Hostal Serena — Hotel in Municipio Samaipata

Warning: the host may try to scam you.

TLDR: owner tried to extort more money out of us including by emotional manipulation. Many other problems faced by us and others (scroll to end for summary), DO NOT RECOMMEND!

Get ready for a long review...

I usually try to book hostels directly but due to the hostel being almost full when we were trying to book, I booked through Booking.com instead. Here, I had the prices listed in Bolivianos because, well, the hostel is in Bolivia.

Upon booking, it was confirmed that though the official price is in USD, paying at the official exchange rate in Bs is acceptable.

I have seen this many times while being in Bolivia so thought nothing of it.

It is, however, worth noting that the hostel is already around twice the price of all the other hostels we have stayed in while in Bolivia and much more expensive than the other hostel in Samaipata.

We booked for a 3 bed dorm and the dorm itself was nice (although the bunk bed seemed to be child sized with a miniscule ladder and no support for climbing) but the two toilets and one shower (shared between, I believe, 9 people) were about 30m away outside, which was not fun during the night. The shower was also fairly dirty.

The real problem began the night before we left when Bert, the owner, tried to scam us.

I will round the numbers but he claimed we could either pay $110 or 950 Bs rather than the $110 or 750 Bs we agreed on when booking.

After disputing this with him, he oh so kindly agreed to drop the price to 900 Bs.

This caused needless additional stress, ruined the final night of our time in Samaipata and, I believe, had a negative impact on my sleep that night.

It was only after calling Booking.com who emailed Bert confirming that 750 Bs is the agreed price that he said it was acceptable to pay that, but he included some emotional manipulation in his voice message talking about how inflation and the parallel exchange rate has caused problems to Bolivians, but here's the kicker: BERT ISN'T BOLIVIAN.

Bert is a wealthy (relative to others in Bolivia) Dutch man who moved to Bolivia. He may claim to have Bolivians best interests at heart but he was seen being disrespectful to the cleaner (who was lovely) so I highly doubt he does.

If he has problems with the exchange rate used on Booking, why is he still listing his property there? I understand that Booking take a massive commission but again, DON'T LIST THERE!

It's disgraceful that he takes out his problems with Booking on paying customers.

Anyway, some of the additional issues:

Breakfast, each person got a miniscule amount of scrambled egg that seemed to be half an egg diluted with loads of milk, some people even had to share this tiny amount. Not what you expect when paying this much money.

Swimming pool is about 6 inches of stagnant water, certainly not what is advertised.

Dorms are highly unsafe as the front gate does not lock and neither do the dorm doors. Further, our dorm was very close to the entrance so literally anyone could walk in to it to steal stuff or attack us. I don't think there's CCTV either.

On Booking, it says there's a free airport shuttle. We were suspicious of this when booking and were right to be, it doesn't exist. More false advertising from Bert.

Not as directly Bert's fault but it's a 20 minute uphill unlit walk to the hostel from where buses drop you off, this is a big challenge at night as there are no taxis by then.

Three positives: the view over the city the homemade jam and peanut butter at breakfast are great the cleaner and the volunteer when we were there were both lovely, I felt bad for the cleaner because Bert was seen being so disrespectful to her

Finally, this isn't just us who felt this way. Almost everyone staying at the same time as us had major problems too and we were all very unsure why Bert himself has such glowing praise in other reviews.

Overall: the owner's very stingy and is constantly trying to find ways to cut costs/make money to the detriment of the guests who are already paying an...

Recently stayed at Hostal Serena after being recommended by a fellow traveller.

This was a mixed experience and I am going to mention the positives and negatives.

The positives

Great breakfast and kitchen staff Beautiful garden and animals Friendly and helpful volunteers

The negatives

Accessibility - The hostel was a 20 minute walk from the centre of town. No available taxis in town in the evning and due to the rain the roads were in very poor conditions with lots of large puddles.

The cleanliness of the room - It seemed that the room had not been cleaned for months with dead bugs and cockroaches in multiple locations and cobwebs.

The electrical sockets in the room did not function.

For the price we paid which was more than double the cost of most other hostels in Bolivia after visiting multiple hostels in several cities / towns in Bolivia over a 2 month period, the room was not up to the standard expected for the premium price we paid.

We provided the feedback to the owner and hope he can take the feedback on and make the relevant improvements to make the room more pleasant for...

This is a lovely place to stay with a beautiful view, amazing garden and a great people. The volunteers were fantastic and friendly, the owner Bert is a lovely man who is super friendly and helpful providing all the information you need!

I really loved the vibe of the hostel and appreciated the multiple homemade marmalades and peanut butter at breakfast. The hostel also offers wonderful craft beer which is nice to try.

The hostel is a 10 minute walk from town but honestly it’s not a hassle at all as it is compensated for by the wonderful location.

To be frank, Samaipata is a relatively quiet town and there’s not much ‘party’ but that’s completely okay. At this hostel I met some wonderful people and after those wonderful people left I met even more! I think you’ll enjoy it and there’s a good intimate social vibe where we even went to local bar one night with the volunteers who I will repeat are fantastic (Chris and Lara).

I recommend this hostel, it’s slightly pricey if you’ve come from Bolivian cities but given the time I had I believe it was...