I booked a one bedroom for $61 per night through AirBnB. In San Pedro, I find it is best to just have a clean place near the beach that has a locked door, A/C, WiFi, a bathroom and a clean space. Although this pretty much provided that, the few issues I had, I am not going to complain about given the price but I am going to tell you about them. Again, not really complaining but here was a bit of my experience with this hotel.
Where do I start?
First the location is great, just south of the city of San Pedro on the beach. Now, on the beach in the off season is only great if the the beach is well maintained. It was not. Sea grass piles up on the beach every day and the smell of it rotting has an over powering smell of sulfur. Once you walk past the beach on the long pier you no longer smell it. At the end of the pier is a fun water slide and a zip line over the water which was fun. There is also a bar down there. On Sunday we got a great couples massage right next to the water out on the pier. It was awesome and a real bargain.
On days when more guests arrived they did make an effort to rake it up but it is a losing battle and part of going to San Pedro off season. No big deal.
Other "issues" were we had a huge rain storm one night and I woke to what sounded like a waterfall in my room. It was. The rain was coming through my door and left a huge puddle on the floor. An easy fix. They need a $5 tube of silicone to seal the door jam. I did see one dead roach by the toilet but hey it is the Caribbean. Overall the place was very clean.
We were not prepared for the bats. Yes, bats. Hundreds of them. There is a beautiful fruit tree in the center of the property that is a huge draw for fruit bats. Although it was a bit off putting in the beginning if you are not used to bats flying at you, if you put your head down and walk, they just fly right by you. That was a highlight of the trip actually. They are harmless and it adds the sense of adventure. Every time I wanted to complain about anything, I would stop myself and say "what do you want? It is $61 per night."
The bar was really fun and the drinks were amazing. Monica is really nice!!! She is awesome and my girlfriend and I both agree that hanging out with her and Glenn, who is a bartender there were one of the highlights of the trip.
My only real complaint was with the rest of the staff. When we returned from being out and about we wanted to go swimming and went to get some beach towels. When you walk up there is a building on the right with open doors stacked with towels. We went in to get one and a voice from the back instructed us to go to the front office. We did. The manager was really bothered that she had to get up and walk us back to where we just came from and give us the EXACT towels that my girlfriend returned to the shelf when instructed to go to the office.This could have been solved with a walkie talkie. "the guests in 1B are grabbing two towels" Done.
Other than Monica and Glenn, nobody seemed very happy to be there. Apparently the guy who owns the place is not well liked on the island. I think his name is Peter. I never met him. I do know a few locals as I love to go to Belize and they did not have nice things to say about him. Maybe the rest of the staff shares the view of my friends down there about him. Although the guy at the office was nice.
All in all, I would still highly recommend this place. It being off season at the time of my visit, I would hope that a lot of the issues would go away when the place is fully staffed. The grass is not there during the high season and the other things well. I am pretty easy to please (when I am spending $61 per night to be 30' from the beach). If you are a fancy person and want 5 star amenities this is not your place. However, if you want to be in paradise on a budget, this is your spot. Now if I was to pay anywhere near $100 or more for this place I would have been really angry but hey, a deal is a deal but I would not pay more than $75 per night to have the experience I did and be happy.
To be clear, Monica and Glenn are the reason I am going with Very Good on this review and not lower. If it was not for them I would probably rate this at average or poor but I just don't think that would be fair considering the off season time of my visit and the fact that I had a great time otherwise in Belize.
