HOSTAL ARCABUCERO — Hotel in La Paz

My girlfriend and I recently stayed in La Paz and had made a reservation in a nearby hotel, to our surprise our room had been given away despite having paid a deposit online. We therefore had to go in search of alternative accommodation for the night, nearby we found an inviting looking hostel in a beautiful building with very tempting prices (Arcabucero Hostal Inn). The manager showed us a selection of rooms to choose from, all of which seemed clean. ||We decided to stay and agreed with the manager that we would pay our bill in the morning. Upon settling into our room it occured to me that it was surprising that such a well located and competitively priced hostel would be so devoid of guests when all of the other nearby hostels/hotels seemed to be fully booked. ||We then went out to eat, and due to my gut feeling I decided to bring my whole hand luggage bag with me (something I have not done in 5 months of travelling through Asia, Mexico, Guatemala and Peru). Having now read other reviews I have realised this was a very lucky decision. Our main bags were securely padlocked and intentionally left standing at awkward angles to make it more obvious if they were moved. We were told when leaving that we must leave our key and that an electrician had to go into our room to do something quickly (it has now occurred to me this is obviously part of their scam). I made it very clear no one was to enter our room under any circumstances and that if the electrician had to go in he could do so in my presence. Seemingly it was suddenly no longer necessary for the electrician to go in and uneasily I left the key at reception. ||Upon our return at about 10pm we were confronted by a new member of staff. He refused to give us our key and demanded immediate payment for the nights stay. This seemed like a stalling tactic to me to delay us going to our room. I protested that we had arranged to pay in the morning and I didn't have enough cash anyway. After much arguing and changing opinion countless times the staff member agreed we could pay 100bs with balance payable in the morning. However when he refused to give me a receipt I realised I would undoubtedly have problems in the morning. So despite the late hour we went in search of an ATM and returned with the remainder of the money. Once we had the full amount he decided he would finally be able to issue a receipt. ||After a very long time we finally got to our room and abandoned the idea of storing our luggage at the hostel while we did a salt flat trip (not least because of the smiles on the staff's faces when they informed us they provided such a service). ||During our stay we had nothing stolen but encountered very bad staff and highly suspicious behaviour. Having read the reviews I completely believe that theft would not only be possible but also deviously planned at management level to prey on unsuspecting tourists. I realise that we were very fortunate nothing worse happened during our stay. I really would advise against staying here as it's just not worth the risk. ||Oh yeah, and the shower...

Trusting the last edition of the Lonely Planet, we stayed in this hostal around 10 nights in april & may 2013 in between different treks and visits of regions of Bolivia. With my wife and 9yrs old daughter. ||We could had a good price (offseason) for a 4 beds room and lot of windows. 155 bolivianos, so around 21$. The hostal is well situated in the middle of the oldtown in a correct steet. Everything semed to be fine at first. The guy with the hat (there's 2 working) was there the most of our sejour.||Then at the end of our sejour, I noticed that some money +or- 150-200$ had disapeared from the sidewallet (the kind you carry under your shirt or pants).||By coincidence, the previous day, I also saw a guy running from upstairs (where our room was) and the Luis (the guy with the hat) told me he let him in just to go to the shared bathroom...||This guy was in fact a salesman we met the night before and he works just next door from the hotel. We even bought stuff from him. ||Things satrted to smell pretty bad. I talk to the manager who listened to me very nicely and did naturally nothing...||We believe Luis and the salesman worked together to scam people, get into there room or at least ours and steal unaware travellers. Check the other reviews and you'll know what I mean !||We we,re really stupid to keep money in our room, but the wallets we're hided, so it means they really went trghough our room to find it. They also stole the money in a way you dont notice it unless you count it every night. Little by little...||In a way, its our 100% fault. We should have been much more cautious and check our $ everyday. But we didin't since we had 0 problem for the 3 months we travelled in Colombia, peru and Bolivia.||So, be aware : LADRONS (thieves in this hostal) Avoid at...

We stayed at this hotel because it was recommended by travel agency we had chosen for a trek. It seemed good value for money, though the electric shower was nightmarish - the water was barely warm and the room was quite dark. ||Most importantly, we had very bad experience when some of our things that we left in the hotel deposit were stolen. I went here to warn other travellers and I'm discovering that we were not the only ones, that is a already a good reason to avoid the place at any cost.||Our case was similar as the previous: we stayed for 2 nights, then left our things in a deposit and left for a trek, staying there again afterwards for another night. Then we left for another trek, coming back 3 days later but only to pick up our luggage and leave to the bus station. We also have explained our plans to the guys working there. We came, picked our things up and left. Later we discovered that quite a lot of small things were missing. Not items like camera but all the trekking food (dehydrated soups, protein and carb bars for climbing, nail scissors which were in a small plastic bag inside a toilet case so they really went through it carefuly, T-shirt, handkerchiefs, toilet paper - a lot of small stuff that would go unnoticed at first glance and not worth coming back and complaining. ||I was glad that none of real valuable functional textiles went missing and we didn't leave money or any valuables, but this sneaky and well though-through way of doing was really disgusting. Please do yourself a favour and don't...