Arc House Cordoba

For 20 euros a night, this was about what I expected: a basic stopover with self-service and a “you can sleep here” feel. The portraits of trans divas on the walls are striking, and it felt like they were watching while I slept. There’s a bed, and there’s air conditioning, though mine rattled like an old tractor all night and kept reminding me it was on. I couldn’t find instructions for connecting to the Wi-Fi. Check-out at 10 a.m. at least beats 6. Not bad for the price.

The booking and other communication were easy, and we were told in advance that the hostel has several nearby buildings. To get the key, you go to the main building with reception, then walk to your own building. If there’s no reception in that building, you only have a code for the entrance and a key to your room. We found the entrance door open in the morning, apparently because other guests had forgotten to lock it. That felt unsettling and risky. We were there in the first week of March. It reached 20 degrees during the day, but nights were cold, and we couldn’t sleep. The room had no working heating. The covering was a thin blanket inside a duvet cover, not a duvet, and the sheets and bedding were damp. We couldn’t move much in bed and tried to sleep curled up in coats. After a few hours of sleep repeatedly interrupted by the cold, we woke up sick. I can’t comment on the shower or hot water because the shower was too filthy to use. We used public toilets outside instead, which felt more hygienic. We left the next day without extending our stay. I wouldn’t recommend testing your physical and mental limits by staying here.

Getting into the main entrance and our room was easy with the English instructions, and the old town location was good. The room itself had only one window, which stayed shut because it opened onto an inner courtyard. It was musty enough to set off a sneezing fit, and by morning my throat felt bad. There was no window or exhaust in the bathroom either, so neither room had ventilation or natural light.

The room was cold even with the windows shut, and the old wooden windows didn’t close properly. The lights worked whenever they felt like it. The room was very dirty, and the bathroom, about one square meter, had a dirty smell.