Dirk Verhagen
Google
I try not to write reviews to warn people away from a place, but the summary of this review is: do not stay here unless you have no other choice due to availability or budget. The owner does not care about basic hygiene or repairs. If you do stay here, go to the beach and consider this as a bed for rent, nothing more. Really the only upside is the location. Now, for the longer review:
Last minute it turned out that our tent had sprung a leak and we had to find something else. Friends of ours had booked at howler monkey, it was pretty cheap so we booked without thinking. We were welcomed by the owner, who barely looked up from his YT videos, but eventually seemed to realize we needed a key and walked us to our cottage, only after paying a slightly inflated price in cash (he seems to think credit card companies charge 9%). It was small, but to be fair, in that sense it was value for money. The small space was used smartly with a tiny cooking stove, shower, toilet and a rickety stairs up to the bedroom. The bedroom was actually sort of okay. However, our fan only worked at maximum (noisy) power and was caked with dust which not even the fan was able to blow off (luckily I guess). The cabin was littered with dead insects. We wanted to put down our toothbrushes but every surface was sticky, dusty, and had residue on it which had obviously been there a while. When walking down the stairs (which had nails sticking out), I bumped into toilet paper, which was used to plug holes in the insect netting. In the morning when I could not find a spot to put down some other utensils, discovered an electricity box with burned wiring, and found an ant trail toward the dead insects, we figured we'd chalk the second night up to a loss and book somewhere else. We tried to find him in the morning but he was nowhere to be found. Left a message, never got a response.
Our friends were in a larger cabin with stairs where you had to avoid certain steps due to rotting wood, and ants falling through the ceiling on their bed. The bathroom meant walking these stairs in the dark as you cannot get there directly from your bedroom.
The pool had crabs in it, leaves etc, so don't expect too much of that either. Not the most important feature as it is directly next to a beach, which actually looks really nice. So if you book here, don't do it for the pool.
To put this in context, I have traveled countries like Bulgaria, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, on a shoestring budget. I've been in some not great places but never felt that it was this run down or the owners seemed to care so little. Just 15-30 mins of cleaning per week would already do so much (remember, the cabin is tiny!) and yet even this seems too much effort. There is simply no excuse for these things if you even care a little about your guests.
I also wanted to write it up to bad luck, but on leaving saw the doors to another cabin open. It was just as bad. We also checked the reviews on the booking (.com)website and if you think the owner has good intentions, I urge you to read his replies there to the negative reviews. Just to get ahead of his response, I'll address the points he usually makes in response to negative reviews:
No I was not on stimulants, if I was maybe I would have liked the place.
The dog liked me.
It's the jungle, how can he possibly stop insects? Well I don't own a hotel so I don't know, but perhaps the owner could check with one of the other 50 hotels in the area who seem to manage just fine. Some first tips would be to take the trash out more often than once a season (yes, he mentioned he was looking for a solution to insects gathering if he left trash out for months), and not leave dead insects lying around.
I am not from France, so that's not the reason I am complaining. (Yes this was also his response to some customers)
Also, just have a look at the photos.
I would have given 2 or 3 stars, but his terrible responses to his guests got it down to a 1. It could be a really nice place, but desperately needs a new owner.
