ATownsend75
Google
Every hotel I have been to has always had it's ups and downs and Hotel Mango was no different. I'll start on a positive note and mention the ups first.||||The room I was provided was adequate, the bed being a single mattress on a wire frame, but it was firm enough even for a big guy like me that I could sleep comfortably on it. The tv had a few english channels which was nice, including one of the HBO or cinemax channels. Unfortunately, my room was inside a hallway so I did not have the sitting area outside my room, but most rooms seemed to, giving you a small set of chairs and a table to relax at. The AC in the room worked quite well and brought the temp down quickly and maintained a very cool temp which I appreciated after the 90 degree (and 90+ % humidity) outside. ||||The food was decent, nothing great. Breakfast Americana included 2 eggs, 2 small strips of bacon, some dry toast and a hot dog/sausage I couldn't quite place the taste of. ||||The lobby area was nicely kept with a small bar area and comfortable lounge chairs / loveseats, and was gated. The pool area was kept decent, but the cheap plastic furniture left a lot to be desired. ||||The staff member I dealt with the most spoke decent english and helped me figure out a few things about the town, including where I could go for money, food and pretty much anything else I inquired about. ||||Now on to the downside of this hotel... which, unfortunately, seems to be a bit of a bigger list. ||||The room itself was quite small as I mentioned, with the bed nearly jutting up to the table the TV was on, barely leaving enough room for me to even put my suitcase down. The toilet was close to touching the cabinet in the bathroom, and the shower was so narrow I had the curtain rubbing up against me the entire time I was in it, making me a bit uncomfortable. ||||Part of your key is a tag that has to be inserted into a slot correctly in order to turn on the electricity in the room. While I can understand why they would like to make sure you're not leaving the lights and AC on when you go out for the day, this makes coming back to the room somewhat uncomfortable as it is stifling hot. As mentioned above, however, the AC did cool the room fairly quickly so it wasn't a huge deal. ||||As another reviewer mentioned, the gate was open most of the time I was there, only having had to be let out maybe three times at the most. during my stay. I made the grave mistake of telling a guy I was talking to where I was staying (But did NOT give him my room number) and lo and behold, he showed up at my hotel door trying to get me to go to a club he wanted me to see. I couldn't believe they would tell him what room I was in when I didn't even give him my name. Absolute breach of security there. ||||The hotel itself is situated in a part of town I would highly recommend you don't walk around in at night. It is closer to 8 blocks from the beach rather than 4 as another reviewer mentioned, and those 8 blocks are quite seedy. There are always motorbike taxis waiting outside the hotel which you can take for 50 pesos (if you can find change, they won't give it to you if you only have 100 pesos bills) but as quite a few locals mentioned to me, these guys are usually on something and are not the safest drivers even when clean and sober. You're taking a chance, but, in my opinion, less of one than walking at night, especially returning to the hotel after midnight. ||||I had ordered a shuttle from the airport and had emailed the staff regarding my flight number, date and time, on three separate occasions. Twice I got a reply email asking for the flight number again, and when I got to the airport, no shuttle. I ended up having to take a cab, which was $30.00 + tip instead of the hotel $25.00 charge. They claimed they never got any of my emails. ||||Be aware, if you pay for anything at the hotel (Shuttle to airport, food, drinks ..etc) with a credit card, they will charge you an additional 10% for a credit card usage fee. I found this quite annoying but I was out of cash and needed a ride back to the airport so got stuck paying. ||||The safe in the room is small, but feels securely attached at least. The problem I had is that I felt very uncomfortable taking the safe key out of the room for fear of losing it as I was told I had the only key, so I looked for different, very hard to find spots to hide the key in my room, but ended up not having any issues anyhow. ||||In conclusion, I would say this:||||This is NOT a hotel I would recommend to anyone with kids, for sure, the area it is in is simply not safe and the hotel security is lacking in many ways. ||||Do NOT walk to the hotel from the beach or duarde blvd, take a motorbike taxi or, better yet, a car taxi if you can get one, unless it happens to be in the middle of the day in which case you should be fine. If you ARE walking, keep a tight hold on any bags you might have, snatch and grabs are pretty common here. ||||You can find better hotels closer to the beach for just a little more money, I would highly recommend doing this.||||If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a message, be happy to answer.