Alex Bellink
Google
The hostel facilities itself were lovely. Very clean, comfy beds and nice private bathrooms. I switched to this hostel from another highly rated one that was filthy, because I wanted a quiet, clean place. It sure was quiet with no other guests except the girl working there and her friends.
But the problem is that it's FAR from anything. You have to walk or take an uber to even find a restaurant past 10pm. Here's where my bad rating comes in: I ended up walking at night to find some food in Villa Madalena. After a few blocks I ended up getting robbed at gunpoint. Yeah, I know it's Brazil and nowhere is safe. When I found some people who helped me get back to the hostel, they called to make sure somebody was at the desk to open the door for me and TOLD THEM WHAT HAPPENED. When I arrived, terrified and shaken up, the girl at reception just looked at me, didn't ask if I was okay and I went to my room. When I came back out I needed to use a phone to make an international call. She told me I could use it, but was completely useless in helping me figure out to call internationally, and was completely emotionless, did not seem to care ONE bit and was more focused on telling her friends that she "couldn't believe I got robbed in THIS neighborhood".
I wanted to like this hostel, and I don't blame them for what happened to me on the streets, but the hostess's lack of compassion in a time when I REALLY needed help, made an already horrifying situation even worse. I was one of the only guests there (I think there was 2 others) and it didn't seem like helping me out and showing some kindness was that hard.