Hostal La Cruz 1872

The owner has such a lovely way about her, and the place itself is beautiful. I always feel like a princess when I visit this little spot in Cádiz. The service is wonderful.

We paid 110 euros a night, and the room felt nowhere near worth that. We’d booked a month ahead over WhatsApp, partly after seeing the Booking.com reviews, though I usually prefer dealing with people directly. Instead, we ended up in a cramped room at the far end of two corridors on the first floor. There was barely room to move unless one of us sat on the bed, and its tiny window looked into an inner courtyard. No street view, and no air. The bathroom was even tighter. Calling it small doesn’t cover it, you had to sit sideways on the toilet. The fridge barely kept anything cool, and the TV signal kept dropping out. We explained to the owner in the morning how uncomfortable and upsetting it was and asked to move, but she said there were no other rooms. We chose to leave early that same morning, and she wouldn’t return any of our money. It was a huge disappointment. The only way I can make sense of the other guests’ reviews is that we got the worst room they had. Next time, maybe I’ll ask to see the room before paying.

The hostel was spotless, and Raquel was so lovely. We’ll be back before long!

Raquel was really pleasant, and the service was excellent. The room was cleaned daily, but even though we’d booked back in April, we were given a small room with no window. With such an early booking, we’d hoped for a chance to enjoy a cool evening by a window with direct sunlight. For five days and two people, they supplied only two small bottles of shampoo and shower gel, which felt very meager.