Termales El Otoño

unfortunately the hotel employees have a delusion that they are the owners of the hotel, and they provide a very bad service, The food in the hotel restaurant is terribly bad and extremely expensive, the hotel has very good facilities and hot springs to relax. My recommendation is: Sleep in the hotel, ignore the bad service, enjoy the hot springs and dine outside the hotel.

Beautiful place, the rooms are big. I reserved a room for three but the bathroom only had two body towels, when I requested another towel and some hand towels, they brought me two wash cloths. The room was warm and didn’t have air conditioning. It doesn’t have live entertainment. The breakfast is included and is very good, there are a lot of thermal pools in different areas surrounded by foliage, I do recommend it.

We visited Termales El Otono last week. It was a great experience. The hotel is down a paved road in a beautiful valley. The premises are secure and gated. They only admit registered guests. The hotel reception is adjacent to the car park. Checkin was a breeze and they assist with luggage. The "luxury" bloq at the hotel is brand new. The bedding is really comfortable and go for the rooms with a view. We had 3019. The rooms are at the rear of the property with an unobstructed view for the outside rooms. It is very quiet and the bathroom is very nice. The room did not have a safe, but you don't need it on the property with the high end clientele and family. They give you one large towel per person that you exchange at reception when needed. There are three pool areas with three different temperatures of water. The water is alkaline and very relaxing. The pools go from warm to HOT. The occupancy is such that even when busy there is plenty of space. The food in the restaurant is very good. We had one maintenance issue with the AC control and they sent a tech to reset the keypad immediately. They were very responsive to our every need! The older habitations are casitas that cater to families and are well located. Some have fireplaces and private hot tubs. The facility is very nice and relaxing. I would definitely go back and prefer it over Termales Santa Rosa de Cabal which we also visited on this trip. The two hotels are very different environments and both are comfortable. Otono has a much higher end feel to it and we preferred the termales there. If you are driving, take the opportunity to visit Plaza Bolivar/Principal in Manizales coming or going and take in the view over lunch. Car parks are only a couple of blocks from the square. On the road into the resort there is both a pharmacy and supermarket for any provisions you may want. The hotel did not object to an ice chest with supplies and assisted with it and the luggage. Tip, at the first round about past the supermarket you can take a right and the community has a ***** of store and restaurants for any supplies or clothing you might need. We had to buy a jacket as it was cooler on the day of our arrival. I give the resort at 100%. Realize you are in Colombia and visiting a resort that caters to high end Colombian travelers and enjoy!

The service is the biggest let down of this hotel. We had 2 rooms and asked for them to be together - the hotel said they couldn’t do that. We had booked months in advance so they had time to organise this. Then there was a wedding which played really loud music until 3am. We had to change rooms in the middle of the night due to the noise. The next morning we had to approach reception and ask them for compensation and an apology - something that I think they should have done as a matter of courtesy. They eventually agreed to giving us a complimentary dinner in the restaurant which was something at least. I just can’t believe that they would put guests in a room right next to a wedding when they knew there would be loud music until 3am. The service in the restaurant is really slow. They bring half the meals and then bring the other meals when the first people eating have finished. They tried to say that we had a bottle of wine that we didn’t pay for. It was the server’s mistake - they brought a bottle that we didn’t want so the server changed it but then still charged us for 2 bottles. We had to discuss this on check out. The reception staff did not believe me. When this was verified by the server I just got a “qué pena” from the restaurant manager - no apology that he had pretty much accused me of stealing. The food in the restaurant is pretty good and the breakfast was decent. Just the service was slow. There are very few vegetarian options. The beds are really hard and not comfortable but they were clean. There are no bedside lights - just one big light to turn off. No plug sockets by the beds. No hair dryer. The wifi drops in and out but I suppose you are in the middle of the countryside. To end on some positives, the pools are lovely, the garden are beautiful and well maintained. There are lots of nice seating areas around the resort to relax in. The rooms are clean. The towels are clean and new but you only get one in each room and have to bring that to the pools. When it’s wet you go to reception to request a new one so there are just wet people hanging round in reception waiting for towels. It would be great if it was easier to get drinking water rather than having to buy plastic bottles. Overall, it’s a beautiful place but could be so much better.

The rooms in the deluxe area is not that we was expected by the price we paid. Are old and unconfortable. The room has not mini bar, the bathroom too small, with NO hair dryer. It will be neccesary an renew this rooms. The price is too high for the quality of the room. The food is ok, not the best.

I had planned on two nights, but after seeing the room, for that matter they showed me a few rooms, and for the price, I only spent one night at the Termales. The property is very manicured, and clean, but nothing looks natural. My bed is hard as a rock, the room has no lamps, just one overhead light, no view anywhere.

1 out of 5 they charge you extra upon check out as they modify the rates as they please. Dark smelly rooms, not clean, don’t provide towels, rude staff sterile place, don’t provide hairdryer, everything you need you have to go to reception to get it. A very sad place to stay and way expensive for what they offer, not child friendly, a hazard for health as we upgraded we got a room full of smoke where we got sick we could not wait to get out of this place save your health and you money it is not worth it coming here

Hotel is over rated, the bad experience begin at check in, we reserve 2 rooms, either one needs maintenance, the water not running well, outside pools dirty, Restaurant food not good, we travel a lot and this was the worst experience I ever had

We really enjoyed our one-night stay. The setting is lovely with lush vegetation and tremendous views of the surrounding mountains. The rooms (we were in the new 3-storey development) are comfortable but fairly small and basic. There's no fridge in the room. There were no bath robes available to wear to the pools or to use to cover up in the chillier evening air, which robes are provided at similar thermal resorts in Costa Rica. The pools and nice and the temperature is just right, without much difference in temperature, however they are again fairly basic, not more than 3' deep and lined with some form of liner or dark coating, and not very natural. The surrounding vegetation is very attractive. The smaller more private pools each had polyethelene strings dangling from the return water vents in the pools for some reason we couldn't understand. There was bar service at the smaller pools, but none at the larger rectangular pool, nor at the cold water pool. There seemed to be a bit of lack of attention. Garbage poolside at the rectangular pool the afternoon before was still there the next day we noticed. It seemed to us that a bit more attention to detail was needed, and would have made all the difference in the experience. While we were there, there were large groups attending a football/soccer camp and other groups bused in for conferences in the conference/convention centre. This was fine, but the reception area became a bit hectic and the buffet breakfast the next morning saw the food rapidly disappear. The pools were not at all crowded although we were there on a holiday weekend. Having some facility in Spanish is probably an asset, since this caters mainly to domestic tourists from what we saw. I add that everyone was very friendly and helpful. A big shout out to Arly on reception who was very helpful to us and went out of her way to assist us on check in and check out and throughout. I would recommend a visit to the roadside restaurant on the road about a 1/4 mile below the hotel. Great local food including excellent chorizo. I would recommend Termales el Otono for the thermal pools, and the setting, and would be pleased to visit again. It is great value for the $125 per night we paid, and with a little effort it could be a real luxury resort.