Kaclla, The Healing Dog Hostel — Hotel in Lima Metropolitan Area

Worst hostel in my 4 months of traveling South America. Staff was unfriendly from the beginning. They didn’t allow an older gentlemen to make coffee in the morning until the kitchen was open at 8AM. Once they let us check-in, they brought us to a second building that they don’t advertise and is nothing like the pictures. The power wasn’t working in the building they brought us to, and we work remote & specifically booked this place because it looked like it had nice coworking spaces. When we had to check out, we asked if we could keep our belongings in the lockers for a few hours to which the staff responded that no, we couldn’t, because they would break our locks and rip our bags out (???) I understand they have a system at their main building for storing bags but the response felt a bit intense when we were simply asking a question. Mind you, barely ANY of the various lockers were being used. When we filled out paperwork to store our luggage for a few hours, the staff seemed hesitant and bothered we wanted to keep our stuff there until 12PM (which was check-out time anyways). After we arrived back to get our belongings, we sat down in the lobby to book our next hostel (because why would we want to stay here when they charged us extra to extend a few nights?) a staff member came up to us and said if we didn’t leave in FIVE MINUTES they would charge us for an extra day… we felt shocked because It wasn’t brought up nicely and it was a last minute warning. When we expressed we felt it wasn’t communicated properly, the woman started raising her voice, calling us rude and aggressive, and saying she was just doing her job. We only wanted to express our experience and instead we’re essentially yelled at? Very weird for an establishment that is supposed to rely on tourism… I’ve seen other reviews where the staff will become defensive and attack those leaving negative reviews for similar experiences. Overall I don’t think this hostel treats their guests with hospitality, and when conflict occurred the staff escalated the situation instead of attempting to resolve the situation. What a disappointing experience… I’ve never left a bad review in my life but felt as if this needed...

I rarely leave bad reviews, but I was really disappointed about this place. It’s clear they prioritize the appearance of a peaceful relaxing environment over actually making it one. Things I experienced:

SERVICE

1. check in was SLOW, many people waiting and not enough room to sit. Then guy at the desk was not particularly polite and very hard to understand (both English and Spanish). Gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed he’d had a long day.

2. we tried to book another night with them and they told us to come back in the morning to pay. When I came back at 8:30am the night morning, they told us in that time frame (8-8:30am), they had booked the room to someone else and we had to pack up.

3. when we asked about laundry, guy told us he might be able to get it back to us the next day or Monday, but in the morning they wouldn’t let us because they gave our room away 🙃

4. breakfast was fine but took almost an HOUR for granola with yogurt and a crepe. Which felt like a complete waste of my time, especially since there was no open space to actually sit and eat it (there are 3 tables)

ENVIRONMENT

1. constant ringing of the bell for people to come in

2. the dog barking and pissing on everything (and I love dogs just kind of obnoxious)

3. random girl singing in bathroom (not their fault I guess lol)

ROOM

1. was fine, pillow not that comfortable so I woke up pretty sore

2. random cat hanging out that loved our room? To be fair I found him very cute and sweet with his flat face, but I am allergic to cats lol

3. private 2 bed room had 3 bunk beds in it? It was fine and worked out, just kind of weird

Perks: I liked the plants

Overall, brought out a lot more stress than healing and definitely more annoyance than this place was worth. Would not...

If I could give negative stars, I would. I stayed at The Helling Dog Hostel in Lima for a whole month, and the experience ended in the worst way possible.

Right after I checked out, they kicked me out immediately and didn’t even let me leave my bags in storage without extra payment. When my friends and I did pay to leave our bags, the entire staff looked at us with disgust, giving us dirty looks like we were doing something wrong.

Before we left, one of the staff members started searching for “damaged” dishes in the kitchen and tried to blame us for it, even though we hadn’t used them at all — then she tried to force us to pay for it.

There’s no place in the hostel where you can sit and relax without the staff staring at you the whole time. The atmosphere is uncomfortable and unwelcoming.

They try to squeeze money out of you in every possible way. On our last day, we explained that we had a night bus and just needed to stay in the hostel until then — their response was basically: “We don’t care. You can’t even leave your bags here. Either pay for another night or wait on the street with your stuff.”

To sum it up: this hostel has the rudest, most unpleasant, and most unhelpful staff I’ve encountered in all my years of traveling. Avoid this place...