Hotel Blue Marlin — Hotel in Parroquia Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

It’s interesting reading other people’s reviews. They seem to have very high expectations of a ~$120/night non-corporate hotel on an island in Latin America.

For my American family — one teen with limited Spanish, my Spanish speaking husband, and me with the Spanish vocabulary of a 2 year old and a terrible gringa accent — it was a nice hotel. The location was perfect for us; just 2 blocks to the harbor and the “main drag” of the town. I liked that it was a diverse group of people staying at the hotel—a good mix of gringos and Latin Americans. Lots of families; not too many single 20 somethings. If you’re looking for a lively hotel as a single 20 something, this probably isn’t your jam.

We had a room on the ground level, directly across from the pool. I was worried about noise, but during our stay there weren’t a ton of people hanging out by the pool. The hotel seemed to have families with young children staying here, maybe that had something to do with it. In fact, during our 2-day stay, I only saw my daughter and I use the pool.

Was the front desk staff over the top helpful? Not really. But they also weren’t terrible by any means. Housekeeping did a great job, even neatly folding clothes we had left on the bed (how embarrassing).

We enjoyed our breakfast — I’m not sure what people expect for a breakfast that’s included with their stay. We had freshly cooked eggs and bacon each day with a croissant and freshly squeezed juice. I’d rather have freshly made eggs than scrambled eggs that had been sitting in a chafing dish for an hour. The croissants were probably not freshly made, but the islands don’t have as much of a bread culture as Quito does. If you’re the type of person who wants a larger breakfast selection or wants to choose what they get for breakfast, this isn’t the place. However, there are plenty of restaurants in walking distance if you wanted something different. The breakfast staff was accommodating and brought us a whole banana for our daughter (she loves bananas) and even heated up leftovers for us. There was always plenty of water in the bubbler.

Yes, the rooms could use a bit of sprucing up, but they were still clean and cozy. I’ve stayed in plenty of Marriotts and Hiltons in the US that could also use some sprucing up. The AC was powerful and cooled the room quickly. The beds were comfortable and they had the most American-like pillows of everywhere we had stayed — they were soft and a bit fluffy (but not the gigantic fluffy ones most American hotels have). And we had hot water and good water pressure, which we hadn’t had in our hotel on Santa Cruz. The bathroom in our room (#2) was big and even though there were 3 beds in the room, it didn’t feel crowded.

I would have loved if the windows opened, but as we were on the ground floor, but it was a moot point as I wouldn’t have kept them open overnight.

The grounds were clean and neat. The pool was clean. I would have appreciated the depth measurements being printed on the pool as it goes from chest deep to nose deep pretty quickly, but I also can’t swim. lol. They have an enclosed shallow end for the littles.

Overall we are happy with our stay and would choose to stay here again next...

Don't stay here. Rooms have water damage and are not clean. No natural light or views, despite being on 3rd floor. No fridge or safe in our room. They rationed the clean drinking water, refusing to refill the bottle dispenser until a specific time of day, despite the fact that the hotel was fully booked. The breakfast was disgusting and also rationed. They didn't refill the cereal. They individually served each person a plate with 1 egg and refused to cook another unless we paid for an additional egg at the reception. It was also a serious effort to convince them to fry the egg instead of serving scrambled. Shortest breakfast time of any hotel, from 7am to 9am. This was by far the worst experience we have had during a whole month travelling here. The staff were uncaring and feigned ignorance even though we translated for them. Made us leave a credit card for the room even though it was all paid in advance. Discovered they like to fraudulently charge for "dirty" towels, which they did to one of our friends despite the fact the dirt came from wiping down the unclean room. When we checked out we were shocked to watch them ridiculously run to the room to inspect for anything they could charge extra for and report back over a walkie-talkie. The hotel is a construction site and there was loud banging all day. Most people in our group got rooms with water damage and active leaks flooding the floors. The hotel provided no alternative rooms since they said they were fully booked. They just put several towels...

Noise. Noise. Noise. A rooster next door chose to wake the neighborhood at 3:30 am. We had a few hours to relax in the morning, and sat down in the public patio area by the pool. There is heavy construction next door, using a huge jack hammer. They are also renovating a room in the hotel, using ratchet drills. The staff use walkie talkies that "bleep bleep" every time they are used. No rest for the weary. Turn up the volume on the video. I wanted to hide out in the room, but it was about to be serviced. I requested that they come back after 1 pm and they said no. The noise was still intense when we got back in the room.

Breakfast for our tour group had zero choices. A thin omelet, slice of processed ham, a roll, and a bowl of fruit. Get good coffee and pastries at Ranti down the street. They have locally sourced coffee.

They do have free purified water and wifi.

Our room was recently renovated, very modern and clean, with an air conditioner.

We had to check out at 9:30 am, an hour before our tour bus left for the airport. No leeway. So we got to endure the noise, plus a smoker who...