Hostel Manuel Antonio — Hotel in Quepos

If negative stars were possible I would vote -3 stars.

After checking in and going to our room we saw a double bed rather than two twin beds which was an error on the hostel's part. I kindly pointed out the error and the receptionist refuted. I asked if she could double check the booking and she then verified that this was a mistake on their part. She told us it was just for one night and would fix it tomorrow. After visiting the pool and seeing a car on blocks, a sketchy dude living in the open air arcade and two huge dogs tied up and barking I checked out the bathroom which was dank and dark. I decided with my travel companion that this was not the hostel for us. What proceeded was a three hour discussion over the phone with the manager of the hostel where I asked for a refund. It was like pulling teeth.

The refund has finally come through after 28 business days since the error, when we were originally told 15 days maximum. After a significant cut to the amount of money we paid for this hostel, $260 CAD, I've received a sum of $155 CAD.

I am deeply disappointed in this entire experience. This hostel has swindled us out of $105 CAD in the form of a single night at a filthy, dank and unsafe place we didn't even sleep at, 3 hours of my time on vacation talking to a rude hostel manager, and on top of that has retained taxes (which is unheard of in a refund scenario to me) and on top of that we've been subject to a $6 CAD fee for using PayPal when I've been asking for a straight across refund to the credit card this whole time. This issue happened at peak travel season when the hostel could and likely did rebook another pair of visitors. It was early in the day and there was plenty of time to make up that money.

This is absolutely disgusting business practice. The money we've gotten back is nowhere near what we paid and for the amount of time and trouble it has taken. This is completely appalling and this...

This place is right beneath both a bar and a liquor store, which might be okay if you want to get drunk on spring break, but is terrible otherwise. Even on a Monday, the club music could be heard blaring starting about 9pm and lasting long into the night, along with much shouting.||||Noise aside, the room was as hot as a sauna even with the windows open and fans at full blast, and smelled like stale beer when first opened.||||The advertised pool is a fairly long walk down a step gravel road from the hostel, and was green and stagnant when we arrived. We ended up having to skim it ourselves before trying the water--then decided against after dredging out a dime bag and a used condom. The pool is also not more than twice as big as your average hot tub.||||The table in the proported grilling area had rusted screws sticking out of the corners where parts of the wood had rotted away. There was not a single table in the kitchen that was even remotely level...quite an annoyance with the three Jenga sets that made up the entirety of the 'games box'.||||The only redeeming qualities of the place was the cat, which was quite friendly with adults but hissed at all children, and the profusion of small lizards (very cute if you like reptiles) inhabiting...

The hostel was very dirty. They don't wash sheets (they let me into the room where the sheets were still crumpled from the previous person, had to actively ask for it to be changed, and even then, they just removed it, shook it out, and put it back on). There was also no soap in any of the dispensers, despite me asking them to refill it. The bathroom mirrors were disgusting and looked like they hadn't been cleaned in weeks. I saw more bugs in the rooms/bathrooms of this hostel than any of my other hostels in Costa Rica combined. Their pool was terrible. Felt like bath water, had bugs in it, and looked very murky. I couldn't bring myself to do more than dip my toes in. Like other parts of the hostel, they clearly don't clean the pool either.

There was also no A.C. (it was advertised as fan-only, just a heads up!). There is also no breakfast provided. Literally, the only redeeming factor about this hostel is that it did have wifi that worked very well. In addition, they are located right in front of the local bus stop, so location is good. All in all, it was not worth the $14/night; I have stayed in much better hostels...