Hostal Antigua

This is a cute little hostel that is very close to the center of town. The staff were friendly and professional. I had a single room with a bathroom attached. They have a nice patio on the upper floor that you can sit and enjoy the views. This is a more quiet hostel.

The hostel is in a great location and it's very cute. The people who work there are nice and helpful. It's very nice they have someone there 24/7. I got a single room with private bathroom and my room was right next to the stairway. I was lucky because I had a meshed window in addition to the two small windows on the door, but the room still gets very stuffy because of lack of airflow. There is a fan but even at low it's very strong and blows directly at the bed, it would be hard to sleep like that. I couldn't keep the windows open at night because of sound and also didn't want to open the windows on the doors because of mosquitos. There is no window to the bathroom so when you take a shower all the steam just flows into the room and stays there so the room is a bit musty. The bathroom is moldy probably because of that, so it wasn't the most comfortable stay. You can also hear everything happening as clear as day, people talking, your neighbor hacking and spitting. I'm not sure there's much they can do about it since it is an old place. The value is a little off though. I moved to another hotel now that actually costs less than this room and it's 3 times the size, with high ceilings, quiet, and good airflow, so there are some better options out there.

So close to everything, they clean and tidy all day, secure, rooms are very clean but must say quite tiny - the rooftop kitchen and dining space make up for this such a lovely space, looked after our bags while went up the volcano.

We tried to stayed with this hostel having booked a private room 3 days before we were supposed to stay with them. They checked our card having taking a deposit before refunding it the same day and then send an email confirming our reservation. The day of check-in we were on an 8 hour transfer shuttle from our previous destination where at 6:30pm they charged our card again for the full price of the room. This was a travel card that we DON'T keep money for security reasons and only top up when we need it. No where on their website or reservation does it say they are going to charge the card, let alone before contacting us. After attempting to charge the card and it declining they contacted me saying "Your card was rejected by our system, so it's invalid reservation". I replied to them saying we were 30 minutes away from them and we can pay upon our arrival. Their response 20 minutes later was "Sorry your reservation was cancelled since your card was rejected by our system, and someone else booked" HOW UNHELPFUL. Having been sat on a bus for 8 hours, 30 minutes from checkin they had cancelled our reservation despite us telling them we were on the way and had given it away to someone else. When we went to speak to them about it, they were unapologetic and unsympathetic to us not having a place to stay on Saturday night not looking to resolve our issue due to their actions. Imagine in different circumstances we may have been arriving late via plane and not been able to get in contact with them at all and they'd cancelled our reservation and left us stranded late at night in a foreign city. I would not book with them as at that point what's the point of making a reservation if they don't adhere to it!

Hostal Antigua is fantastic. The hostel is very clean and the staff are so helpful and friendly. Staff are available all day and you can book shuttle buses with the hostel which are very good value. The kitchen facilities are great too. Check in and check out processes were also very quick and easy. Highly recommend staying in this lovely hostel!