I had been following the opening of Four Seasons Cartagena for months. I reached out to the reservations team as early as March, and ultimately chose to dedicate four nights of my trip to this property. The anticipation was genuine. The disappointment was profound.

I have stayed at more than 15 Four Seasons properties worldwide. What happened on my final night here was a first — and not in a good way.

At 11:30pm, with my young son already in bed and a 6am (we left at 7am to miss breakfast so my 6 years old son can sleep more) departure the next morning, blasting music began penetrating our room walls. I messaged the hotel immediately. The team was polite and apologetic, but the noise continued and actually grew louder as the night went on. The hotel’s solution? Offer us a room change at midnight — with checkout at 6am and all our belongings already packed. That is not a solution. That is a gesture that sounds helpful while changing nothing. My son and I lay awake for hours, exhausted and frustrated, knowing exactly how little sleep we would get before our flight.

A hotel of Four Seasons’ caliber should never place a loud event directly outside guest rooms. The lobby, the Grand Grill, enclosed ballrooms — these exist precisely so that paying room guests are not sacrificed for the sake of an event booking. That this was allowed to happen, on what was supposed to be a special stay at a newly opened flagship property, is simply unacceptable.

And then there is the airport transfer:

I used the hotel airport transfer when I landed at CTG on 10th June. The hotel quoted me $98 USD plus 19% tax for a transfer to Rafael Núñez International Airport — a ride that Google Maps shows as 7.6 km and 14 minutes. For that same journey, Uber Black — a premium, fully professional car service — cost a fraction of the price. We are talking roughly 5 times cheaper. I booked the Uber myself. I should not have to, but I did — because the hotel’s pricing made me feel I was being treated as a captive rather than a guest.

At Four Seasons prices, guests are not looking for bargains. But there is a difference between luxury pricing and pricing that simply exploits the assumption that guests won’t bother to check. When the hotel taxi costs five times more than a premium rideshare for a 14-minute ride, it does not feel exclusive — it feels like a trap. No guest should feel foolish for using their own hotel’s services.

For a property that charges a 10% service fee on top of already premium room rates, plus an additional resort or maintenance fee of around $200 per stay, one might reasonably expect a comprehensive range of amenities. Yet Four Seasons Cartagena does not offer a kids’ club — a standard feature at virtually every comparable luxury resort, particularly one in a tropical destination that naturally attracts families. When you are travelling with a child and paying at this level, the absence of any dedicated children’s facility is not a minor omission. It is a significant gap that the fee structure does nothing to justify. Guests are being asked to pay for the full Four Seasons experience while receiving something noticeably less than that.

I understand that problems can arise at any hotel, including brand-new ones still finding their footing. What defines a truly great hotel is not the absence of problems, but how it responds when things go wrong. Unfortunately, the response here — sincere in tone but ineffective in action — did not rise to the Four Seasons standard I have come to know across many properties and many years.

My lasting memory of Four Seasons Cartagena will be messaging the front desk past midnight, exhausted, while my son tried to sleep through music that should never have been there in the first place.

I genuinely hope the management team takes this seriously. This property has real potential. But right now, it is not delivering on the promise of the Four Seasons name.

This is a very disappointed stay.