Hostal Catamaran

I booked through Booking.com, and two weeks later the hotel said my credit card couldn't be used. I checked with the card company and there was no problem. I even tried another card that worked, but the hotel sent the same message. When I wrote to ask about it, they cancelled my reservation without even discussing it. The customer service was poor and the place seems very unreliable. I wouldn't count on them honoring a booking.

I was told they could store my bicycle, but then had to haul it up two flights of stairs and squeeze it into a tiny room. They also refused to honor my Bookings.com reservation, rudely insisted I'd made a booking mistake when I hadn't, and told me, “get out now.” The sheets were filthy too. Don't stay here. These people are scammers.

We found bedbugs in our room, and when we contacted the owner, they had the nerve to say, “we don’t have bedbugs, it’s you people from the Camino who bring them with you.” That response made a lot of assumptions. We checked ourselves and our luggage before, during, and after, and found none on us or in our bags. Why assume we're “from the Camino”? It had also rained that day, and luckily all our luggage was still wrapped in plastic bags. Maybe none of that would have mattered if the conversation had been less hostile. Instead, we had to leave and find somewhere else at short notice. And, would you believe it? No bedbugs there, on us or in the new place.

A perfectly acceptable place to stay in Castro Urdiales. There's no air conditioning, so it can get a little hot in summer, but otherwise it's not bad.