Hostal Gala

The room was very clean, and the staff were super nice. We really liked this low-cost option for central accommodations. The comfortable bed gave us the rest we needed to explore the area, with its nice bars, restaurants, and tourist spots like the main Square and Market.

I haven't written a review before, but I felt I needed to this time. The one good thing is the location. The hostel is on the third floor of an apartment building, where the neighbors are loud and disgusting. Coughing and screaming carried on through the night, and people kept buzzing the building for hours at a time. It was almost impossible to fall asleep. The staff were okay, though not great. There was almost never anyone at reception, and some staff came across as rude. The rooms were incredibly small and quite dirty, and I didn't get any housekeeping during my stay. My TV remote was broken, the shower didn't work properly, and the paper-thin walls let me hear everything around me. For all those issues, the price was completely over the top. This place was awful. Don't stay here, the location isn't worth it.

I was supposed to stay three nights, but checked out at 10 a.m. after the first one. I found a bed bug beside my head when I woke up, and it was confirmed. I pulled back the sheets and didn't spot any more, though where there's one, there are often others. The staff handled it promptly and professionally and gave me a full refund. I hope they take the right steps to get rid of the bugs, but I can't recommend staying here. There were other problems too: the central AC vent kept closing, so I wedged a pen in it to get air. All night, a valve made a squeaking, water-flowing, squeaking sound about every 15 seconds.

We thought the location was pretty good, with plenty of bars and restaurants in easy walking distance, and the staff were very friendly. Our room was clean but tiny and basic, though the en suite felt spacious by comparison. The view was poor: we faced inward, just above the garbage from nearby restaurants and bars, close enough to almost reach the people in the neighboring apartments. This was my first stay in an older building converted into a hotel or hostel. The worst part was the wall behind our bed, which seemed to back onto the building's main pipe stack, or at least the one serving the upper floors. Every toilet flush made me feel like I could drown any second. I'm a light sleeper, but we were only booked for two nights, so I put up with it.