Captain Morgan Hostel — Hotel in Cantón Planes de la Laguna

We fell for the Instagram trap…it looks cool in photos and the location is really nice, but it’s all a front and really not very good at all. We’ll explain why…||- Private rooms are tiny and don’t even include a bin or anywhere to store anything|- Sleeping is very difficult as the private rooms are located underneath reception/bar so you hear every footstep which rocks the room…|- And they play loud music right above the rooms (late into the night on weekdays when hardly anyone was there either too)|- Dorm rooms are better located away from reception even though they are cheaper, such a weird layout|- Only 2 toilets/showers for the whole hostel, and ofc the showers are cold plus one is full of flies|- They say you can use the kitchen to cook your own food but when you try to cook the staff watch over you and it seemed we were an inconvenience being there, plus there was hardly any cutlery or bowls to use |- The staff generally were miserable and unhelpful |- Food isn’t overly expensive (half of it not actually available and only 1 vegetarian option of literally a plate of veg) but backpacking we can’t afford to eat out every meal so a shared kitchen should actually mean shared!|- The floating bar they promote on insta wasn’t in operation (not sure if March is off season or not) but don’t promote it on Instagram if it’s no longer in use!|- Anyway the kitchen was filthy and would be shutdown under hygiene standards|- And if it was it would no doubt cost a lot, jet ski rental is $60 an hour! |- Worse is the $5 an hour to play table pool, absolute rip-off that is|- And guess what they advertise kayaks for rent online ($10 an hour again not cheap, should be for the day/included really) but again they don’t have them either |- And the paddle board they have is broken but you still have to pay $5 an hour for it||For $12 p/p per night you don’t expect much, but staff courtesy is one thing that annoys us and false advertising is another. An scam of a place and wish we’d booked elsewhere. DO NOT STAY HERE, worst place we have stayed in 5 months in Latin America. Absolute joke and we weren’t the only ones who thought this. A real shame because it could be really good it just needs a...

The breakfast was great but it took a long time to arrive as there was only one staff member tending to everyone in the morning. There is a restaurant right beside the Hostel which has more variety in drinks, food and service. The staff had limited english which was a great opportunity to learn more Spanish and use my google translator. A 20 minute walk to the nearest gas station and the bus stops right in front of the Hostel.||||The decor, jumping platforms and water toys were the best! Brought all the guests together to the dock to enjoy their stay. ||||One thing I would improve is the lack of information about the tours and shuttle busses. The Hostel has the cost of the shuttle busses posted and the staff will call for you if you want them. It would be beneficial if they described the busses as well as they are available. ||||Upon arriving I spoke with the owner and he said he can organize the tours for us. Unfortunately he never came by during our stay so it was difficult to organize the tours as there was no description on cost, duration and difficulty. I found that Santa Ana was much more difficult than I anticipated and very cold at the top. Had I known I would have prepared better to better enjoy myself. For the tour of Tazumel Ruins we thought visiting Casa Blanca would be a 5 minutes endeavour, meanwhile what I think they meant was that the tour is 5 minutes away. It was about 2-3 HOURS! So needless to say we did not prepare for that and had to miss out. ||||I suggest to the owner to have some sort of description in english about each tour on the bulletin, not just shuttle information. It would be...

Booked this place for three days and left after one night!

Main reason was the owner. We didn't have that feeling the we were welcomed! I keep my whole opinion for me but he is a very condescending host. And if you read this...No!!! Life is not dangerous!!! It's dangerous if you are blind, stupid and do not ask other for advise or about risks. This was the dumbest answer i have ever get and was the reason why we left without saying goodbye. Life is to short for experiences like this.

Here are the other reasons:

Aircon in the 4 rooms upstairs are only working with an unbearable screaming noise. Even if we decided to turn the AC off an other room next to us turned their AC on. Never heard an AC doing this.

I am architect and understand that places needs to build new parts or renovate other parts. But we had construction noises the whole day nex to our room.

Kitchen is more than unhygienic. I couldn't eat there. And this in not an spoild behavior or because we used to travel more luxury. I am travelling since more than 20 years in almost 70 countries arround the world and booked most of the time cheap places like hostels or small local accommodations. Even in India or Africa simple kitchens are more clean than this one. For example...just have a look at the ceiling. You definitely don't want to have those fat residues in you food.

It's not the owners problem. But we arrived arround 8 pm. Kitchen was right before closed and there is absolutely nothing arround...