Villa 25 Hostel & Suites

Topper

I meant to send this complaint I wrote when I stayed in Jan but haven't been able to send until now. Better late than never and an insight into my horrible experience: There were wifi connection issues when I arrived this morning around 11am and a guy in reception politely told me it was being fixed. I spent the day out and when I returned to the hostel at around 4pm I couldn't connect and a girl in my room had connection. I went to reception to enquire. Someone passed away in my family and it was important for me to contact home. A guy called Luciano was at the reception and I politely explained how I wasn't able to connect. He told me to use the number of my roommate to log in but the login page wasn't loading on my phone. I asked if an exception can be made to login to office wifi because it was urgent and he said 'there is no exception' really loud, in a negative tone, in front of others in reception. I can accept not being able to use office wifi but I did not feel comfortable with his manner of communication to me in front of other people, his behaviour seemed like he was trying to intimidate me and was very rude. After he finished another task I showed him my phone screen when I try to connect. He spoke to me as if I was incompetent at pressing a button, then took my phone out of my hand to click 'continue' himself and, as was the case when I tried, nothing was happening. He then told me to restart my phone and whilst it was restarting I asked him what his name was because I wanted to make a complaint about the interaction. After I asked for his name he made a little effort to explain that people who connected to wifi yesterday can access wifi but people who try to connect today cannot access it and it is being fixed. I said okay thanks and left reception. I am travelling alone, that was my first day in Brazil and this experience upset me to the point that I went to my room and cried. I was staying at Villa 25 for 6 nights and felt very unhappy about this experience, I wouldn't recommend Villa 25 for this reason.

I just went to the restaurant located on the Hostel, what I do recommend. About the Hostel, at least as far as I could see, is beautiful, clean and looks really good. It's well located and in a good neighborhood.

Great costumer service, nice location, well cared amenities

Overall the hostel is good. Like a 3.9. ************************************************************ What it has: Room is as advertised with working wifi (both upstairs and downstairs), clean premises, a wall plug right by the bed for charging phones, hot water, free good breakfast (no eggs though, sorry egg lovers), accessible by public transit, close to metro, relatively close to the park and cycling trail, free storage, lots of grocery stores in the general area, very friendly helpful staff & a restaurant open to the public right underneath. I would say the restaurant is a little pricey but that’s the price range for a lot of similar restaurants. The restaurant food is good- not a lot of options though. I had the steak, rice & beans, and potato wedges and these were good/phenomenal. I had the burger and it was awful. For non-fussy eaters, there are affordable & cheaper options outside of the hostel if you are looking for street food and the like. At the time I was there, at least half of the employees were bilingual (so spoke Portuguese /Spanish/English – any combination of the two), so yay English speakers or Spanish speakers. Depending on traffic, it’s about a 20 min drive or longer from the major airport. The hostel is in a safe area for any race, gender or other. You can walk out and wander around randomly & freely at any time of day. The hostel provides US dollar exchange & you could buy phone sim cards from there. The one I purchased didn’t work but don’t let that stop you from purchasing one. Uber works and so does uber eats. ======================================================================= Cons (these have been written just so solo travelers know what to expect when at the hostel as opposed to written with intent to ‘trash’ the hostel): ======================================================================= Your US wall plug adapter won't work. Get the Brazilian one. Wi-Fi is one device per individual (so if you used your one device initially, say cellphone, you cannot connect your tablet or other device on Wi-Fi at the same time or after). If your phone is on airplane mode, as would be for foreigners, you’ll have trouble with the Wi-Fi. The rooms are pretty small. A 28in suitcase or larger, would take up too much space in the room especially if there’s more than 2 people in the room. Carry-on luggage would be too large to fit in the room lockers. The top beds are so high (fall hazard). If you are the kind that needs to use the washroom at night and you are on a top bed – well sucks to be you  Again not much they can do there but some of the rooms face the road so there will be that noise factor early in the am especially if there’s construction. There’s just a number of washrooms on each floor. No communal kitchen or refrigerator or microwave or kettle for hot water or laundry services. If you are the kind who needs a lie in early in the evening some nights can be busy at the restaurant & loud. Carry ear plugs. The music stops about 10.30pm though. Gates are closed somewhere after 11pm and you have to identify yourself to the gatemen/security – this can go any direction (pro or con). No ‘internal hostel arranged’ activities for solo travelers, though the hosts do a good job sharing activities that may be happening that they deem might be of interest. The hosts will assist in getting you all - day guided tours. These are no different albeit cheaper than what you will find on trip advisor. If you still want to save more and can haggle/speak the language, they are no different from what you will purchase from any local travel agency within the area. I was not there in the summer so I can’t say much for AC. =========================================== Are you a hot tea person? Green? Black? Yeah, you are going to have a hell of a time finding hot tea in this general area (this is not part of the hostel review).