Hostel the pod33 — Hotel in Bella Vista

After traveling around the world for years and having stayed in more than 100 hostels, in this I've met the rudest and most authoritarian receptionist ever, Guillermo.||||After 3 days in Casa 33, he said I had to leave because of the most absurd reason: not wearing a shirt.||||I was without a shirt during a good part of these 3 first days (the AC is only on from 10pm to 6-7am, so it's very hard to sleep out of these hours, as the capsules get extremely hot), and then he told me in a very rude way I couldn't stay without one. I didn't even discussed and put on a shirt.||||Then, a couple hours later I briefly took my shirt off to do some exercising with a friend, and he showed once again telling me in a very rude way I couldn't stay like that.||||I kindly asked him why, after 3 days he was only then telling me that rule, and he said I had to pack my stuff and leave. Without dialog or nothing, just very rude and authoritarian.||||I didn't even discuss, as I travel to chill and not to get stressed, and went to a hostel 2 minutes walking from there, which is way better than Casa 33 by the way. It was the best thing I did.||||So, unless you want to pay to feel you're in a military camp, stay away from...

Had our food stolen within a couple hours, not the hostel’s fault though. Even with all the cameras, people decide to steal which makes you wonder if that behaviour is tolerated. There are some odd people staying there that made me feel uneasy. There was a man awake in the middle of the night that stared at me like he was going to grab me until he saw my boyfriend behind me. He then proceeded to stare at us heavily from the balcony while we were waiting for a taxi outside. The atmosphere is really odd and the layout is strange. You need to walk through the dining/lobby area to go take a shower. We had to ring the bell so many times just to enter the hostel and they also need to buzz you out to leave which is just ridiculous especially because the staff at the front desk is never there so you are waiting in front of the door for 5 mins. There was a dirty plate in our pod’s storage area when we arrived and the hooks in the pod were broken. Also the toilet flush in the bathroom was broken so it smelled badly like urine. The AC didn’t turn on in the rooms until 5 PM which they should advertise. There are way better places for a similar...

Booked online the day before, but they had no record of our booking. No private rooms left like we'd requested. Were shown a double bed in a dorm, instead - only top bunks left - and we declined.

No one spoke English at the desk, luckily one of us speaks basic Spanish. Staff were friendly.

Place seemed clean, yet run down - seemingly the standard with rooms in Panama at this price range.

I accidentally walked into the single bed dorm instead of the "couples" dorm..The other dorm seemed... Full. Darkened and quiet, but full of people and their stuff. Stuff literally everywhere.

A sliding door separates the sleeping dorms from the common areas. A guy walked around no shirt, even though signs said wear your shirt in the common areas and please no sleeping on the couches.

I wish I'd taken pictures, but couldn't. Staff buzz you in, have video cameras in common areas, take a copy of your passport. I didn't think it cool if I took pictures. They did let us use their Wi-Fi to find a new...