Kokomo Hotel — Hotel in Culebra

Edit: as you can tell from her response, she would rather make up stories + get upset than own up to her lack of consideration as a host. All the more reason not to book here. It only took a few minutes for me to walk from the ferry area to the hotel; she did not wait 45 minutes. I waited in front of the entrance for her & no one was there. I did not even stop at the pizza place (which I tried later—both Williams & a pop up pizza place called La JIBARA are very good! Highly recommend). Told her my name and room # for check in. Same person, same #. Again, lack of genuine care for guests.

I booked through the site to better support the business. My friend who came with me for check in in order to change is white passing & she was not rude to her. Deborah came off discriminatory as I am a person of color. I DO NOT recommend this place if you’re looking for a great time in Culebra. Besides asking about laundry + the birthday cake, I did the bare minimum (slept + washed up) here due to feeling uncomfortable with the host. Book an Airbnb (cheaper & better) & rent a car—experience all that beautiful Culebra has to offer:)

Some pros, a lot of cons. It's a no frills hotel with basics (proximity to ferry, clean bed, some thoughtful updates/touches in the room I booked), but the owner/manager, Deborah, lacked consideration for guests. As a first time guest, Deborah's conduct as the hotel owner was very off-putting.

When the ferry arrived at Culebra, I called to check in upon my ferry landing and spoke to Deborah for the first time. She was friendly enough over the phone and stated she was willing to meet me downstairs to check in. Directions were unclear on how to proceed besides her stating she'd meet me at the entrance.

No one was at the entrance. I called to the same phone number with no answer. The call dropped due to what I thought was poor connection. I was with a friend and we went through the entrance by looking at the signage.

Still, no one greeted us with directions still unclear on how to proceed. When Deborah finally appeared, she was rude and abrasive stating that she was busy when I called even though she didn't actually come meet me downstairs. She came off discriminatory and spoke/acted in a condescending manner throughout the whole interaction and even as she showed me the room I booked.

I thanked her anyway thinking Deborah's ways could be a singular issue. She apologized, but her discriminatory, condescending, rude ways continued. She was also unavailable for any actual support, the pattern continuing from when she was not at the door as she originally stated she would be upon my arrival.

I emailed the same morning asking if I could check in a little earlier. No response. She replied after I checked into my room asking for my name and the room I booked.. with less than ten rooms to rent out, I thought it strange. Again, she came off rude and discriminatory.

When I arrived, I noticed the washer/dryer seemed open to guests due to its placement in a general area and with open doors. I asked if I could use the washer/dryer since I packed extremely light, she replied, "absolutely not." I was absolutely wrong. Again, off-putting and could have been said in a more polite manner. When I asked for possible cake shop suggestions on the island for a friend's birthday (to which she directed me to an ice cream store), she was unhelpful and still rude.

Also, none of her taxi driver recommendations worked in the email I received directly from Hotel Kokomo upon booking. I didn't even ask/reach out to her regarding those due to her inability to have respectful, helpful conversations with guests.

As a first time guest to Culebra and Hotel Kokomo, I was very deterred by Deborah's ways. The room was fine and clean enough, but it was in no way close to or worth what I paid. I will not be staying here again for many, many reasons. I highly recommend an Airbnb and renting a car instead, which is what I originally booked and immensely regret not keeping in lieu of discovering Hotel Kokomo for its proximity...

Never Made It To Hotel*

Update: I will not remove my one star review as this was my experience with the Host. I noted in my review that I never made it to the hotel, so my review is based solely on my direct experience with Deborah. My experience is not unethical, it is the truth and I will not be bullied into removing it!

Very Disappointed! We found out that you have to take a Ferry to the island.We paid $115 to Uber from San Juan to the Ferry port. We get to the Ferry Port to find out that there are no more tickets for the first day, nor the day after.We attempted to get flights at the local airport and a private charter to the island, with no luck.We reached out to host and let her know that we had no way to get to the island and ask her if she had any ideas. She advised that we could do standby for the ferry. We waited another hour and attempted to get stand by spots on the 3:30 ferry, with no luck. At this point we have been there for over 3 hours, with my young son. There is nothing at or around the ferry port except for a small store and bathrooms. After being unsuccessful with the stand by, we reached out to host again letting her know we tried every possible option on getting to the island. I than requested a partial refund, offering to still pay for the first night, since it was so late in the day. She refused to refund us anything, stating that there is a no refund policy. Instead she wanted us to sit there another 8 hours without a guarantee of getting on a Ferry, despite being with my young son, which would not only be miserable, but would be a waste of our vacation. She was rude and only cared about getting paid. Her reply when I again reached out and explained that we did everything we could to get there and I couldn’t sit at the port and pray that we get on a ferry, was “If your reservation is for 3 nights, there is still time to get here. That’s all I’m saying. We can’t refund.” So unfortunately without a guarantee of getting to the island and having a place to stay, we ended up having to book another AirBNB on the main island about 30 minutes away. I immediately reached out to AirBNB and explained the situation and how there was absolutely no way to make it to the island, and they ended up refunding us for our full stay since Deborah refused (both to me directly and to AirBNB)

She replied to my review on Airbnb accusing me of lying to AirBNB to get my refund, as well as insinuated that I was stupid for not planning ahead of time on the transportation to the island. While her post doesn’t say anything about how to get to the island, after you book it, her message does give options on how to get to the island. I attempted all of those options once we arrived at the Ferry port, but none of those options had availability. Those transportation options should be posted in her listing, so people can look into them prior to booking. Had I known how hard it was to get onto the Ferry, I would have planned ahead better, or rather not booked with her at all, had I realized that I couldn’t purchase Ferry tickets online at the time I booked the AirBNB, since she had a no refund policy.

Despite what she says, AirBNB found that I did everything in my power to make my reservation and that not making it was out of my control and refunded my reservation 100%. She may be a good host to some of her customers which shows in her other reviews. However, she did not show any compassion, empathy or human decency to us. Especially, when she had unreasonable expectations of wanting us to sit at a ferry terminal for an excessive amount of time with my young son, while also wasting our vacation, with no guarantee that we could even make it onto a ferry.

I would not recommending staying here. Simply because of her inability to see reason in regards to...

Excellent Stay at Kokomo Hotel. I was staying in the penthouse which is basically like a 2 bedroom apartment. It has a little kitchen area, and a fridge and stove top. We stopped at Costco before taking the ferry over to Culebra. We were able to prepare our own food every day for our meals, and saved money and ate healthier than eating at restaurants on island. We could even keep our drinks cold. I slept really well because there was air conditioning in the bedroom (which is not often found on culebra) . I slept the best at Kokomo so far on my entire trip to Puerto Rico, since all the bedding was clean, and no traces of mold or mildew that I have experienced at other places I have stayed in PR. The location was really convenient to the ferry, and literally minutes before the ferry departed, I was in the hotel room still preparing food for the boat ride. I recommend kokomo highly. There was ample storage so I could hang up all my clothes in the...