Hostel Paraíso da Penha

The staff were rude and unhelpful, and the price definitely wasn’t worth it. The room was very dirty, and I was moved from one bad room to another. I wouldn’t recommend this hostel.

I stayed for five days and paid a good amount, but the whole experience was awful. The photos on the website show different rooms from what they actually have. My room was full of cockroaches and insects, the window had no cover, the toilet bowl was broken and the tap kept leaking. They say they provide daily housekeeping, but they didn’t do any housekeeping at all. I wouldn’t suggest anyone waste money here. In short, I’d give this hotel 0 out of 10.

Mold covered the area under the wallpaper, the curtain rod fell off when we looked at it, and there was no roller blind. The “bathroom” was a joke, with a transparent curtain separating it from the actual room, and the shower was leaking and falling apart. After a brief comment, the nice staff moved us to another room without any trouble, and the new one was fine.

The owner told us to message him on WhatsApp. I did, and although it appeared he’d read it, he never replied. The woman who welcomed us in the evening only spoke Portuguese. We tried translation apps, but she mostly couldn’t understand us. Eventually, she said breakfast would be “here” between 9 and 11 the next morning. The wonderful woman working in the morning, who earns the second star, was very sorry there was no breakfast. She’d never even heard that it was supposed to be provided. She suggested the café next door and even paid for our breakfast herself, hopefully the owner reimbursed her. She’d only worked there for a week, so I hope she doesn’t get into trouble. Check-out was no later than 11am. We tried to leave at 10:30, but no one was around, so we had to leave the keys in the room. The rooms are bad, and the advertised services don’t exist. Breakfast was included in our price, and the owner had sent a message saying breakfast, extended breakfast at a slight addition, but no breakfast was available at all, even though we’d paid for it. It was the same with the other services advertised. There was no airport shuttle, no luggage storage, no towels in the room and barely any toilet paper. Avoid this place if you can. You could probably find something better for less, or something far more pleasant for the same price.