Rayuela Hostel

Overall 4.5 stars. This is one of the few remaining hostels that hasn't been ravaged by air bnb or hotels. The owner was very friendly and even showed my gf and I how to properly prepare and drink mate. I saw another review on here about a small shower. They must have been huge because the shower was adequate. Pros: affordable / atmospheric / great location / washer, kitchen, bathroom / felt secure / staff was friendly and helpful Cons: walls can be thin but the common room is far away enough that my sleep wasn't disturbed (plus if you don't have ear plugs anyways then you're messing up). The only A/C I felt was in the common room, but even in summer it cool inside. A cool hostel with good location and security at an affordable rate. Will stay here again on my next visit to Buenos Aires.

Hostel was good, room was big, but shower was so small we had to keep a foot in and a foot out. It wouldn’t be a big deal at all if it wasn’t for our terrible experience with the employee/volunteer on duty on the night of November 25 to 26, 2024. We had the misfortune to have intoxicated guests waking us up in the middle of the night. I’ve traveled in hostels for the last 20 years and know it can happen, but after 2 hours; at 6 AM, we decide to ask those people to lower their voices or to keep partying out of the hostel, but they unfortunately got very angry at us for it. We decided to go back to bed with them continuing their party next to us and when we had to leave, at 7 AM, we tried talking about it to the volunteer on duty that day. That’s when we realized she was with that group of friends as she looked at us smiling, sarcastically saying she was sorry, and leaving us alone while she entered the shower with another drunk girl. When they got out, still shouting, I gently asked them to lower their voice and tried talking calmly with them, but the drunk girl threaten me and the volunteer laughed at us, got sarcastic and very arrogant. We were supposed to stay there one more night, but it really didn’t feel safe, so I still stayed very calm to ask for a refund and cancellation of my reservation. The volunteer ignored me at first, faking to be working by counting money over and over again, until I told her our uber driver had arrived and we really needed to leave. She finally did, but kept acting completely inadequately, strongly smelled like alcool and couldn’t answer any of our questions. She also stated that this was part of using hostels, but as a very experienced traveled, I truly never felt so unsafe anywhere in the world.

Such an amazing hostel, right in the centre of BA. The staff went above and beyond for us during our two stays at this accommodation and showed us a level of kindness we haven’t seen in staff in a very long time. Helpful and genuinely lovely staff seems to be harder and harder to find these days but this hostel did not disappoint! I strongly recommend staying here when visiting Argentina 😊 Just to note: there are no bed curtains in the private rooms and the shower temperatures are a little hard to master!

The hostel is in a good location, near to central and close to buses and trains. The private rooms are quite nice with Aircon and are very spacious. The cleanliness of the bathroom and kitchen could be a lot better and the kitchen is a bit unorganised with little to cook with. The staff are very nice and friendly. There are no activities planned at the hostel, or maybe just not the time we were there - but it makes the atmosphere a little quiet and people keep to themselves.

First off, this place is very tiny. If you’re young and looking to socialize and meet interesting people on your trip this isn’t the hostel for you. On a positive note the staff was lovely and very accommodating. Had some great interactions with them and loved how they presented themselves. The vibe they created in the hostel was pretty depressing though… When I came back from my late lunch in the city the sunlight was starting to fade. Once I got up to the hostel it was pretty much pitch black in there except for a light beside the check in desk. Seemed very eerie and strange for that early in the night. Once I got to my room the lights were also off and other guests were getting ready for bed and sleeping (keep in mind it’s around 8pm at this point…) Now let’s get to the guests (the people you share your stay with). Judging by other reviews I guess I got unlucky. Every single other guest was very timid and unwilling to even acknowledge me when I arrived at the hostel which was unfortunate. The most interaction I got was a few glances and snares from the others. The other guests seemed forced to be there rather than be there by choice. Also like noted above the early bed times were strange. I ended up going to my friends to stay the night because I didn’t want to bother the other patrons by staying up and reading / watching television. You can’t put that on the hostel but it is the atmosphere they created at the end of the day so some responsibility lies on them. All in all the hostel is not bad and 2 stars might be harsh considering how great the staff was, the atmosphere is depressing though if you’re young and social.

This has nothing to do with the facilities or the vibe or anything. I didn't stay here, but yesterday I walked for 3kms to check this place out because I was planning on staying the next night. I asked at the intercom if I could come in to look at the facilities before making my reservation for the next night. As far as I know this is quite a nor.al thing to do. And disgracefully, the receptionist told me no you can't to that. I politely asked again, why not? And she just said no. So for that reason, they lost my business. As I said, maybe a nice hostel, but this is pretty horrible service if you ask me.

We are really disappointed by this hostel and so sorry, but we can’t recommend it. We were looking for a clean, basic place to sleep, so we didn’t expect much and have chosen it also bc of the cheap price. Stayed 4 nights and everyday we experienced something bad. All in all the hostel is really run-down, even for that money. Cracked walls, broken tiles on the floor, it’s is constantly cold, has a grimy character. One morning we found a used condom on the floor in the bathroom (it was the day we checked out, otherwise we would have left). kitchen: never really clean, there wasn’t a single day where you could find the sink clean (either dirty dishes or food), a cockroach greeted us at cooking area, so we decided not to cook there. The common room is not comfortable to stay bc almost everyday somebody was sleeping on the couch during the early day time. The staff were volunteers, very young, friendly but don’t seem to have really an idea or care. Really inconsiderate when turning the music on extremely loud Friday night and partying next to our dorm in the corridor. Also turning on the light at night while people we’re sleeping to welcome new guests, eating with feet in the couch table… we can’t blame the hostel for some rude and respectless other guests in our dorm, but they made even our nights horrible. The dorm was ok, but very dark and bad air since there is no real window. In the end, we needed to pay the double amount of money for the stay, because they charge the blue dollar, which nobody told us before, and we never got the email with this information as the staff mentioned. Also the staff couldn’t explain this to me, since she has no idea of the “inflation thing with the money” as she admit. To my serious question, if this is how it works in BA with other hotels, she said yes but that’s not true bc we just changed the accommodation today and the new hostel didn’t do this… Take care of this, it’s not correct and tricky if you ask me. The only good things were one (a bit older) woman from the staff, she was very friendly and helpful and the location of the hostel, which is right in the center.

Rayuela is the best hostel if you want a real and personal experience. Other hostels in BA feel commercialized and lack that at-home feel you get at Rayuela. It’s smaller and more intimate which allows for better socializing and quality time. For example, instead of just going out to party (which we did that too), there were many nights where we stayed in and cooked each other meals from our home countries or watched movies in the living room until 2am. The owners are very chill and down to earth and the faculty is very warm and welcoming. I stayed there for a month but definitely could have stayed much longer.