Hostal Boutique Merced 88 — Hotel in Santiago

I booked 9 nights in this hostel thinking that it was a place well located. As soon as I arrived, on January 1st 2020, I could tell that things were not as expected because the front of the Hostel was full of graffiti. As soon as I arrived I asked the attendant how was the situation of Santiago and if I were safe and the answer was:||Oh this is all in TV, you have nothing to worry about. ||After two nights there I could tell you a whole different story. ||On January 3rd, when I was coming back to rest at 8h p.m I was surprised with a huge manifestation nearly 7 minutes away from the hostel. The police was throwing a lot of tear gas on the streets to try to control the protests. My eyes were hurting... When I was almost arriving at the hostel I recognised that protestors were actually throwing rocks at the Hostel and I couldn't control the nerves. There was also a fire nearby the Hostel and because of everything I had to walk around and even ask for refuge inside a beverage store. That shows how things were really bad. And the Hostel was still receiving new guests everyday since nothing was being said. ||Other days I would receive masks while walking on the streets. This only happened in this area of Santiago, known as the "Ground Zero" or "Ponto Zero".||I already had another place to stay in Santiago were no manifestations were going on and I asked for the refund for the 3 nights I had already paid (way earlier in November). I was told by the attendant that I would get the refund directly on my credit card, so far nothing has come in. So I am here to let everyone know about how things works in this Hostel. They already knew that things were really bad since there were pieces of wood protecting all the windows of the Hostel. ||||I would not recommend anyone to stay there. As you can see, there is a lack of communication between guests and...

Stayed two nights. Had a private room with a private bath across the hall.

This location is a short walk from the Baquedano Station on the Metro Red Line train. I never rented a car, nor took a taxi during my trip. You can fill a Bip! card (Metro card) with pesos for trips and take a Metro bus to one of a few Metro train stations from the SCL airport. Private buses do the same for a bit more, but still economical.

Merced 88 is named for its address, so that is convenient. You do have to look specifically for it because there are no signs indicating a hostel is there. Not sure why, but I suppose it keeps vagrants from besieging the place. I never saw anyone that looked like they did not belong, so it works.

The staff is very friendly and helpful. They also have volunteers who clean and do other tasks there in exchange for staying there. They are very conscientious and friendly as well. They are mostly from outside of Chile and frequently have interesting stories. While I did not get a shared room, I do not think I would hesitate in doing so.

As for cleanliness, I had no issues. The only thing is the strange scent in the bathroom. It is obviously clean, and I believe it may just be an "old building" odor as the building appears to be renovated, built long ago. If they could eradicate it, that would be great. However, it would certainly not stop me from returning as it is a minor issue. Oh, the towel rack was partially pulled out of the wall, but still functional.

Some of my pics are from the rooftop bar at night. They have some food up there, and drinks. Casual atmosphere. And the statue is right across the street, a good visual landmark to know you are in the right place.

Summary: I would go back and recommend it. Quiet and...

So, stating a valid review where we had a bad experience , not just in the city, in YOUR HOSTEL, because the staff is definitely NOT well trained to deal with guests under stressful situations, such as the fact there´s tear gas 24/7 just centimeters away from the door and wanting our money back because even when WE SENT MANY E-MAILS once started to watch the news about the protests, and NEVER HAD A REPLY, is over reacting?||||This says it all, the administration of this place is a joke, we reached out toy your staff members (one of them seemed stoned the whole time and was unhelpful), they never gave us a solution neither a answer, even when we talked to the teenage girl self called "manager" of the place we just had negatives. You guys were rude and didn´t care about the safety and guest´s experience, Maybe is normal for you having this kind of demostrations, to the point you dare to call them "music festivals" when people have died; for us was a scary situation the whole time, because on contrary you just said, it wasn´t safe to go out during the majority of the day.||||Rude and unprofessional to call my review an "over reaction" when you guys have similar comments on other sites regarding this specific scenario. I strongly suggest people to AVOID THIS PLACE, which is a shame, because they have a nice layout, but looking at the way they decide to resolve complains,reason why we chose a different hostel this second time around. Plenty of better and cheaper options around, with actual competent and...