THE MANGO TREE HOSTEL 4:20 — Hotel in Cartagena

Stayed there at the end of 2023.

All workers are very nice, helpful and friendly (5). That’s the only reason I am increasing to 2 instead of 1*.

The bed in the dormitory doesn’t have enough wooden boards under the mattress. As soon as I arrived, I commented that it will collapse, and that’s exactly what happened in the night. I am more on a skinny side when it comes to weight so I don’t know what would happen if there was someone with few extra kilos. Luckily there was no one under me when this happened or the person could be injured. After the incident, one of workers tried to convince me to sleep there again, but I said that I don’t want to, it is seriously risky for both, the person under and me, and to find me another bed. He wanted to put me in the room with other 5 guys, but then the other lady who works there said that I could share “a private” room with 2 other workers. I accepted, and it was great decision. The bed was much more comfortable. I slept whole night nicely.

Dormitories are to small for six people and with no fresh air + you can hear literally everything in front of the room. There is window, which can’t really be used, because if you open it - it will look on a hallway where everyone are constantly walking.

Dormitory beds are uncomfortable and noisy. One of the fans in the room was creating loud noise.

Pillow was full of mold. Please, check under the pillow case. I immediately moved it away from my bed.

Rooms, bathrooms and the kitchen are not cleaned properly. I noticed the same peace of rubbish (food waste) on he floor from the late afternoon till the morning. There was no toilet paper in the afternoon or evening in the both bathrooms (however, I asked and got one roll). The soap is mixed with water. The water tap doesn’t work in one bathroom.

Medium size lockers exist (it can fit smaller backpack). I don’t know how safe they are because they are not located near the reception. You need your own locker.

There is a shelf with books. You can exchange books. That’s nice.

I decided to skip the breakfast as I really didn’t like how the kitchen and everything looks like. Another contributing factor was the soap is mixed with water so I can’t trust hygienic habits of whoever is preparing the breakfast.

Area around the hostel: I walked from the hostel to the historical town. It has a lot of garbage on the floor. It seems safer than in Bogotá, but pay attention, in the night is dark and there are some weird people every now and then. Rather use Uber or some other taxi.

Price of the dormitory is about 6 usd per night, with the breakfast.

I am writing this review out of good intention. I highly recommend to owners to invest some money (or at least to come there and do deep cleaning alone) and ensure healthy human conditions. The point shouldn’t be to just put bunch of people in the room for a cheap price but to provide comfort, even if it means increasing the general price per night. It is unacceptable to provide the pillow with mold, and direct harm towards someone’s health. You HAVE TO check all the beds, make sure they are stable (not breaking, not heavily shaking when other person climbs the bed) and not making noise which can disturb other people in the room, ideally you should ensure there is a natural ventilation or/and change windows/main door for less noise, repair everything that has to be repaired in bathroom, have all the time soap and toilet paper, properly clean the hostel. And so on.

If anything, as I said, all workers...

Super friendly staff. The Argentinian voluntee always smiling amd helpful. There are 3 bathrooms (shower with toilet) for the whole hostel. They seem to be frequently cleaned but so many times no toilet paper and the owners always leave a towel on the basin instead of having it up . but frankly it's NOT hygienic everyone cleaning hands same towel. put paper towels!! doors at first very smelly but due to guests it seems. female dorm they created just behin reception was quiet at night though in the morning one time woke up and my whole bed full of ants!!. communal kitchen is not really good for more than one person to prepare food at one time. not very clean either. large communal area but mainly for those who like to smoke substances. also whole I was there there was a guest totally high and abusive to both guests and staff and still the staff not kick him out. they didn't care much about safety of guests, their money came first!! it was cheap. 30k a night for 5 bed female dorm. needs a lot of small improvements. location is 15min walk to centro historico but have to pass a very dodgy tip sight where lots of homeless and very smelly. in daytime ok. at night maybe some foreigners feel a bit iffy the area. 10 min in...

The host Oscar was a nice guy and arranged a nice tour for us. Apart from that, the stay was very uncomfortable. We had the 2-person room. The matrass was so old that we laid on the wooden planks and it smelled. The floor was dirty and never cleaned. It was so hot and we wanted to open the window, but the insect screen was broken. We had no choice to sleep with the window closed, but we slept very bad because of that. We asked two times to repair the window, but it never was repaired good. The bathroom was also very dirty and there was fungus and half of the time there was no toiletpaper. The cleaning lady dropped a few drops of chlorine here and there, to give a clean smell, but it was not clean. On the table where we had breakfast, there where many ants and flies. We booked and paid for 8 nights, but left...