The Eco Palace Hostel

The location was really poor for us, with nothing around within a 30-minute walk. The room smelled awful, and both my girlfriend and I got bites from small animals in the bed. The owner was extremely arrogant and unfriendly. We arrived two hours before check-in and asked to wait in front of reception, but the manager/owner wanted to charge us 60R$ just for that. I’ve never seen anything like it. The upstairs area closes after 10pm, leaving your room as the only place to go. They charge for every little thing, and the Wi-Fi doesn’t work in the rooms, so there’s basically no internet. It’s a total “wannabe”: nice photos, horrible in reality. The owner/manager’s behavior was the same way.

BE CAREFUL, NOT RECOMMENDED! This isn’t a place to stay. The staff were arrogant and the rooms were dirty. My boyfriend and I chose it because the photos looked so good, but the reception and everything around it were so bad that we ran away 😭 We couldn’t enjoy anything. Feel sorry for anyone who couldn’t go somewhere else. We didn’t even stay one night and will never come back.

The pool looks huge and beautiful in photos, but that didn’t make up for the stay. The place felt old and poorly maintained: even sitting outside was unpleasant, the bed felt like it was from 1800 with every spring noticeable, and the bathrooms were in really bad shape. The refrigerator deserved a mention of its own, it wouldn’t close, stayed open, and was so dirty that food spoiled quickly. The music played loudly all the time and killed the atmosphere. We mostly used the place to sleep and only went to the pool once. Breakfast was frustrating too. Each morning they were supposed to message two options on WhatsApp, starting at 8:30am, but in four of our five nights the message came after 9:30. I don’t know if that was intentional so guests would miss it. One option was white bread with butter and scrambled eggs, coffee and juice. The other was cereal with milk and another drink. One day it was a cheese sandwich with just one slice of cheese, and they asked if I wanted another one like it. Access was restricted during breakfast from 8:30 to 10:30am, and the pool area was off limits before breakfast was served. If you didn’t like the food and wanted your own, you had to wait until after 10:30; if you wanted their breakfast, you had to stay in your room until the area opened, even though breakfast often arrived after 9:30. The management seemed careless. Some of the same complaints had been posted for months, and people seemed to get up so late that cleaning, breakfast on time, having someone at reception, and opening areas on time were difficult. The reviews didn’t seem to matter. I saw a response from the hostel saying guests unhappy with the staff could find somewhere else with more formal service that met more demands. That says a lot. I regret not reading reviews before booking. You can find a better maintained place with a pool, good breakfast, better management, and a better location for the same money.

The place had so much potential, but it felt sad and sometimes creepy. In the evening the structure was deserted with the lights off, and the old furniture looked like it came from older people’s homes or a flea market. My room was dirty, very humid, and hot. I shared it with four volunteers who seemed very bored, poor girls. The only reason I chose this hostel, far from the center where Uber doesn’t work at night, was its natural setting, but loud music played nonstop from 8h to 22h and ruined that. Breakfast was very poor, and the bathrooms had no hand towels or soap. Reception was usually empty. Rafa, the receptionist/manager, was generally kind to me, but he was often away, the volunteers didn’t always know what to do, and Rafa didn’t answer on WhatsApp. I wouldn’t call this a hostel. There’s a lot that needs improving.