Coccoloba Hostel

The people were nice, and the service was good.

The staff were very friendly, and I got good service. The kitchen and living area were spacious, and the terrace with its small pool was lovely at night. But after the first night, I had to leave. I was in a shared dorm bed, and even though it was hot, they only turned on the air conditioning once I was practically suffocating. There were only three guests, and electricity isn’t cheap. When I wanted to head to the beach at 6 a.m., no one was there to open the door, so I waited an hour. That scared me. What would happen in an emergency?

I don’t recommend this hostel. Money was stolen from my room, which I shared with volunteers, last week, and the owners didn’t even look into it. They immediately blamed guests who had left the night before. The security cameras don’t work, and there are no lockers or other security for travelers in the rooms. The door to this area is damaged, so anyone can come in from the street. The hostel’s pizzeria keeps its sliding gate open during business hours, leaving guests without security. The advertising is false. Read the negative reviews on different platforms and see how the owners respond aggressively and try to blame the customer. This place is currently at its worst. The tiny upstairs pool leaks into the pizzeria below, which is very dangerous, and there are leaks throughout the pizzeria. There’s no Wi-Fi downstairs, and the bathrooms have no changing areas. They sell a bar tour that sometimes doesn’t run because they can’t cover the costs, and they don’t issue refunds. In short, scammers posing as really cool people with a fake, cool hostel.

We went with our family, and there were some good points, but this place isn’t recommended for a family trip. It may suit backpackers. The pizza was good, and the hostel is very close to the beach and historic center. The advertising gave us a different impression. We were told we’d booked an apartment, but it wasn’t the place we were promised and wasn’t suitable for families. Even though we’d booked the entire place, they said staff couldn’t sleep in the common area because of a problem. When we talked to those people, we realized they were backpackers. There are only six beds in each room, with no shelves or space for luggage. The 24-bed area has only one air conditioner, which doesn’t work well, and the sleeping area is so dark that we had to use our phones for light. It’s monitored by cameras, so there’s little privacy. There’s no security, and the street door doesn’t lock. The kitchen is separate from the bedrooms, so you have to go outside and enter through a shop to cook. Our belongings were left exposed because there’s nowhere to store them. They charged us 5,000 pesos per person to store backpacks on the last day, even though we’d paid for a whole weekend for 22 people. To come in from the beach, they ask you to wash your feet, which is a good idea for cleanliness, but you have to do it in the street with very little water. The staff were polite, but not very helpful.