Hotel Hostal San Francisco de Asis — Hotel in Santo Domingo

I would have to say that this is by far the worst experience I had in a place like this (hostel). I booked this hotel through booking.com and based on other reviews here and there, I thought that it wasn't going to be that bad, so I decided to book it. BAD IDEA! (I thought it wroooong) Early check in? Well, that's a no-no for them. Late check out? YES... however, they will charge you RD$200 pesos (or USD$5.00) per hour after 1:00pm (check out). The minibar, well, the minibar is not included and there's no sign or anything that says the prices for the items they did have available in it. At check out, we needed to wait so they can tell us how much we had to pay additional for the minibar. I was surprised and told them that there's no information that the minibar is not included... "Well, it is... so, pay" - that's what Jennifer at reception told me (with a smile on her face...). I know she was only doing her job and she tried to be nice, but, seriously? Is that what you call service? I work in the service industry myself, and that's not the definition I have for making my customers happy. During my stay, they were indeed building something right next to the entrance... an elevator they said... so expect people screaming and making noises from 8:00am to God knows when. On the lot next to this place, a construction site with tractors and machinery. I requested a room with nice view... I didn't have that... The only view I got was the lot next door with the mud and construction equipment. Now, service was HORRIBLE! Parking my car was just a nightmare and the "security guard" called me out for parking my vehicle in their small, 4-car "garage" thinking that I wasn't a guest to this place. I booked a standard room with a "full bed", however, at check in (in the reception area), Jennifer accidentally charged me for an upgraded room that I didn't even asked. She only gave me 2 options, 1) take the room or 2) take the room you reserved but it might take a few days to give you back the money (because I decided to pay with a debit card. Not her fault, my bank usually takes up to 3 weeks to return the money). Once we got to the room I had no choice choosing, you'll find, a dirty stained bathroom, floor and no soap... I called reception and asked for 2 bars of soap (because we were 2 people) and waited for 20 minutes for that to be delivered to the room, which they never did. I had to go downstairs and talked to another girl (whose name I don't remember) who was very nice and gave me 2 bars of soap since she noticed that we were 2 people. She later explained to me that each room gets 1 bar of soap PER STAY! Overall, I DO NOT recommend you to stay on this hostel if you are planning to spend your days in the room relaxing. The least you...

I'll just list pros and cons of this hotel, I stayed there for a total of four weeks on two different trips this summer. ||||Pros:||Price 40$-60$||Location, a block from the malecon||very clean (though i did catch a bug or two but you got to shrug that off as just being in DR)||||Cons:||You cannot prepay for a booking, and I'm sure paying by card incurs higher fees.||Though all staff are competent are pleasant enough some of the receptionists at night and day are not the most enthusiastic, a smile anyone?||||Overall this has the best bang for your buck in Santo Domingo cheaper standard rooms are obviously on the small side but if you are used to european and especially london hotels you'll be just fine. ||||You even get complimentary soaps and shower gel, though i'd suggest you buy your own. As a last note though the ladies that work as housekeeping for the hotel are probably the nicest at the hotel (I'd left my safe unlocked one day and everything was accounted for, they could have easily stolen some notes and acted clueless) you need to often specify you want extra towels or new pillow cases and such. Somehow pillow cases seem to smell at every hotel in Santo Domingo but anyway be prepared for that and pack your own pillow or pillow case if you can. ||||Anyway it's aways easier to remember the small bad things than the good, I'd definitely stay here again if only they would accept prepaid...

Hostel has an empty plot on one side and a massive construction site on the other. On the first morning they were smashing at the wall of the empty plot beside my room. I changed to a room on the other side of the hotel. The next morning a huge digger began at 8 AM until 6 pm, and it was impossible to stay in the room at all with the incredible noise ! This will continue for a long time, as this construction site just began work on 04/03/16 ! Another room that they wanted to change me to had a totally broken safe. ||||The bathroom sink surface in 2 rooms I stayed in was not level, therefore any spilt water flows over side of the surface and constantly drips onto the floor. Annoying and dangerous for slipping. Had cheapest toilet roll you can buy, which was impossible to break properly at all. In first room I stayed in, Aircon unit dripped on my head, so had to turn off and tried to sleep in a hot room. Girl at reception did not even know about the construction, or which room faced where !||||The hotel had 2 taxi drivers who sat outside. one was OK, however the other (with a light brown Nissan saloon) should be avoided. He takes strange routes and is not honest. For example I asked him if he had change for 500 peso for a 250 peso ride, he said yes. But when we got there, he said he only had 100 peso notes Therefore he did not have correct change and was...