Hostal Cordillera — Hotel in Punta Arenas

My partner and I stayed in the Hostal Cordillera in a double room with private bathroom over the course of 2 nights in December. Here are a few of my thoughts surrounding this place.||||PROS||ROOMS - Although definitely on the smaller side they had comfortable beds and were cleaned daily.||HOT WATER - Works well||WIFI - Worked well and is fast but did drop out from time to time||TOURS - The desk does a booking service which was convenient as we were able to book a tour to Tierra Del Fugo and the Penguino Ray penguin colony (King penguins, not the Magdalen penguins) with Selnuk which is a company with decent ratings on tripadvisoer.||||CONS||COST - This is probably a bit harsh, as all of Punta Arenas is expensive but it cost 76USD a night. Note you need to pay in a foreign currency (usually USD) and present your passport at time of payment to avoid the 19% VAT tax on foreigners.||SMALL - The room was very tiny with the double bed taking up 2/3rds of it||LOCATION - About a 15 minute walk from the centre of town. The walk was particularly unpicturesque. Given the bus stop is in the town centre it is within walking distance. Need a cab to get to the airport (see below).||NO WINDOW - Just a skylight although there is no ability to close this and over the long summer hours it interupted our sleep.||BREAKFAST - Very average even for South America's low standards. Seems they just leave some very old pastries in a fridge for several days. Not only are they quite stale but the hygiene is questionable at best.||NON MULTILINGUAL - Although friendly most of the staff don't speak any English.||||CONSIDERATIONS||TAXI WAS LATE - We pre-ordered a taxi the night before to the airport for the flat rate of 8000CP. However our taxi was 20 minutes late so you might want to factor this in when booking.||ODD EXCHANGE RATE - I think they need to update the exchange rate displayed on their counter which displayed 552CP for 1USD, although when you pay you are charged the daily rate (in our case 706CP for 1USD). This was confusing.|| ||Overall a few pros and a few cons. It's not the best but the accommodation on offer in punta arenas is limited and overpriced due to it's location as a...

"C- hotel with dishonest owners. Travelers avoid."

We booked a double room for 4 nights off of their website for $50,000CL per night, with the 19% IVA tax included. Foreigners are exempted from this tax in Chile. Hostels generally show the full price, and then remove the tax when you show your immigration slip on arrival and make the payment.

When we arrived to check in, we were told, repeatedly, if we paid with our credit card in USD, there would be no tax.

At the time I am writing this, $50,000CL is $62USD, yet we were STILL charged $65USD per night. We argued in both bad Spanish and bad English til we were sick of them lying to our faces, assuring us there was no tax, even as I held a calculator in my hand, using the exchange rate they gave me, to show them their own scam. "There is no tax", which was technically true because they charged us EVEN more than the taxes amount and presumably just pocketed the extra.

The hotel itself is third tier at best, even if they didn't lie and steal. Rooms are tiny. Breakfast supposedly lasts until 10am, but every day by 9:30am it was totally picked over and you had to practically beg for some more bread to put in the toaster that didn't work. Constant hammering and construction during the day made a nap or quiet time impossible.

Making matters worse, our ferry from Puerto William's was delayed by an entire night so we missed the first night of our reservation. We contacted them as soon as we knew, 36 hour before to try and change the reservation. They did not respond until the morning after we finally arrived, and while they were within their policy to do so, all I will say is that we spoke to 10 other groups on the TABSA ferry, and we were literally the only people who got charged for the night they missed.

So, the lesson is to be smarter than us like those other 10 groups and stay ABSOLUTELY ANYWHERE ELSE if you come to...

We booked a double room for 4 nights off of their website for $50,000CL, with the 19% IVA tax included. Foreigners are exempted from this tax in Chile. Hostels generally show the full price, and then remove the tax when you show your immigration skip on arrival and make the payment.||||When we arrived to check in, we were told, repeatedly, if we paid with our credit card in USD, there would be no tax.||||At the time I am writing this, $50,000CL is $62USD, yet we were STILL charged $65USD per night. We argued in both bad Spanish and bad English til we were sick of them lying to our faces, assuring us there was no tax, even as I held a calculator in my hand, using the exchange rate they gave me, to show them their own scam. "There is no tax", which was technically true because they charged us EVEN more than the taxes amount and presumably just pocketed the extra.||||The hotel itself is third tier at best, even if they didn't lie and steal. Rooms are tiny. Breakfast supposedly lasts until 10am, but every day by 9:30am it was totally picked over and you had to practically beg for some more bread to put in the toaster that didn't work. Constant hammering and construction during the day made a nap or quiet time impossible.||||Making matters worse, our ferry from Puerto William's was delayed by an entire night so we missed the first night of our reservation. We contacted them as soon as we knew, 36 hour before to try and change the reservation. They did not respond until the morning after we finally arrived, and while they were within their policy to do so, all I will say is that we spoke to 10 other groups on the TABSA ferry, and we were literally the only people who got charged for the night they missed.||||So, the lesson is to be smarter than us like those other 10 groups and stay ABSOLUTELY ANYWHERE ELSE if you come to...