Hostal La Florida — Hotel in San Pedro de Atacama

The only good thing about this place is it's location. Multiple things done appallingly bad. Firstly, I was not able to pay for my stay with card. It is cash only which seems very dodgy for a hostel. The next bad thing was that I had to wait 20 minutes for my room key, with the person at the front desk first giving me the wrong key to my room, and then proceeding to try 4 other keys before I was given the correct one. He didn't even apologise for making me wait. The showers did not seem clean and there was nowhere to put your clothes in the tiny cubicles. There was no hot water when I had a shower. The private room was small and the curtains let a lot of light in which meant I was woken early in the morning, which is not good considering it cost 35000CLP. The hostel was not tidy and seemed in a state of disrepair. No breakfast included, some hot water for tea only. The worst thing was when I tried to organise a taxi to the Calama airport. The staff member who organised it communicated very very poorly regarding my options, walked off when I needed help and then tried to make me organise it myself by giving me a WhatsApp number for someone. When I called them they were not even a taxi driver. Then, as I was about to book a taxi service myself online, he told me that the transfer would be 60,000CLP and had just arrived. When I entered the car, the driver said the fare would be 100,000CLP. It was made clear to me later by one of my friends in the hostel that this was not even the taxi service the person at the hotel had booked. So I was basically robbed 40,000CLP (50USD) because of the staff member's terrible communication. Only after I had left, my friend told me that the taxi driver had arrived. I am still furious about this. Further to this, none of the staff spoke any English at the hostel despite having a high number of native English speakers staying. Do yourself a favour and avoid this place like the plague. Truly...

The only good thing about this place is it's location. Multiple things done appallingly bad. Firstly, I was not able to pay for my stay with card. It is cash only which seems very dodgy for a hostel. The next bad thing was that I had to wait 20 minutes for my room key, with the person at the front desk first giving me the wrong key to my room, and then proceeding to try 4 other keys before I was given the correct one. He didn't even apologise for making me wait. The showers did not seem clean and there was nowhere to put your clothes in the tiny cubicles. There was no hot water when I had a shower. The private room was small and the curtains let a lot of light in which meant I was woken early in the morning, which is not good considering it cost 35000CLP. The hostel was not tidy and seemed in a state of disrepair. No breakfast included, some hot water for tea only. The worst thing was when I tried to organise a taxi to the Calama airport. The staff member who organised it communicated very very poorly regarding my options, walked off when I needed help and then tried to make me organise it myself by giving me a WhatsApp number for someone. When I called them they were not even a taxi driver. Then, as I was about to book a taxi service myself online, he told me that the transfer would be 60,000CLP and had just arrived. When I entered the car, the driver said the fare would be 100,000CLP. It was made clear to me later by one of my friends in the hostel that this was not even the taxi service the person at the hotel had booked. So I was basically robbed 40,000CLP (50USD) because of the staff member's terrible communication. Only after I had left, my friend told me that the taxi driver had arrived. I am still furious about this. Further to this, none of the staff spoke any English at the hostel despite having a high number of native English speakers staying....

I have to give this hostel without a doubt a 5 stars for their professionalism, effort, and hospitality. Not only were they unbelievably accommodating in my stay, they went above and beyond to help me. But before I get to that I want to mention that the rooms were clean, they were knowledgeable about things to do in the area, and helped me connect to the internet so that I could work remotely. (It was incredibly hard to do and have consistent internet being in the desert. The internet in the hostel was fine, it simply wasn't compatible with my company's VPN, so they directed me to the public library which worked great.)

But these guys worked with me for about two months AFTER I checked out of the hostel. I left my glasses, and Mauro, Aaron, and I think the other guy's name was Jose, that worked at the other Hostal Rural, and there were two women that worked at La Florida whose names I'm forgetting now, but they were the ABSOLUTE BEST. I left my glasses and Mauro and the team worked with me to ensure I received them. I had scheduled a Fedex Pickup from America, and they CONSISTENTLY followed up with me to ensure everything was alright and that I got my glasses. There were a lot of mistakes on Fedex's part, but they did so much for me I can't thank them enough. The folks that work here are a fantastic...