Hotel Koala Inn — Hotel in Pasto

I went with my Colombian boyfriend to this hotel (hostel?) and unfortunately the staff was immediately very racist against him. They literally told me they would rather prefer gringos, probably because they pay without complaining about everything that is wrong with this hotel. They didn't even let him borrow a simple spoon from the kitchen. They were very curious and constantly listening to our conversations.||||But what shocked me most is that they told me to leave him (in English, so he wouldn't understand it), only because he made some comments on the hostel. While I'm normally too lazy to write a review, this definitely made me do it. It's just the craziest thing I've ever experienced in a hostel and it's very very wrong to do this as staff.||||Besides this, there are much more things wrong with this hotel:||||- VERY outdated and it definitely needs a good renovation. The staff is working there for 25 years now and they told me that nothing ever changed since then.||- Everything is old, including the beds. The mattresses are completely worn out. The mattress protectors are too small so they slide off when you're sleeping, which means you wake up every morning lying on a dirty old mattress.||- The room details in Booking promise a whole list of room facilities, but for us this turned out to be a lie: in reality there was no television neither towels and the 'desk' wasn't bigger than a bedside table.||- It's a hotel (hostel? still not sure) for backpackers and they do have a kitchen, but they don't allow you to use it. ||- The bathrooms smell like fungus, the shower curtains are literally black, and the toilet isn't regularly cleaned. ||||I really don't understand why this hostel is also listed in Lonely Planet.. Probably because there is a lack of other hostels in Pasto (which is a very negative city).||||It's a cheap accommodation, but expensive in comparison to what...

To be fair, Luis, who checked me in, is a good-natured chap, and it was cheap enough.|Therafter, a cuddly symbol of Oz it ain't. Zero personality. Functional as a base I suppose, though for what I don't know. Pasto is antimatter Popayan. Las Lajas was a dramatic objective as a day trip, and Ipiales if anything was even grimmer & colder, so back to the plate of congealed Pasto it was. |First night in Pasto I at least found an okayish restaurant near one of the hum-ho plazas, followed by a convivial bar. On a Sunday it took an hour to find one fried chicken place open, the only place not on lockdown. We're talking September last year, not Coronuary 2020.|The day after there was only one road to take to escape: ''The Trampoline of Death'' to Mocoa. At least it got blood pumping through the...

Koala Inn is a cute little hostel on a busy road, but with a lovely colonial interior. My room didn't have a window but this didn't bother me given that it was only US$8 for a private. I arrived early and was able to check straight into my room, and then welcomed with a cup of coffee. There are not many options in Pasto but this was great - lovely staff, great location, clean, good wifi and hot water in the bathroom. The only downside was that other guests were up early and making lots of noise (e.g. loud phone calls) on the balcony, and as all rooms face onto a courtyard with open balconies I was woken very early. I thought staff could have done more to manage this. Otherwise a great bargain...