Cacao Hostel — Hotel in Santa Marta

I recently booked a stay at Cacao Hostel in Santa Marta, but unfortunately, my experience was extremely disappointing. Upon arrival, I found that the room was far smaller than expected, had no windows, and had a strong unpleasant smell. There was barely any space to move, let alone enter comfortably with my backpack. Given these poor conditions, I decided not to stay.

The location of the hostel is sketchy, I wasn't feeling safe when walking by myself during the day.

Despite immediately expressing my dissatisfaction and choosing to leave, the manager still charged me for one night 39 100.00 COP, refusing to offer any flexibility or understanding of the situation. I believe this is unfair, as the accommodation did not meet reasonable standards for comfort or hygiene.

Double check before you book the hostel because you don't want to find yourself in a similar situation.

In the response you forgot to mention that you charged me even though 5 mins later you sold the bed to another girl right in front of my. It's ok, keep my 10USD. I agree, I could have stayed in a private room but I wasn't even offered an alternative by the staff. Besides the so called safe residential neighborhood was so safe that I was afraid to walk by myself. The old lady helped me and she guided my to the hostel as she said I should not be walking alone there. The way people were eyeing me up was not making me feel safe at all.

Anyway, I'm grateful for the very useless response and wish you all the best...

We booked the playa Cristal tour through the hostel and were very disappointed as our experience was very different to what the hostel staff had described. We were told by the man on the front desk that a tour bus with an English speaking guide would collect us and take us to the beach, that we could pay by card and that lunch was included- none of this happened. We were collected by a taxi and the driver asked for the full payment in cash right then. He took us to the pier where another man told us we were getting on a boat and that we had to pay extra things that the hostel told us were included. No one spoke English even though the hostel said they would which added to our confusion. We didn’t receive lunch and as we had to spend all our cash we couldn’t buy any. We complained to the hostel for misinforming us about the tour but they were very dismissive. We were so disappointed that we moved to a different hostel for the rest of our time in Santa Marta. This was a shame as our room was clean and William on the front desk was great on arrival. Unfortunately our experience with the other guy working on the front desk was...

In many ways it is a good hostel, the staff and the vibe are chill.

But if you have a health condition like me, then be aware that the outdoor areas don't have doors separating them from the indoor areas, and the receptionist at night (starting like 8pm) always smokes.

So if you're like me and work/spend time in the hostel, this will make you ill because the smoke penetrates the whole hostel. And maybe you just don't like the smell.

In my opinion, the staff should not be allowed to do this and the hostel should have doors physically separating smoking areas, and they should clearly designate smoking areas instead of allowing it throughout nearly the entire hostel.

They also use bleach to clean the whole place, which also hurts my health. That's also unnecessary.

Apart from these things, the rooms are nice, have cold AC at night and comfy beds. The vibe is very chill, not a party vibe, which is fine.

They are very nice people, they help you with things you need and make...