Disclaimer: I haven’t been to the hostel or co-working part of the property. I am solely reviewing the bar area.

Last week I made the silly mistake of not double checking the date on a networking event being held at the Selina bar in their Medellin location.

This actually turned out great mostly because I got to meet an amazing Paisa documentalist and ended up chatting with her for a couple of hours. Networking – check!

Besides making this valuable connection, my “mistake” also gave me the chance to take a closer look at the place. I had been there once before to a Caribbean Carnival themed party.

This time I was on my own, with not much to do. As I sat in one of their very cool swinging sofas, (so cool I would love to replicate the concept on the balcony of my Sabaneta apartment), I started thinking about this particular business I know from back home.

They started out in one of the most amazing beach locations in Panama and have quickly expanded. Kudos. They now have 22 properties across Central-America.

In part, their success must be due to great vision, amazing design and a heck of a business plan. The bar in this particular location is simply breathtaking. It has a grand arched gateway that walks you into it. It then continues to flow in the design as the open plane makes you feel as if you were in the backyard of the house of one of your very wealthy friends.

Carefully thought out, there is a wooden tree in the center of the bar. And right in front of it facing the entrance a vintage car. The neon signs have inspiring messages like: Enjoy the game.

The various graffiti around the walls give it an edgy nonchalant attitude, probably impregnated by the Israeli-Panamanian owners. The place is as hipster as it gets and part of me really wanted to dig it probably because it is a project that started in my hometown.

The only problem with it, besides their lacking of true craft beers, is that the energy feels a little to close to home. See, Panamanian service is worldly known to be just plain terrible and this was something that made me and others, especially expats that want to feel like locals are welcoming, flee from there and find refuge in the welcoming arms of Medellin.

The staff in Selina’s bar are so distant, cold, unapproachable and careless in providing customer service that it made me even wonder if the ones working behind the bars where in fact Panamanian.

The bar was empty, possibly 10 customers around the structure, inside about 5 staff members, and I stood there glaring as 3 of them debated on who knows what.

Definitely, a prompting attitude for me to spend my pesos. When finally one of them looked at me as if I was an alien, I worked up the courage to ask about their selection of beers.

They gave me the usual local big brands, and when I said any craft? The response was: we start selling BBC tomorrow. (No longer considered a craft brewery but that’s another day's discussion).

The staff never told me about the happy hour I later found out about. When I asked them about it, the kind bartender just threw the menu at me prompting at the house cocktails. Fantastic.

I then look around and see people getting served BBC beer, so again I ask, are you selling them today? They served me up with half a pint. I didn't question it thinking again probably that’s what they have.

Only to later notice, of course, other customers drinking full pints. I was left wondering… are they professionally trained to lose money?

Because with such disinterest surely the managers and owners passed on the Panamanian way of making business, a philosophy rooted in 'what the heck, the customer will give us their money anyway'.