Hotel Los Olivos Santiago Atitlan

First, the hotel is not like pictured or described. It is way more worn out and old. Also, there’s quiet an among of trash on the grass tha twang removed over the days we were there, the different options described online with for example paddling etc. was highly limited. All of this made me feel like it had been way oversold online.

Second, while the shared rooms are cheap, and they looked like the pictures, the rooms felt cold and damp.

Third, the restaurant is really not good. The food is bad AND expensive. For breakfast, it was ok, but not for other meals. The service was poor too, and although stating they took international cards, ours were rejected every time.

Fourth, it rained a lot on my second night, and the roof ended up falling (literally!) down, and the water was pouring in. The receptionist offered another bed, but since I had friends staying in a room in one of the proper buildings, and I was afraid that further of the roof would fall down (also with water and electricity mixed), I chose to move into their room. Which was very lucky for me of course, others would not have had that option. For this, I was offered 250q back, but taken into consideration that I stayed with my friends two nights and checked out early from two nights too because of the whole experience, I thought this was a little too little.

Also speaking to the general quality, the power went out the last the day for many hours during the nights and all morning, there was barely any water coming out of the showers, and a bathroom door in my friends’ room kept locking. Stuff like this added to the experience that the place is not properly maintained.

Please also further note they do not serve alcohol, staff speaks only Spanish, making it hard to get help with booking for example hiking trips, and they do not have WiFi in the rooms. All of this is of course completely ok, but just something to bear in mind that is not informed upon booking.

All in all: I would not recommend!

Roof broke, a bit to rustique. Pool not clean

The food at the restaurant was mediocre and the service was bad. They brought us the wrong dishes twice and took it back to give to another table. The coffee is luke warm water, barely any coffee taste. There is no bar/alcohol. The room was fine but the shower consistently ran out of hot water quickly. The location isn’t great. Santiago seems to be a less popular Atitlán town. The hotel was a 5-10min taxi away from the main town. No one on staff speaks English so communication can be a struggle if you don’t speak great Spanish. If you know what you’re getting into and looking for a peaceful retreat this could be great for you. However, it wasn’t what we were looking for.

The location and the conditions was nice

There weren’t any people in the hostel portion of the hotel which meant it felt a bit spooky in the evenings. I think there should be more information on the website to help visitors: the full menu with prices and prices/details on how to get to the hotel via tuk tuk. I also got the impression that it was somewhat of a religious hotel when I got there which isn’t a problem at all but I was surprised so think it would probably be good to include that on the website.

Service is awful: Reception personnel is not there most of the time, they advertise kayaks, but they don´t have ANY activity to be performed at the hotel, taking into account a dirty pool and only 1 tuk tuk that works with them to take you in / out of the hotel leads to a waste of money and time.

As people have mentioned in the past, the management of this hotel is absolutely atrocious. On my first day here I asked for a smoothie and was told they couldn't provide it because there was no electricity. Knowing of frequent short power outages in the city, I wondered if it would be a temporary thing, whereupon I was told that, no, no power would be available until the next day!! From sundown until about 9AM I was stuck in this hotel with literally nothing to do but sleep, for there are no activities, and there were no lights whatsoever. Why? Because the electricity bill was not paid. No warning whatsoever either, I just found out on accident because I asked for a smoothie. I was on a working trip and had booked this hotel counting on its wifi so that I would be able to work, and I found myself unable to for half my stay, and without even so much as a warning.

Everything was good

No bar/ alcohol service. Luke warm water in shower. Lots of Mosquitos. Restaurant closes at 7pm. Noisy rooms- can hear neighboring rooms through walls.

Did not have amenities that were listed
The room was not ready at check in time (took over an hour to be let in to our room. The front desk woman did not offer to take our bags so we were stuck sitting with our belongings until the room was ready, delaying our sight seeing)
Our view was obstructed by an old dirty mattress once we were let in the room
The front desk was not 24hrs
There was no hair dryer
There was no mini bar
No English speaking front desk agent
The restaurant did not serve drinks
The pool was dirty
No toilet paper in the common bathrooms
Only one roll of toilet paper in the room and it was never replaced

There’s really not a bad thing I can say about Hotel Los Olivos. Would stay here again in a heart beat 🩵

The mosquitoes

They burned the trash so the hotel got smoked

The kitchen in our suite did not work. The drain in the shower did not work. The food was super expensive and serving stopped very early. No wifi in the rooms available.