Hostel Oryx Tulum — Hotel in Quintana Roo

Unfortunately, my experience at Oryx Hostel did not live up to expectations. I had booked a 5-night stay as a solo traveler looking for a social and activity-oriented hostel, as advertised on their official website and booking platforms. However, that promise wasn’t reflected in reality.

False Advertising: Several of the activities promoted online were not being offered at all. When I asked about them, the manager told me that the information was outdated, even though it was still live on their official channels. This created a very misleading impression and was one of the main reasons I chose this hostel in the first place.

Not Solo-Traveler Friendly: There were no social events during my stay and very few guests around, making it difficult to meet people. It's definitely not the social hostel experience you might expect from the photos or descriptions.

Cancelled Tour (Despite Meeting Minimum): I had signed up for a tour that was later cancelled, supposedly because the minimum number of participants wasn’t reached. However, there were enough people signed up, and the explanation felt inconsistent.

Uncooperative Management: I found the manager to be unhelpful and dismissive. When I requested to be connected with the owner to escalate my concerns, she refused. At first, she said I’d be refunded one of the remaining four nights (I stayed only 1 out of 5), then claimed I wouldn’t get a refund at all due to a non-refundable booking. This inflexibility is disappointing, especially when the stay didn’t match the advertised offering.

Room Quality: The dorm was very basic, with no individual reading lights at the beds. Worst of all, there was a large bloodstain on the bed sheet (see picture), which is absolutely unacceptable from a...

The staff at Oryx Hostel were very friendly and helpful. They offer great activities around Tulum everyday and you can rent bikes for an affordable price. It is also easy to get around town by foot or with collectivo. The pool was clean and refreshing, and the common outdoor space was enjoyable and peaceful. The breakfast was fruit and toast, and the kitchen was spacious and clean. The pool was refreshing and the outdoor common area was enjoyable and peaceful. My partner and I stayed in a private room (#7) and it was good, but having some hangers on the walls to hang stuff and more accessible surfaces to put down things would have been appreciated. The bathrooms could also use some work (hangers on the wall for towels, better shower heads and water pressure). We were supposed to stay 5 nights but ended up staying 3 because we couldn’t sleep at night. There was really loud music happening in the area until 3-4am every night and due to the nature of the open space of the room, there was nothing to filter out the sound. I don’t know if we got unlucky or if this is a normal occurence in the area, but we ended up having to find another accomodation for our remaining nights. We couldn’t get refunded because we booked through Expedia. The staff accomodated us with free bikes for a day. In my opinion, the hostel is a bit pricey for what it is, considering we found another much nicer place for the same price in La Veleta (15mins walk from Oryx hostel). I would recommend to stay at this hostel if you’re backpacking and looking for group activities and to be in a...

I have stayed in numerous hostels all over the world and can say this one by far was the worst hostel experience I've ever had! The room was incredibly humid and reeked of mildew when we first walked in. Knowing hostels aren't perfect and it's a budget way of traveling we decided to make the best of it and keep it pushing. Tulum is extremely hot in the summer but the hostel advertised AC in the rooms. The AC could barely whistle out any cold hair and the fan in the room just circulated the mildewy hotness. We left our room to get dinner and walk around and when we returned to sleep the power went out completely. The lights, fan, AC, and charging ports were completely unusable. We suffered for a while trying to sleep. Wetting our clothes to make the heat more bearable. Eventually we went outside and dipped our feet in the pool. I called the front desk multiple times and their response each time about possibly fixing the issue was "it's Tulum." That night I threw up from how bad the heat was. The next day we booked another stay and asked for a refund in which they replied once again "it's Tulum, the whole city is experiencing a power outage" which frankly was NOT true at all. The power came back on for maybe an hour before going out again and we know we could not spend another night there. Truly such an awful experience with the worst customer service ever. If you're going to Tulum and actually want to be able to charge your phone, rummage through your suitcase without a flashlight, and sleep peacefully without being on the brink of heat...