Hostel Dodero — Hotel in Liberia

Tricky owner and employee. Stayed 1 night at Hostel Dodero on Sept. 4-5th. I have a receipt and this review is 100% for Hostel Dodero though the owner doesn't want to acknowledge and pretends that this is not for them. Payment in US dollars is accepted but the owner does not explain what the exchange rate is used and does the calculation very quickly. All he had to do was to be clear about what exchange rate he was using and agree with the guest before calculating. After he calculated the amount with his rate, I checked the real time exchange rate but at that point, he was pissed or something and decided to charge my debit card (which is actually much better exchange rate. I don't know why he doesn't do that from the beginning. Other people also complain about how unclear the EX can become, charging the credit card is way more simple). I have had many incidents throughout Mexico and central America where the seller tried to take (steal) more money out of my pocket by giving me less change. As a full-time traveller, it is a basic thing to check and confirm whether the amount is correct or not. Without knowing the exchange rate, I could not confirm the amount, so I told him that it is not acceptable. The owner took it personally though and shouted, "if you're going to treat me like that, ..." and "This is not Nicaragua or Honduras!". I am not exactly sure what he was trying to say, but at least in my opinion, Costa Rica still has tons of petty crimes. It is normal to be careful with payment here in Costa Rica. However the owner seems to not understand travellers' mindset and instead feels offended very easily.

The other worker here was also rude when talking about where to park my bicycle. The owner had told me not to leave my bicycle in the parking space, so I brought it further in towards the backyard, but the other worker kept saying "YOU CANNOT bring the bike here. All cyclists park their bikes at the parking space." in a aggressive attitude and forced me to bring my bicycle back in the parking space. I had to tell him to go talk with the owner first, before talking to me like that. That day I had to move my bike 3 times because they had no consensus of where the "dedicated bike parking" was.

Also, the worker smokes marijuana on the property. This hostel is smoke free (it's the law in CR) and guests have to go outside to smoke. However, staff is smoking marijuana in the backyard which indicates they know it is illegal. And yes, I wouldn't mistake the smell of marijuana.

You can tell by reading the owners replies on other bad reviews, instead of discussing the problems, he tries to make his own logic saying he is always right and the reviewer always wrong. At the same time he avoids commenting on things that are actually true. Pretty tricky personality. If you want to have less trouble and a peaceful stay in Liberia, it might be better to stay...

This hostel looks and its mother "pura vida" resemble prison type accommodation this is run by a run by partners jesus and brian? one a costa rican tico who can be a control freak fussing around cleaning things but at the same time a generous and humble man. The other is a rather fat big mouth american that likes to dominate any conversation and is rude.He moans about his review ratings and he moans about the mother hostel and previous guests he has absolutely no decorum .....The PRO'S are each are very helpful in their own ways very sociable if you want info they got it! the place is very clean and tidy due to mass scrubbing everyday and general pickiness and their is a good command of English spoken so everything is very clear.CONS! smoking out front is frowned upon and you need to ring the security doorbell before entering and leaving having to wait of be let in or out not being able to just blend yourself in. There are notices plastered everywhere telling you not to do this and.You also feel you are being watched by jesus. Evenings close down early especially at pura vida which closes down at 9.pm (so no late nights then) piped music ends at 9pm at dorado and by 10-11pm you are asked not to talk if you carry on talking then there are repeat warnings until everyone just goes to bed...both these venues ok for one night maybe i...

It was a very traumatic experience. This was by far the dirtiest hostel I have ever seen in Costa Rica and my whole life. There was a huge cockroach in the shower, we found many of ants under the pillow and on the lamp in the floor. 100 of ants were crawling on the floor eating out our food of our bag at night so we woke up because we literally heard them eating and have to waste the food. We were told it is totally normal during the rainy season but in other hostels or airbnbs we always had like a protection against insects so that none got into the room or house. In front of the apartment there was a dead bird for 2 days :( . It's also only secured by one lock that you can lock very hard because its too big to. All over the room there have been spider webs. Everywhere in the room as well as in the bathroom and in the kitchen there were huge gaps on the walls where probably many insects always get through and crawl into your bed at night. In the kitchen large bottles were filled with tap water so that it looks like mineral water from the supermarket, but in reality it smells like chlorine and there was a greasy film on the surface of the bottle. Also we both got sick I don't know if it was the hotel but I think so.|We don't want to offend anyone with this review but that's just the experience we had...