Café del Sol — Hotel in Santa Rosa

Dishonest; stay away. The man at the front desk (big guy with glasses) was a thief and a scammer. He cheated us and lied to us about a tour, overcharging us by about Q800 for a “tour” which was someone’s uncle giving us a ride somewhere. He is a liar and thinks tourists are stupid. Beyond that, the rest of the staff was very nice. The wait staff in the restaurant were excellent. One gentleman in particular was always good for a friendly hello, even when seeing me in town on his off day. The food was good, and price better than the Main Street. After being ripped off by the man at the front desk I would not recommend this hotel. You should not cheat and steal from your customers if you want to have a business that is successful. Tourists are trying to navigate the area but we are not stupid. This seemed to be sanctioned by the two people at the front desk as the woman turned her head and said NOTHING when I pointed out what a rip off this was. They got their money by deception this time, but I hope it causes them to lose twice as much in the future

TRANSPARENCY:

There is a turtle sanctuary 5-10 minute drive away. They ask Q10 to release a turtle. So a small cost for the transport. The big man with the glasses sees his customers as a mark to scam and charged us Q875 for, with a very very dishonest description of his tour not being black market and an official tour- it ended up being someone’s uncle giving us a 10 minute ride.

The boat tours- the actual tour guide gets about Q150 for this. You can probably walk to the end of the Main Street to where the boats are and negotiate this yourself, but even if you do find someone to arrange the tour for you, don’t over pay. The hotel jerk tried to sell us on this tour but once we saw what a scam he pulled with the first one we cancelled. He tried to get another Q800+ out of us for this.

Night turtle tours: involves walking on the beach with someone and a flashlight to look for turtles. I’m not sure how much the guides get paid, but quality can vary.

People like this man and woman at the front desk will drive tourists away. Be careful, there are...

Labeling this as a 3-star hotel is being generous...it is, at best, a 2. At the time of writing this review, we visited four different cities in Guatemala and stayed at other 3 and 4 stars hotels. This one stood out as overpriced, given the state of the room.

I’d start by saying the location was unbeatable, and parking is available on-site. This is a beachfront hotel with rooms crossed the street. There are two pools with tons of space for kids to run around. The ground was well-maintained, and it looked beautiful during the day.

The service was adequate, but you need some basic Spanish. There are two cabanas with chairs for the guests on the beach and a beach bar with a good beer selection.

The room size was decent (1 double bed and one single bed even though there were just 2 of us) and came with an AC (which was needed given the temp was 89F at night). But it was a very basic room - no beach towel, only one face towel for two people. No TV (not a big deal) and not many power plugs. The bathroom felt dirty, and I work up to a dead roach in the shower. No hot water, and the floor/tiles looked like they haven’t been scrubbed in a long time. Not to mention all the bugs that came through the windows.

Luckily we were only here for one night. Look elsewhere if you have a more...

At the time of writing this review, we visited four different cities in Guatemala and stayed at other 3 and 4 stars hotels. This one stood out as overpriced, given the state of the room.||I’d start by saying that the location was unbeatable, and parking was available on-site. This is a beachfront hotel with rooms across the street. There are two pools with tons of space for kids to run around. The ground was well-maintained, and it looked beautiful during the day.||The service was adequate, but you need some basic Spanish. There are two cabanas with chairs for the guests on the beach and a beach bar with a good beer selection.||The room size was decent (1 double bed and one single bed even though there were just 2 of us) and came with an AC (which was needed given the temp was 89F at night). But it was a very basic room - no beach towel, only one face towel for two people. No TV (not a big deal) and not many power plugs. The bathroom felt dirty, and I work up to a dead roach in the shower. No hot water, and the floor/tiles looked like they haven’t been scrubbed in a long time. Not to mention all the bugs that came through the windows.||Luckily we were only here for one night. Look elsewhere if you have a more...