Hostal Puerto Ayora

For the price, we got what was advertised: a room with a private bathroom, hot shower, air-conditioning, and Wi-Fi that worked okay in the room. It was cleaned daily during our five-night stay, and we could use the shared kitchen and refill our bottles with filtered water. The woman working mornings was friendly, and the pier wasn't far to walk. The building and furnishings are visibly old and very basic, so don't expect frills. Our room had a slight musty smell that thankfully cleared once we switched on the air-conditioning. On our second-last day, the toilet flush broke when the plastic connector inside the cistern snapped, but they fixed it quickly.

Nice staff and an awesome location. I booked a dorm, but since there were empty rooms, they gave me one instead. Had a really good experience.

We checked out as soon as we'd checked in, for the first time in my life. The place was a total mess. Avoid at all costs. We arrived 10-15 minutes before check-in and were told our room needed another 30 minutes. That was fine, since we were early, so we left our bags and went for a walk. When we came back, they showed us the room. It faced the road, so we asked if a quieter room was available. There was one, but it hadn't been cleaned yet. They said it would be ready in 30 minutes, around 11:15am. We were tired and looking forward to resting somewhere quiet, so we went out again and gave them time. We came back just before 12pm, and the room still hadn't been cleaned after the previous guests. We were getting frustrated. They asked us to wait at reception, then about five minutes later said it was ready. That seemed too quick, but they assured us it had been cleaned. Inside, they'd removed the rubbish, but the room was clearly still dirty: there was hair in the bed, an open shampoo packet in the bathroom, and toothpaste in the sink. The property claims to have taken extra health and hygiene measures for safety. Especially after the recent pandemic, I find it unacceptable to say a room has been cleaned when it clearly hasn't, and then charge a cancellation fee. We didn't trust that the rest of the facilities were up to standard after they blatantly lied about the room. Angry and frustrated, we asked for a full refund because they weren't providing what we'd booked. After some back and forth, the property returned our money in cash, but kept $14USD. Avoid. Avoid.

Rooms are super cheap for Galapagos, staff are charming and friendly, and everything is just a two-minute walk away. You get free beach towels, too, so if you're watching your budget and don't need luxury, I'd say yes. The rooms are badly insulated, though, and you can hear pretty much everything. The Wi-Fi is also quite bad. And apparently the shower gives you electric shocks, if that's your thing! I still haven't decided whether I like the shocks, but I extended my stay by a few days to find out. (((((Today it was already 17:20, and still the room was not cleaned!!!)))))