Havana Hostel & Dance School — Hotel in Cali

In late-April of 2024 I decided to go and scout the city of Cali ahead of my eventual relocation. At first I had booked and AirBnB, but it turned out to be a bad fit (and there was some false advertisement involved).

I posted my situation in a Cali WhatsApp group chat (housing), and was quickly contacted by the Manager of Havana Hostal. He told me about it, and offered to show me around. The next day I visited, and he did just that. They have TONS of rooms: some single rooms, some self-contained units (basically relatively spacious apartestudios) complete with a private bathroom and a private outdoor kitchen. The MULTIPLE public areas were also nice and well-tended.

Boris said that since it was the "low season", he could offer me a discount for an apartestudio. I liked what I saw and heard, and the next day again I came, paid for the month of May, got my keys, and moved in the same day.

Throughout my 1-month stay, the front desk staff was nice, polite, and helpful (special shout-out to Fernando the English-speaking administrator, what a guy)! The hostel offers paid room cleaning and laundry services. The former was not within my tight budget, but I did use the laundry service once (the results were fine). They FUMIGATE every once in a while, which probably explains why there were practically no bugs crawling around the place, in contrast with almost every other AirBnB where I have stayed in Colombia.

I saw and interacted with some of the fellow travelers, all were youths in their 20s and early 30s (as one would expect). I was all like, "How do you do, fellow kids!?" 😄 Fortunately, all the kids with whom I interacted had a sense of humor, and all but one spoke English. Many travel stories and jokes were shared.

It is a dance school, so once in a while there was music and noise from the smaller dance studio very close to my unit. However, the noise was never overwhelming, and never continued past 10PM, which means my sleep was never interrupted. Note: the walls are KINDA thin, so if there are other guests in the opposite unit, be considerate and keep your speakers on low volume as often as possible. I had mine on "normal" (not too loud at all) and one day I woke up to find a note at my door... I felt sooo baaaaad! 🙈

Havana Hostal is well-located. There's a well-equipped and MODERN Fitness24Seven gym about 10 minutes away (factoring in the time you need to cross 2 major roads), a restaurant, a pizzeria, and a cafe next door, a corner mini-grocery store diagonally across the building, a D1 within 3 short blocks, a Carulla supermarket 2 more blocks beyond that, and many other small shops all around. Barbershops, fruit stands, McDonalds (or was it Burger King? I forgot) etc. All you have to do is walk in any direction and within half a kilometer you will find basically almost everything a normal North American tourist/expat would need (and THEN some).

Regarding transportation... Rappi, Uber, and InDriver drivers seem to know this business really well, so that wasn't a problem. Also, there's a MIO bus station 1 block away, that took me directly to two faraway shopping centers in opposite directions.

Anyway, I stayed for the whole month, and I really liked it. One can tell that the owner caters to travelers and has a high standard of service! I really appreciate that! When I return to Cali, I'll try to stay at Havana Hostal again while looking for a...

This review is specifically for their social dance class and social dancing. My friend and I went to their bachata night and had the most unprofessional and disappointing experience. Both of us have been dancing for a few years across different countries and we have never been treated this way.

They require a test for students to attend intermediate class, which is unheard of but we were fine with it. However, when we went to the test, that's when things got really weird. There was a woman who was not even able to follow most of the warmup moves and clearly an early beginner who got approved for intermediate class. When the instructor got to us, he said we could not qualify and also disqualified everyone after us. This is utterly bizarre. If only advanced level dancers can pass, we wouldn't have a problem with it. But the fact that the teacher passed a clear beginner but failed us is unprofessional.

He said we had to go to the beginner class. See, if we were sent to a class that actually teaches movements we need to improve on, that would have been great. We appreciate any opportunity to learn. However, we were sent to beginner 101. We have been dancing for several years and beginner 101 was not a good use of our time at all.

When we raised this issue with one of the staff members, he couldn't care less. The professional response would be "we will discuss this internally and hope to improve in the future". From my years of experience in organizations, it has been proven again that bad culture starts from the top and this is again the case.

The social dancing was empty by 9:30 and we encountered quite a few dancers who treated us unprofessionally as well. We were so excited to dance in Cali while we stayed here, but unfortunately this place made the experience extremely disappointing.

The hostel itself is pretty. So make a judgment yourself based on other reviews regarding the rooms. But if you are here to dance, or follow the @bachateroscali account and hope to attend their classes and events, be mindful this could be your experience.

We did really like the female teacher who taught the beginner class although we didn't learn anything, she was the only sweet and...

This review is specifically for their social dance class and social dancing. My friend and I went to their bachata night and had the most unprofessional and disappointing experience. Both of us have been dancing for a few years across different countries and we have never been treated this way.||They require a test for students to attend intermediate class, which is unheard of but we were fine with it. However, when we went to the test, that's when things got really weird. There was a woman who was not even able to follow most of the warmup moves and clearly an early beginner who got approved for intermediate class. When the instructor got to us, he said we could not qualify and also disqualified everyone after us. This is utterly bizarre. If only advanced level dancers can pass, we wouldn't have a problem with it. But the fact that the teacher passed a clear beginner but failed us is unprofessional.||He said we had to go to the beginner class. See, if we were sent to a class that actually teaches movements we need to improve on, that would have been great. We appreciate any opportunity to learn. However, we were sent to beginner 101. We have been dancing for several years and beginner 101 was not a good use of our time at all.||When we raised this issue with one of the staff members, he couldn't care less. The professional response would be "we will discuss this internally and hope to improve in the future". From my years of experience in organizations, it has been proven again that bad culture starts from the top and this is again the case.||The social dancing was empty by 9:30 and we encountered quite a few dancers who treated us unprofessionally as well. We were so excited to dance in Cali while we stayed here, but unfortunately this place made the experience extremely disappointing.||The hostel itself is pretty. So make a judgment yourself based on other reviews regarding the rooms. But if you are here to dance, or follow the @bachateroscali account and hope to attend their classes and events, be mindful this could be your experience.||We did really like the female teacher who taught the beginner class although we didn't learn anything, she was the only sweet and...