Casa Lum

I stayed one night at Casa Lum in November 2025, paying £96 for the night, nearly three times the price of comparable hotels in San Cristóbal. I left deeply disappointed. For that amount, I expected well-kept rooms and professional service, and got neither. There are many better value, better maintained options in town, so I can’t recommend Casa Lum unless the property and service improve significantly. My room was dark even at 1:30pm with all the lights on, and had almost no natural light. The linoleum was badly damaged and buckled by the bathroom entrance, and shower tiles were loose and visibly dirty, a basic maintenance problem that raises hygiene concerns. The room was next to the cleaners’ quarters, and staff noise woke me at 6:20am. I only managed to sleep again until 8am because I had my own earplugs. The TV was placed beside the bed, which seems like poor room design, though I wouldn’t have wanted to spend much time watching it anyway. Before arriving at 8:30am, I contacted the hotel well in advance to ask for early check-in and offered to pay extra. They didn’t clearly explain their policy or availability, such as whether they were fully booked until 2pm, and just said they’d let me know when the room was ready. That answer was so vague that I booked another hotel for a few hours to rest after my overnight bus journey. When I arrived at noon, the receptionist had no record of my WhatsApp request. Rooms were listed as available on the same booking platform I used, but nobody tried to arrange early access despite my advance request and offer to pay. When someone eventually messaged me on WhatsApp, it was to ask for a TripAdvisor review, not to say the room was ready. I had to ask, and was told it wasn’t. I finally got in at 1:30pm, the regular check-in time. No staff member speaks English. At a budget place that might be understandable, but at this price I found it unprofessional that they couldn’t even use Google Translate to communicate with international guests. The included breakfast was stingy and disappointing, in keeping with the rest of the stay. Even though it was served in their own restaurant, the cappuccino listed on the menu wasn’t available. The coffee choices were watered-down Americano or tea. Instead of choosing an omelette, guests get scrambled eggs with ham, and cheese instead costs extra. That kind of penny-pinching is inexcusable at this price. After my meagre meal, they put a box in front of me and said breakfast was worth 1000 Mexican pesos, so they expected a matching tip.

We had an amazing three nights here. It’s a beautiful, sustainable hotel with lovely interiors and great equipment in the room. The restaurant is fantastic too, with interesting dishes with a twist and very, very good prices for the quality.

This felt like a missed opportunity. San Cristobal has lots of beautiful hotels, but I’ve never seen staff so committed to giving guests a poor experience. We were put in rooms beside the kitchen and cleaning supply closet. At 6am staff started banging outside. We politely asked them to stop, but they didn’t apologize and said they had to operate the empty restaurant. Then gardeners started banging at 7am. We asked if they could do it later; they said yes, then started again a minute later. I complained to reception again and said we’d need to switch rooms if we were staying. They said that was no problem. We tried to get a few hours’ sleep, then went to reception at 12.30 to change rooms. They said we could go to another hotel, but they’d charge us for the entire stay because it was after checkout time. I showed them the messages confirming the room switch, but it made no difference. The reception has beautiful crafts textiles. We asked them to arrange a tour of the indigenous towns and specifically wanted to see this. They confirmed it was possible, but then booked us with the most expensive tourist trap. At best, it felt like exploitation of Indigenous people, paid like actors to perform for tourists. We also said we didn’t want that same company, which I later learned had three stars on Google, to take us to Palenque the next day. They said they’d refund the tour, then took that offer back the following day.

The staff were incredible, helpful, friendly, and happy to accommodate our every wish. Since we’re vegan, they made us a special breakfast, with the chef bringing local vegetables from her own garden and cooking delicious dishes just for us. Try chayotes! The rooms are beautiful too, and the hotel sits in the most interesting, vibrant part of this charming town. Such a beautiful and friendly place. You have to stay here when you’re in San Cristobal.