Maki Hostel Valparaiso

Staff were really friendly, but the hostel was empty… we stayed as just the two of us in an 8-bed dorm for 4 days. That’s what made me realize I was getting bitten during the night (and I’m almost certain they were bed bug bites!!). After doing a bit of research, I found reports from 2024 mentioning the same issue. Be careful!

There's a hygiene issue in the hostel, even though the cleaning staff do their part. Bathrooms are not well-built, too small, stagnant water from poor drainage, mold on the fan if there is a fan, too little air circulation. Worst of all: bed bugs! I had it and a other person at the hostel too. Clearly no mosquito bites (also didn't spot a single mosquito). The solution they offered? "we can do laundry of your clothes". That wouldn't help your case, and is just not an appropriate solution anyway. Creo que el personal de limpieza hace todo lo posible. Sin embargo, existe un problema intrínseco de higiene. Por ejemplo, los baños no tienen ventana o el ventilador tiene moho. Y las chinches de cama son realmente malas.

BED BUGS

En mi estadía en el hostal quedé llena de picaduras de chinches. Una experiencia realmente desagradable. A mi solicitud de devolución de dinero aún no contestaron.

To start, I got bedbugs while I was here. This isn't one of those reviews where I had a bad experience, so I write BED BUGS in the review. I legitimately got bed bugs and so did everyone in my room. it makes sense because the rooms are overcrowded, even though about half of the hostel was empty, and rarely cleaned. The space is cramped and dirty, oh yeah, and it has bedbugs.

I stayed at Maki for about two weeks. I'm sure you think I am crazy for staying in a place for 2 weeks that I rate one star. The truth is at first it was a great place and I had a good time bonding with the staff and enjoying the vibe. However, one night changed all that. After cooking dinner about a week into my stay, there was a slight miscommunication about cleaning dishes which I take part of the blame for. Rather than a polite warning (where we all would have cleaned our dishes at once), one of the volunteers of the hostel verbally berated me and another individual there. He even went so far as to threaten one of us gesturing with a knife. He was then held back by other volunteers from fighting with another individual there. I didn't report it at the time since while he was a volunteer and I was a client before we were friends and I didn't want him to get kicked out. We all suspected he had taken drugs the day before and after the come-down he would return to normal. I also had heard that he was planning on leaving in a few days anyways, so I thought, I'll just wait it out. However, he continued to verbally berate me in the days following, making snide comments, even when I was simply sitting in the common areas. It got to a point where I said "enough is enough, either he goes, or I do." So I went to report it to administration. If you look at some of the recent reviews, you'll see I'm not the only one to have had an issue with this individual. Looks like the "rigorous customer service training, including advanced classes in politeness and courtesy" were unsuccessful. When I reported it to administration, they told me they already knew about everything and that they had told him to leave on Sunday when he had plans to stay much longer. What I fail to understand is why an individual can be deemed too unsafe to stay for months, but a few days more is just fine. I realized I was accepting these snide and aggressive comments because they were too cowardly, too lazy, or too obtuse to put the safety of guests first, instead of a volunteer that had clearly lost his mind. It makes absolutely no sense and shows a complete disregard for client safety and comfort. Once I raised this concern, the staff members who had been cool with me, immediately changed their tune and went cold. The only resolution they offered was for me to change rooms (since I shared a dorm with the lunatic) and didn't offer any other reprieve. I told them I was moving out that day and that I would be publishing a review. While the volunteer was cursing me out, the staff said "well make sure you tell the whole truth of when we were nice to you" For which I said, " it doesn't really matter how many beers you share with me, if you don't care about my safety, it negates it all" I then went to Casa Chaman, 10 meters up the hill, and there the vibe was much better and luckily there were no lunatics. Now that he is gone, maybe its better, maybe its not. However, for my money, I'd just go somewhere else where they care more about your safety. PS: While they may have fumigated since, there were confirmed bed bugs. So, there's that too.

There was bed bugs in (at least) 3 beds in the room 10. They said they were taking care of it. I was able to change room and they did my laundry for free

Fuuull of bedbugs!!

the property had bed bugs. brought back the actual bed bug in a zploc to the front desk and pictures of blood steins on the pillow. while the guy was trying to be helpful, the woman was aguing ot was only red ink on the pillow and got no argument for the bug. because in don’t know in her mind we all sleep with a red pen. anyways, got refunded for what we pay at property but they refuse to reimburse the deposit. hostelworld also refused to refund the deposit.

First, even if we only spent no more than a few minutes in the room as we quickly made the choice to leave this hostel for the reason mentioned below, I had the feeling that it would have been hard to sleep in this place: even in the middle of the afternoon, the street was very noisy and the single-glazing window would have been of no help. As usual, the first thing I did when arriving in a new hotel was to check the bed. Until now, in all the places I went to, those checks turned out to be useless. Not that time. The first bed of the room I checked was ok: the mattress seemed new. However, the second bed turned out to offer an unexpected show: the mattress was full of tiny black spots. As bedbugs like to point out their presence with such spots, I immediately left the room, with all our belongings, and I informed the reception’s staff members of my finding. Although they were embarrassed, they finally explained that those black spots were not due to the presence of bed bugs: they were fungus due to the humidity. Therefore, we were offered three choices: believing the staff members and happily accepting to sleep on a mattress colonized by fungus, not believing them and happily accepting to sleep on a mattress colonized by bedbugs that would have colonized our belongings or just leaving this hostel as soon as possible to find a place that would suit us more. We chose the third option and the staff members refunded us what we had paid. Less importantly, I have to add that, out of the almost 4000 kilometers I drove in Chile, driving in the city center of Valparaiso was the most challenging part: it is hilly, it is full of one-way narrow streets invaded by cars and groups of tourists (such as the street of this hostel).

BEDBUGS PLAGUE! WORST TIME EVER