bars & restaurants, both offering great outside views

• above the front desk floor (2 first pictures below) : the main restaurant open for BF, lunch and dinner. Also directly connected to the shopping mall.
• top floor, adjacent to the swimming pool (last picture below). Open for lunch and until evening. A nice place to redeem the drink voucher enjoying the sunset.

On the top floor, you have the gym and a small pool with nice view on the local hills

Even if you have the feeling that the Accor integration is recent (email address, not giving spontaneously the drink voucher, no post-stay survey), on the other side, I was really feeling staying at Accor as all the LCAH (not yet ALL !) specifications were met and even exceeded : nice room upgrade, welcome amenities. And I was clearly identified as a top customer. An employee called David and in charge of guests relations came to introduce himself and that he wanted to make sure I would have the best stay. The 2nd day, he bring me a new special drink voucher which would consist in “make your own favorite cocktail” along with a nice welcome note saying “thank you for being an excellent Le Club member. We want to give you a special cocktail. Enjoy it”. Very nice attention and words. Many other long-time Accor hotels could take example on them (and this is “only” a Novotel !). So the next day, I have been to the top floor bar to enjoy my cocktail. They called a barman who was working at the lower level bar who came and bring the different ingredients to my table and he taught me how to make the cocktail, mixing the ingredients, etc. He spent 10-15 min with me doing this. Cool !

The same David also came to see me to apologize for the transportation issue at my arrival, and that to compensate the inconveniences, they were offering me the transportation back to MDE airport.

Overall, a great Novotel, with good staff. They care a lot about loyalty and ALL status. When problems occur, the recovery is excellent. I would return without hesitating and I strongly recommend this hotel if you go to Medellin. Points were long to post (about 10 days), but they posted and correct amount. Do not hesitate to go to Medellin, definitely a very interesting place to see.