Hotel Selis

“Modern and great location!”

Modern hotel in a great location that’s very walkable. Can be a little bit noise since it’s near the clubs if you’re sensitive to noise. The staff barely spoke English which was a huge con and not friendly.

“Beautiful suite with room for Improvement”

If it was possible, we would give this hotel a 3 and a half stars because of issues with the initial welcome, the noise from the neighbouring discotheque and an overall a lack of storage and bathroom lighting Our arrival at Selis got off to a rocky start as we had no welcome assistance to help us… more

If it was possible, we would give this hotel a 3 and a half stars because of issues with the initial welcome, the noise from the neighbouring discotheque and an overall a lack of storage and bathroom lighting Our arrival at Selis got off to a rocky start as we had no welcome assistance to help us carry our luggage up the flight of stairs to the reception area. And this laissez-faire attitude to how a hotel should greet its new guest continued as the reception explained that the bellman was busy elsewhere, but he would be coming to our room shortly…to verify the mini-bar. I think they need to rethink their priorities with regards to creating a good first impression. The bellman, or rather as we say in French :”l’homme à tout faire” ( translation: the man who does everything ) showed up at our room as promised and while he checked the minibar inventory, I had time to make a mental list of things that were neglected when they were preparing our room. Why only 1 bathrobe, when we booked months ago for a room for two? Why were there at least a dozen cigarette butts scattered on the balcony ? Why was the jacuzzi not cleaned? Why no extra blanket ? To their credit, these problems were resolved right away and from that moment onward we noticed a remarkable improvement in the general service. Our room and the jacuzzi was cleaned spic and span everyday and without asking, we were given 4 extra bath towels and 3 bathmats ! At the complimentary breakfast buffet, the same man ( I’m sorry that I forgot his name ) came right up to us and explained that we could order eggs and omelettes. He continued to offer this personalized service everyday as he welcomed us back, asked if everything was okay etc.. His sincere sense of service really made a difference for us. By the way, very few staff members spoke english, so I recommend learning a few basic tourist phrases like “ I would like a ham and cheese omelette with coffee and juice “ ( Me gustaría una tortilla de jamón y queso con café y jugo.) The breakfast was very filling with fruit, eggs cooked to order, cold cuts, cereal, pastries, juice and coffee, giving us the energy to start our tourist day ! We had booked the Selis Luxury room ( room 401 ), which came with a jacuzzi on the outside terrasse. The terrasse is located on the fourth floor, but with the remote controlled awning, you have the privacy and the protection from the cigarettes thrown out the windows by the illegal smokers on the upper floors. The jacuzzi took about 20 to 30 minutes to fill up. This is not too bad considering we’ve stayed in places where the water pressure was a trickle and the jacuzzi took more than an hour to fill up. We also had no issues with the water pressure and temperature in the shower, but we quickly realized why the maid left us those 3 bathmats. They really need to redo the silicon caulking around the shower stall as each time we took a shower it was flood season ! Luckily we figured out quickly how to build a bathmat dike around the shower so we kept our feet dry. The room itself is one big open space with one side the bed and the other side the living area and mini bar. The bed was king size with 2 bedside tables. There was a grey couch in the middle of the room to designate the living room as well as a tiny table with 2 chairs to indicate the dining area. The flooring was tile imitating wood. There was very little storage. The wardrobe was like a cheap Ikea knock off, which made us wary of the glass doors shattering into a million shards. There were no drawers, so we ended up hanging as much as we could on the four supplied hangers and piling the rest of our clothes at the bottom of the wardrobe. Whoever thought of this wardrobe needs to remind themselves of what “user experience” actually means. There were good points to the room. The mini bar fridge was big enough for a few of our own wine and water bottles and the bed was comfortable. The terrasse was large with lush tropical plants forming a green screen all around. The bathroom was spacious with a big tub and big shower and double sinks ( but one of them leaked ) but once again there was very little user experience thought given to the lighting plan. There was no strong lighting around the sinks, which made shaving or doing makeup a guessing game. Ironically the hotel calls itself a “ Wellness Hotel” and the overall design and natural materials of wood and stone, gives you the impression of being in a zen oasis. But this zen-ness hits a wall of sound as soon as night falls . The location of the hotel was about a block away from Parque Illeras, which puts the hotel is in the center of the Medellin party zone with disco music, traffic and revelers creating a cacophony into the wee hours of the morning. Luckily, the windows blocked out some of this noise and, being city dwellers, we are somewhat immune to this type of night noise ( and we also had earplugs ). If you are expecting the silence of the suburbs or countryside, you might want to think again about booking this hotel. There is a disco on just beside the hotel ( our side too ! ) that goes full blast as of Thursday and all weekend until 3:30 am, so bring extra earplugs, or go join the party ! All in all, we enjoyed our stay at Hotel Selis. The service was friendly and our room was always cleaned in a timely manner. The hotel is well located with great restaurants within walking distance as well as countless nearby drugstores, groceries, shopping and of course, bars and discos. It was a good base to explore Medellin with lots of greenery and some really cool architecture on almost every street. This hotel has a lot of potential and with few minor changes it could really help to improve the comfort of its guests. Simple fixes, like hooks in the bathroom for towels and bathrobes and preventive maintenance such as sealant around the shower and the sinks. How about rethinking the storage and adding drawers and a few more hangers. Add more usable lighting over the bathroom vanity. Make sure that the check-in is more personal and that the entire room, including the balcony is clean and ready for the guests.

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“The Breakfast is So-So”

The room is simple and sleek. It looks very new. But every pack of snacks has a price. The staff walks in the room with you and counts the food and beverage in front of you. There is not coffee kettle in the room. If you need water, go down to the lobby. And there is fruit 24 hours in the lobby. T… more

The room is simple and sleek. It looks very new. But every pack of snacks has a price. The staff walks in the room with you and counts the food and beverage in front of you. There is not coffee kettle in the room. If you need water, go down to the lobby. And there is fruit 24 hours in the lobby. The bathroom is clean but the shower water pressure power is very weak. And the water might not be hot enough if it's "peak" showering time (around 5-6 pm.) 3 staff members gave us 3 different breakfast time. We had to leave early so we only had coffee and bread.

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