Name: Color Hostel
Address: Calle 26 No 2a -24, Santa Marta, Santa Marta, Santa Marta, 470004, Colombia
Rating: 8

24-hour reception

Smoking areas

Ticket assistance

Garden

Television in lobby

Terrace

Express check-out

No elevators

General

Laundry

Concierge services

Dry-cleaning

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Coffee/tea for guests

Breakfast

Common kitchen

Restaurant

Snack bar

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Airport transportation

Transfer

Multi-language staff

Languages Spoken

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Hiking

Sun Deck

Recreation

Free parking nearby

Parking

Swimming pool

Pool and beach

Playroom

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hostel

Simon Bolivar International Airport

Color Hostel

Santa Marta

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

We booked last minute having been let down by another booking. This hostel is clean and the staff very welcoming and helpful. We have a double room with ensuite facilities and with A/C. Breakfast was good and they even provided breakfast at 6.00am when we were on an early excursion (which they helped arrange)

A very welcoming place to stay

Hostel Color

I was 5 days with Hostel Color and spent some time in the room for doing some work with the computer.
During my stay I did comment some issues to the administrator directly. But he did not want to improve or change something. He reacted very defensive. Even when I told him that I do not like the dog close to me during my breakfast time he reacted very strange.
The administrator told me that the dog was in the Hostal before me hmmm ?

Therefore I started to an analyse a bit the feedback given from other travellers.

Each point was commented by different travellers at different times during the year. And… it looks like that the administration is not willing to improve. This are all in Spanish because I just copied and past it. This is not my feedback.

1. tienen animales en el hostel, muy amigables pero lastimosamente muuuy sucios

2. De noche  el ruido es insoportable, imposible dormir. 

3. Un desastre. La gerencia No sabe tratar a los clientes... Y menos a los empleados, Maltrato total 0 capacidad para manejar un hostal

4. Los cuartos compartidos son limpios y con buenas camas. La piscina es demasiado pequeña si uno quiere estar todo el día ahí. El staff del Hostel es poco amable.

4. No hay una mesita o sillas dentro de la habitacion, aunque hay suficiente espacio disponible. No hay agua caliente. El recipiente de desechos en el baño es demasiado pequeño

Here my comments after stayed 4 nights in a private room with my wife.

My first impression was very good. Clean rooms. Nice Color concept. Room kind of big enough. Chair and little table was missing in the private rooms.

There is no hot water. Actually not a big problem.  But when you do not know then you are waiting some time to see if there is hot water…..

There is always a dog around. You meet him in the kitchen at the reception and also when you do eat something in the clients area. As I complaint about directly to the administrator  the he just told me that the dog was in the Hostal before me hmmm ?

There are many different people working at the reception. The only person who was motivated and very helpful was Laurent, the Recepción Lady during day time. Also Mister Heiderson who was sometimes covering the night shift was very friendly and open minded.
Thanks a lot for that service.

The second night we stayed in the Hostel it was Saturday. There was a party close to the Hostal. They had loud music until 03:00 in the morning. We really have been surprised that nobody was calling the police…..

The private rooms facing the pool do get a lot of sun. So we had to close the sun protection the whole day. The privat  rooms with the little courtyard on the other side are better. We changed after 3 nights and liked it more.

Now there is rainy season here in Santa Marta. Therefore you will feel a bit the Moskitos. Would be recommended to have some protection against them.

Some general informations about Taxis in Santa Marta.
The taxi from the airport to the Hostal is 35’000 Pesos.
Taxi for short distance in town 6’000 Pesos.
Taxi for middle distance in town 8’000 Pesos
Taxi for longer distance in town 10’000 Pesos
Taxi to Taganga between 12 to 15’000 Pesos
Some taxis do have a taximeter. But are not using them.

I do hope that the management will consider the points I mentioned. Actually I did like the rooms and the concept of the Hostel. You can use the kitchen, you get free water, coffee and tea. The reception is staffed 24 hours 7 days.

Interesting place to stay but……

The hostel is brand new but is missing a lot to get a good rating. The rooms on the lower floor are by the reception and communal area therefore you can hear everything and everyone. The first morning a woke up with a group being very loud in the shower. Because there was availability, I was able to move to another room on the second floor. Breakfast a la carta is only 4 items to choose from and coffee is served almost cold.The shower that they call ducha tipo lluvia is real but barely any water comes out of it. It took me 30 min to shower everyday because of the limited amount of water.Staff is very friendly and willing to help but I don’t think it makes up for the facilities downfalls if you are having longer stays in Santa Marta.The location is great close to the city centre and public transport.

Stayed here after reading these mostly positive reviews and am now forced to write my own. There is no one thing wrong with this place, more an accumulation of minor annoyances that when taken together make it overpriced. We paid 90,000CP for a private room with private bathroom and this is what we got: a pool that was unswimmable due to leaves and garbage, balls of mysterious hair in our shower, no water the next morning in any of the bathrooms and a general air of dirtiness and neglect you would expect to find in a place that charges half the price.  Receptionists were friendly enough except when asked about the breakfast we'd been promised at 7am that didn't arrive till 8am. Tasty though.

These reviews are too high

The girls who work here are very friendly, and very helpful. Breakfast was amazing (pancakes, fruits, fresh juice, coffee...) and included. The pool is tiny - more like a bathtub. The location is pretty central, but in a quiet street. 

Facilities are nice for the price, I'd definitely stay here again. 

Very cute place 

The rating on Trip Advisor is too high for this hotel in my opinion.

I don't know the history of this hostel however it feels like whatever money it makes needs to be reinvested back into the hostel. Much of this place has been patched together with plywood. 

The cupboard was converted into lockers and includes powerpoints(genius) however the latches were too big so you have to use thongs/flip flops to bar the latch and make it function (not so genius). 

Interestingly enough one the of the staff fills a locker with her stuff but had fixed her latch with an extra piece of hardware so it can lock properly. She didn't apply this to the other lockers for clients so she must know the others are broken but hey - who cares.

Bathroom door locks don't work. Latch to my locker was also broken.

The pool is green and is really more of a spa.

Getting in and out of the hostel is slow since you have to buzz the door and they use a padlock to open it and it always seemed to be a bit of a bother for the staff.

The staff also  move at glacial pace. They  sleep in your dorm if there are spare beds which was a first but didn't bother me.

Breakfast is fine, but ensure you get their attention if you have a day planned. 

Hammocks are good, location is good.

Rooms are crammed with less than a foot of space between the bunks (bunks are very sturdy).

There are better hostels out there, unfortunately, my number 1 choice was taken which has way better facilities for the same price.

In a few years this place could be good, but I think the staff just need to spend less time on their mobile phones and extra few minutes fixing things up and making it competitive.

It will still make money picking up backpackers when better hostels are full.

Ok, write off the swimming pool, needs tweaks. Overpriced, staff are nice enough but don't care about the business

The hotel advertisies free wifi in all areas however this is not the case. For the entire stay I did not get any wifi in my room and would have to sit in reception in order to get any signal. No hot showers available. The bed sheets had not been cleaned properly and had blood stains and hair on them which is absolutely disgusting. For the location, I would recommend this hotel to others as it is very close to the old town. However in terms of the service I would warn everyone to stay away!

Average Hotel, Close to the old town

A very good place to spend sometime in Santa Marta. A little out of the center, like 4 streets, which is a good thing. You can walk anywhere in Santa Marta. But it is nice to sleep somewhere a little more calm.Loved the people that worked there. Very helpful.

The hostel is very basic but people are friendly and it is located on a safe block.   No one speaks English so there is no one to help you with travel plans/information about the town should your Spanish be less than fluent.   Also - we booked a private room - the door barely closes and the bed is probably the most uncomfortable mattress I've slept on in any of my travels of the last few years.   Overall - it's fine if you're it expecting much and don't mind a less than stellar bed 

So-so

The place was pretty nice, though the pool is significantly smaller than shown in the photos. We were given a private room that would not close properly since apparently someone broke the lock days earlier and it had not been fixed. They had lockers to put our expensive stuff in though. We were received pretty well by the receptionist the day we arrived, and coordinated with her for a 6 o'clock breakfast since we had to take a bus early the day after. When we woke up, no breakfast was in sight and after a half hour asking for it with a guy who was in charge of the reception at night, the bus came and we had to go. An unfortunate incident for an otherwise halfway decent stay.

Color Hostel

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