KACLLA, The Healing Dog Hostel

There’s a calm, peaceful feel to Kaclla Healing Dog Hostel, with beautiful plants, including blooming San Pedro cactuses, and just the right music. The staff are incredibly kind, breakfast is amazing, and the place makes it easy to connect and reflect. You’ve got a yoga room, guitar, kitchen, laundry, bikes, massages, and helpful support for tours and local events. Rao, the Peruvian hairless Inca “healing dog,” quietly keeps watch and feels like part of the place’s soul. I met wonderful people from all over and left feeling grateful, grounded, and inspired. Highly recommend if you’re after more than somewhere to sleep.

The after check-out rules were a real letdown. Once you’ve picked up your bags, you can’t use the communal areas, kitchen, showers, or even the toilet, and you can’t sit in the shared space or change clothes for the night. I was told it’s because people have taken advantage of the facilities after checking out. It’s a shame that’s happened, but the shared atmosphere is part of staying in a hostel, and most places let guests remain in common areas. I understand limiting showers or kitchen use, or charging for them, as this hostel and a few others I’ve stayed at do. Banning even the communal spaces feels against what hostels are about and creates a hostile environment. I hope they reconsider so the place can match the positive energy it seems to show from outside. I wanted to like it, and some staff were nice, but others were rude and grumpy. The dog pees everywhere and nearly peed on my bag.

We were excited to stay here, but it turned into a big disappointment. On arrival, the man at the desk showed no interest in us and just handed over a QR code, saying, “Do the check in yourself here.” It led to a WhatsApp chatbot. After many backpacking, bohemian-style hostels, this felt like there was no hospitality or personal touch, as if the place was run mainly as a business. We had booked private room 11 on the first floor. It looked cozy, but was damp and smelled of sweat because the air barely circulated. A wall fan helped a little, but the smell and humidity were still disturbing. The towels were old and stank badly. The shared toilets and showers for women and men were in disastrous shape, dirty, and lacking privacy. From the stairs to the first floor, you could see people through holes in the walls serving as windows, including in showers, toilets, and some dorms. There were no toilet brushes, so guests had no way to clean up after themselves. The rescued Peruvian dog, Rao, barked and growled at guests throughout the day and night, jumped on furniture and people, and would invite himself over when we ate. One night, when we tried to head out for dinner, he got on the common-room couch and barked and growled aggressively. Nobody was there to help. We were scared and went straight back to our room to text the owners. They replied, “Rao only barks, its not a big deal. You can come he is under the table now.” I’m not afraid of dogs and have one myself, but Rao seemed to do whatever he wanted and wasn’t trained. My girlfriend was terrified. After that incident and the owners’ reply, we stayed in our room and tried to work out how to check out the next day while avoiding the dog, who could get into basically all the shared areas. There is potential here if these problems are addressed. The location in central Miraflores is great, breakfast was amazing, and I appreciated the strong WiFi. I hope this feedback helps guests and the owners. We hadn’t checked the Google and Booking reviews before arriving, and many problematic reviews had received generic replies that seemed to dismiss the feedback instead of acknowledging the points raised.

I needed a bed for just one night before my flight after another hostel booking fell through, and I walked in without a reservation. They had one bed available and let me have it. The room had two beds and just one other long-term guest, so there was lots of space. My bed was comfortable, the locker was roomy, and the plugs were conveniently placed. The hostel was clean, had plenty of common areas to relax in, and gave out free towels. I had a good stay and would recommend it.