Hostal Kirckir — Hotel in San Pedro de Atacama

I was very surprised to check in here to see very different accommodations / atmosphere than is advertised. I booked a quad and it was extremely small, not the cleanest and was very stuffy / smelly. The lockers were not in the room as it was made to appear in the pictures, but in the main common area (and not nearly big enough to fit an average sized backpacking backpack). The bathrooms were a far cry from clean. Everything felt dingy and dirty, to the point that after checking in I went into town to find another place to stay. Not to mention the location is a bit far out from the main part of town, and being a female solo traveler it was far enough that I wouldn’t feel comfortable walking back alone at night. When I told the reception staff I would like to cancel my stay, he was very gruff and gave me quite the hard time about getting my money back - even though I had just paid him an hour ago. The best part of this experience was the fact that he eventually came around and helped me cancel the reservation and returned my money. But even after this, he accused me of using the shower and “getting away” with doing this for free (when I never used the shower or any of the facilities). This is the first negative review I’ve ever written, but I felt obligated to let others know since the reviews seem to harshly contrast the reality I experienced here! I decided on this hostel since it was reviewed as a top choice on Trip Advisor in 2019 - I could have just had an exceptionally bad experience, but nonetheless felt like I should share, especially when considering the above average...

We stayed in the private room with private bathroom. The bed and pillows were super comfortable, the amenities were perfect for our use (mini fridge in the room with access to the kitchen to heat up food), small pool & hammocks in the courtyard for maximum lounging. Breakfast was buffet style for cold items (cereal, bread, fruit juices, yogurt,sliced cheese & meat), and there was a really sweet woman cooking scrambled eggs on demand as guests arrived to the kitchen. The wifi was FAST, we had hot water at any time of the day, and the front desk was always staffed with someone willing to help answer questions. One morning we were due to be picked up insanely early for a tour (around 5am), and when we entered the lobby to check for our ride out front, a staff member was sleeping on the couch, i think to make sure that we didn't miss our pickup. It was incredibly thoughtful. He even had a brown paper bag of juice and cold cereal to send us with, since we would be missing breakfast at the hostel that day. Last but not least, I must give the loudest shoutout to the girl who cleaned our room each morning. My boyfriend and I are a complete mess when we travel and I am still embarrassed at how we left all of our clothes strewn all over the room and returned to see a shiny clean room with our clothes folded neatly, even our stash of snacks was organized and stacked perfectly on top of the...

Be aware, the 2 bedroom apartments are completely separate to the hostel in a different area of town. When we booked on booking.com it wasn’t clear they weren’t in the same place so we arrived at the hostel. It’s maybe a 10-15min walk between them, so you don’t get the benefit of the pool / casual area. You’re allowed to use them, but you have to get there yourself. When we were there in early December 2017, they were still building the apartments, and have builders making so much noise from about 11am till 8pm at night. They were right above us and it kept sounding like the ceiling was about the fall in. Not exactly a recipe for a nice relaxing stay which is what we were looking for. We asked them to be more considerate but no-one bothered to listen. We complained and asked for a discount as it really affected our time there, the lady was pretty rude about it and gave a token discount that was hardly worth it. The WiFi was also rubbish. |Once the building is complete they will be nice but I still think overpriced. Water filter is provided which is really appreciated and the breakfast was very good and delivered to the apartment in the morning. Bit of a walk into the...