Santurcia Hostel — Hotel in San Juan

EDIT: December, 20, 2024 I got staph infection from staying here! I thought they were mosquito bites but I was mistaken. Now on antibiotics for the week.

Overall, I felt that my stay at the hostel was worth the $30 per day that I paid for the week. Here is a breakdown of my experience:

ROOMMATES: I was pleasantly surprised by how friendly and welcoming my roommates were. It made me feel at ease, especially since it was my first time sleeping in a room with 16 strangers. Room was really great a night and I found it to be pretty quiet besides people partying outside of the Hostel. However, I did find it a bit strange that there were cleaning volunteers bunking with us in the room. Ideally, I believe that volunteers should have their own separate accommodations to avoid any potential discomfort for the guests. Additionally, there was an older male cleaning volunteer who made some people uncomfortable by being overly interactive with younger girls. This behaviour definitely impacted the overall atmosphere of the space and I was hearing that this was making a few women feel uncomfortable unfortunately.

AMENITIES: I was provided with a comfortable bed, complete with a blanket, pillow, and towel. Despite the open layout of the bunks, I felt that they offered a decent level of privacy. However, I did find the beds to be a bit small in length, as my feet would hang over the edge.

One major inconvenience was the limited number of outlets in the room. With only three outlets shared between 16 people, it was challenging to charge devices, especially if you wanted to use them in bed. I would recommend bringing a portable charger to alleviate this issue.

The bathroom situation was not ideal, as there was only one bathroom for all 16 people in the room. Although there was an additional bathroom down the hallway with two showers, two private toilets, and two sinks, it was inconvenient to have to carry all your belongings over there. In addition to this, the showers barley had hot water which sucked.

The kitchen facilities were great, and I didn't have any issues apart from sharing the fridge. It was quite full, making it difficult to find space for my own items. Additionally, labeling your belongings was necessary to ensure they weren't mistakenly taken by others. Additionally, there was a leak in the kitchen ceiling, which was quite inconvenient.

One major downside was the amount of mosquitoes in the hostel. There were significantly more mosquitoes inside than outside, and I ended up with over 10 mosquito bites.

In terms of cleanliness, the hostel was generally well-maintained and pretty clean considering it was shared accommodations.

SERVICE: Upon my arrival, I experienced difficulty in locating the Hostel and phoned the number available on the website for guidance. A gentleman answered and assured me that someone would be present at the entrance to welcome me. Unfortunately, no one arrived. I managed to enter the Hostel when a fellow guest exited to smoke. Inside, I noticed that there were no service workers available. After asking another person, eventually, the older guy, who was a volunteer cleaner provided me with a brief tour and the keys to the hostel and locker.

One negative experience I had was when a fellow guest in the upper bunk left and threw his dirty towel on my bed. I found this to be extremely rude and unhygienic. Unfortunately, I had to guess which towel was mine, as I would have had to pay an additional $20 for a new one. It would have been appropriate if the hostel had changed my sheets and provided a new towel at no cost due to this inconvenience and it not being a mistake on my end.

Another issue I encountered was with the key cards. They stopped working after a certain time, and since there weren't any on-site workers, it was possible to get trapped outside at late hours.

AREA: The location of the hostel was amazing, as it was within walking distance to beaches, restaurants, grocery stores, and pharmacies. I felt extremely safe...

Stayed here two weeks ago for a total of 4-days on a solo birthday trip. Everything leading up to it was great from booking and correspondence. But from the time I arrived, it went downhill…

When I pulled up the taxi driver, kept saying “be careful.” From my research, the place was like a nightlife area but I guess post-Covid, not so much anymore. For a solo female traveler, it was not safe to be out after sunset so like 8 pm, homeless people, graffiti, etc. not the best neighborhood.

About the hostel:

1. they bunked me with a girl with a known and active Staph infection. I had to be personally responsible for being an OCD cleaner to make sure it wasn’t passed to me.
2. the only thing I wanted was a shower, they had one working shower for over a half-dozen girls, the bathroom was flooded and I was told that it’s flooded every day & had been for wks b/c owners refuse to fix it. And they were rt, standing water, and a flooded bathroom every day.
3. I took cold showers the 4-days I was there. Another girl had been there for 2 wks and said she’d never had hot water. At night the A/C had me freezing.
4. I stayed in San Mateo. It was a pig sty. The floor was always covered in clothes, trash, suitcases, etc. It looked like an episode of hoarders. The management made the occupants clean up once but that lasted a few hours. The nastiness was an everyday occurrence. It’s just a known problem that mgmt refuses to speak up about, leaving others to have to live in squalor. One girl had multiple a.m. alarms set in the morning that she would press snooze on and people have no problem coming in and out loudly at all hours of the night. There are no “house rules “ that enforce a standard so that some guests are not infringing on the shared space of others.
5. Power outage, this was bigger than the hostel but it was a big inconvenience for 1-day of the trip. In the dark, no a/c, can’t charge your phone, etc
6. I got home and got slapped with an additional $70 bill. $10 for an extra sheet for when I was cold (that they told me I wouldn’t be charged for) and $60 for wasting wine on my sheets. The charge was insult to injury and left a really bad taste in my mouth. It doesn’t cost $60 bucks to launder items. & You don’t do people that way when they’ve been subjected to your s* all week and basically grin and bear.

I gave it two stars because the staff was friendly. But after all the problems, you’d think they’d be offering me money back but instead, I was charged more money. This makes me feel they are not friendly at all and they are really just shysters. Bad vibes.

First time staying in a hostel and I won’t say it’s my last but I will never stay at this one again.

I’d stay somewhere cleaner, safer, that is well-run by management, and that isn’t trying to nickel-and-dime you...

I had a fantastic stay here with a few things that could be worked on. I booked this hostel because it was the only one left that had female dorms available and I'm so glad I chose them. The rooms were exactly as pictured and staff was super friendly and gave great customer service. I stayed about 6 days in the 4 bed all female dorm and had the best roommates. Each room gets there own shower and ours was very clean. Just a few things to note about the rooms was that if your on the top bunk your outlet is all the way down at the bottom of the bottom bunk and the ladder was kind of hard to use, there wasn't anything to really grab on to which I didn't realize when I requested the top bunk. Also it would be helpful to have a small lamp or something at each bed in the wall as I've seen at other hostels. Each room was air conditioned except the kitchen, maybe add a fan somewhere? Also, these are small things but please add a mosquito catcher to the kitchen😫 because there are opened vents(?) In there they get in and I got bit up. And I think you should change the type of trash can that's in the kitchen....it requires guest to use their fingers to opening lid which isn't very sanitary....just a cheap one with a pedal will do. Just one more thing to note, they do rent out the rooftop to non guest on weekends sometimes which I did not know. I get it, make that money anyway you can BUT maybe give the guest some rules because whoever was having a birthday party that night was obnoxiously loud and stomping and singing (screaming) at the top of their lungs.....I'm pretty sure they did it on purpose. Luckily I was leaving that night but the rest of my stay was very nice. Like I said these aren't that big of a deal and the pros definitely outweigh any cons. It's in a great location with a grocery store nearby and a nice coffee shop across the street. Old San Juan is about a 15min UBER drive and the Art Museum is a block away. I highly recommend this place even with those few hiccups, it's the best hostel I've stayed at so far. I would definitely...