Surf Town Hostel — Hotel in San Juan del Sur (Municipio)

Edit : after the owner s answer who wrongly accused me of bullying (i have the whatsapp communication to prove the tone and content of the talk were absolutely nothing like it), i downgrade to one star, not two.

Pros The vibe is nice, although in covid times everything is empty anyway. dorms are roomy kitchen is practical part of the staff is nice and helpful

Cons bathrooms and toilets are narrow and without aeration twice i asked for surf lessons to be arranged, twice the staff “forgot”, never getting back to me. I had to ask a 3rd time to one of the nicer guys. most important in my opinion, especially in these trying times: bad customer service. They have a promotion for 3 nights + 1 free, i stayed there for 2 nights and asked if that could be counted as part of the deal, was answered positively. Cool, i counted on these savings for another surf rental. Fast forward 3 days later - apparently there had been a “misunderstanding”. Wouldn’t have minded if i had been told a clear no to begin with, but to say something then backtrack, without taking responsibility - that’s a big no no for me. Especially since I said I may stay longer (i.e much beyond nights 3 and 4), and I had brought over potential clients to show them the place (which is not in the center, so harder to spot) when i first stayed. Even backpackers deserve fair customer service, especially during covid. Come on, the town is empty, you should take better care of your clientele. So, bad customer service, and bad financial management.

Edit: answer to owner

1. i didnt “threaten with a bad review unless i’d stay for free”. Didnt mention a review at any stage, i dont do that. That’s bullying, fyi. Once i saw the way the issue was handled, as a client expecting in good faith that a previous answer would be respected, I left and wrote my review. One should think about that when in face of the client, there are ways to handle disagreements, its called customer service. I should downgrade my review to one star for that odious claim.
2. Actually i didnt expect anything, i asked as i was leaving, and i also wrote above that if the answer had been negative from the start I would have been completely ok with it!!! What i DID expect was the answer to remain consistent. And i know i was very clear when i asked, it was after checking out, i speak spanish fluently, albeit with a few conjugation mistakes.
3. i asked about surf lessons the morning i arrived, for the next day. I was given 3 options - 25,30,35 and picked the most economic according to my budget - there’s nothing wrong about that. No “struggles” here, its your wording, we’re talking travel and surf lessons, not getting food on the table… anyway, when i got no answer, i asked again another staff member, the day after. Then again in the evening of the second day - at which point a third, nicer staff member finally handled...

Strange vibes in the hostel - promised to be a bit more lively and good for meeting people but on the first night we were the only ones in the bar! The next night was better with a beer pong tournament, and the owner is a really nice guy, otherwise the staff are a bit miserable and not overly helpful. The receptionist when we arrived was pretty clueless as she couldn’t find our booking and then when she found it, asked if they could refund us and help us move to a different hostel as they’d double booked our room on the last night of our stay - we were there for 3 nights and she was trying to move us a they’d double booked us on the 3rd night!!! She dealt with it really badly! We took a private room with en suite but the water was so bad that either the shower or the toilet didn’t work. When we raised this they literally told us ‘yeh we know, but you can use the other bathrooms’ - you can’t sell it as en suite if the en suite doesn’t work! We also used other hostels beach shuttles as they were at more convenient and...

The Surf Town Hostel was an excellent hostel! We ended up here on a small pub crawl with some locals and fell in love with the atmosphere! We ended up coming back to San Juan and spending a few nights here we liked it so much! The bar is affordable and the service is excellent. The rooftop patio was an excellent place to relax and could easily be used to get some work done. We booked last minuet so there was no renovated rooms to stay in left (the owner showed us one and it was beautiful) so we ended up in the twin bed, bunk combo. This room didn’t offer AC so it was a bit warm getting to sleep, but the multiple fans took the edge off. Will be staying here during my next trip...