Royal Galápagos Inn

Honest review! Could have been three or four stars but owner tried to screw us around. Travelling with my wife, three-year-old and Mom. Booked a three bed room, and even called a month earlier to clarify for sure the booking was for a room with three beds and he said yes. After paying for the room, where he seemed to not know how to use his credit card machine (telling me that he uses the tap function for $1000+ transactions)…… and I had to help him by showing him how to insert the card??? Should’ve been the first hint….. He took us up to the room, opened the door, put some of our luggage in there and showed me the room with two beds….. I said to him, we are supposed to have three beds, and he responded, and I quote “you can accommodate can’t you”…… and he went on to say it’s not that big of a deal. I couldn’t even believe it….. after he charged us for our triple room price, which was substantially more than the double room. I said to him, you charged us for a three bed room, that is what we paid for, we will NOT accommodate for you. After he saw that we would not accommodate his request he showed us the room next to it, which was ready to go and had three beds and was much bigger! He completely tried to give us the wrong room and resell the more expensive triple room, not cool! It was obvious to us that he had done this to others before and gotten away with it. Of course after I called him out on it, he more or less gave us the cold shoulder for our five days there…… Beware of this guy! There were other positives and negatives with this place, but once someone tries to pull an action like this, that’s it for me. If I could give it a zero I would, hopefully he’s sees this and thinks twice before trying to take advantage of any more guests in the future.

Upon arrival, our room booked on ******* was not noted anywhere in their paper records. The receptionist did not speak English but luckily someone came in who could translate for us. After calling the owner and explaining multiple times that we made a booking on *******, we got lucky that they had an extra room for us. If they did not have that extra room, we would have been in a tough situation. The shower was very low pressure but the AC was cold and it is a convenient location to all that San Cristobal has to offer. We would not stay here again at risk of being left without a room.

The best I can say is Meh…. If you have other options, take them!! I think this place is kind of a rip off. The place is under piecemeal renovations and therefore dusty and noisy. The back of the building faces a giant tear down, and although the views from some of the rooms are lovely, it just isn’t worth the $200+ the owner charges for a small room, a paltry breakfast and zero amenities. Other negatives: Giant wasp/hornets nests everywhere that the owner ignores. Tiny bathrooms with faulty fixtures (falling off) Breakfast was ok albeit BORING. Over-salty Scrambled eggs and toast, every. damn. day. I mean, can you make French toast one day? Or a fried egg sandwich?? You’ve got the same ingredients ffs. The worst part is the owner- he’s dishonest and untrustworthy. When we walked into our rooms we could smell the overwhelming construction dust. When I mentioned it, he said I was “over sensitive” or perhaps imagining the smell. After one night and scratchy throats we asked to be moved. Although he agreed, he didn’t do so until he again called me “over sensitive”. As soon as we moved rooms we saw the workman come in for the day and set up to cut tile in the landing right next to our balcony. No wonder all we could smell was construction dust!! The whole corner of the hotel where I room was at was a construction site! The flag for me is the inclination to lie or act as if he had no idea why our room would be completely covered in dust and hard to breath in. The room on the third floor was better, but the fact that the owner would bold face lie was enough to sour me on him and the place.

We were supposed to go to this hotel tomorrow with 2 kids. We took a flight and travelled a long way to be able to come. At the last minute the owner/manager texted me to say I should cancel the reservation of our rooms as there are some technical problems without offering me another room. Then I looked up the hotel on a hotel website and the rooms were going for triple the price. As soon as I complained to this website the prices went back down again. That was a dirty thing to do and as tourists we are very hurt.

Interesting to read the reviews as I have has the same experience. A four day trip from the UK to be told that the 3 rooms booked were unavailable. No help or assistance to look for alternative accommodation. I started to look online and yes, the rooms were showing for about $US120 more. I didn't even query it. I got such a frosty arrogant welcome, I did myself a favour and left promptly. I have booked these rooms months in advance and potentially could've ruined a trip of a lifetime. I have filed an official complaint to the website of this horrendous practice which isn't a one off looking below. Be warned.

22-24 December 2021 booked an ocean view room, during check in I got no ocean view, no working wifi (it was working in other rooms, checked that with other customers) and lots of ants. Manager assured me that next day he will change my room but of course he haven’t done that. I’m more a traveler than tourist and I often stay in hostels and cheap hotels but this experience was really one of the worst during my South American tour.