Name: Hotel and Hostel Allende Morelia
Address: Allende No 843 Col Centro, Morelia, Morelia, Morelia, 58000, Mexico
Rating: 7

24-hour reception

Smoke-free property

Express check-in/check-out

Garden

Terrace

All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)

Outdoor furniture

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Toiletries

Rooms

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Common kitchen

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Picnic area

Sun Deck

Recreation

Parking

Garage

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Kids' TV Networks

Kids

Pets allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Morelia International Airport

Hotel and Hostel Allende Morelia

Morelia

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

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24-beds

25-beds

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3-beds

30-beds

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32-beds

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39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

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

Excellent location, very clean and amazingly low price. Very nice staff and very helpfup with any question. We stayed 2 nights in a very comfortable bed, very quiet, but close to the main cathedral. The well equipped kitchen is a plus as well.

Really nice hotel

I read a recent review that described their experience here as "worst ever." Their review was unfair--they must have been expecting a luxury hotel for a bargain price.  I did not experience any odors.
     I stayed at the hotel two years ago, in March 2015.  My room on the second floor was basic, appropriate for the price.  There may have been a chair, but no other furniture.  There was no place to put out my clothes and gear.  The bed, towels, room, and bathroom were clean, but not luxurious.  A minor problem was minimal ventilation--there was some kind of ventilation opening over the door, but no external window.   But since days were cool, the minimal ventilation wasn't really a problem.  The bathroom was small but everything worked--including the hot water.  There was a very small sink was in the room.  There was a TV.
     The interior courtyard was a nice place to relax, and you can take stairs to the roof where you can look over a school courtyard and to the mountains.
     The staff were courteous and helpful.
     Internet: There were two computers in the courtyard, but I couldn't get an internet signal.  I found an internet wire coming out of the wall (I think for office use), so I  switched it to my computer and the internet worked!
    The hostel is located a bit less than half a mile from the main square.  They lock the door at night, so you have to ring to get in.  I feel it is safe.  The street, very busy during the day, is quiet at night.  I felt perfectly safe returning to the hotel at night, even at 11:00 pm.
     It's not a beautiful or quaint place.  If you take the bargain price into account and don't expect luxury, you should be satisfied.  By saving money here, I could splurge at the wonderful gourmet restaurant nearby at the Hotel Casino Morelia.
     My ratings are based on the expectation of a bargain price, and comparing it to other hotels of the same price.

A good location with a nice interior courtyard; rooms basic

All I can say is that for $13 a night for a very clean room with a private bathroom, free water, 4 blocks from the Cathedral, and continental breakfast - grab it!!  This very basic hostel/ hotel is a rare find.

The staff are so kind and helpful. The courtyard is calming.

This hotel is 4 blocks away from the Cathedral and other sites so it is much quieter than other places!

Each room is a little different so check out a few! 

Great Price for What You Get

We enjoyed being there. We were lucky to have a room with a window. This hostel needs some renovations, their amenities needs to be renewed like the showers..
his location from the center is good (6 minutes walk).

good budget hostel

... I bet you won't believe this (mostly) horror story, with (probably) sewer gas and (of course) more thrills. (Spoiler: You'll have an idea of what you might get for that great price!) By the way, in almost 200 reviews over more than a few years, I believe this is the WORST review I have ever written. . Really, folks, this is amazing... if TripAdvisor has a "most amazing travel experiences" section, I think this is a fair candidate. I hope you'll read to the end... at least, jump to the middle and skim to the end.

I normally don't review a place until I've finished my stay, but Hostal Allende made me want to write on my first night -- the "goods", and especially the "bads" -- as a warning to anyone who's thinking of booking this place: I suggest you read my story first.

FYI, before I get started: I stay in cheap (but safe) places when I travel alone -- after all, when I'm by myself, I don't travel to be in my room. I travel to be out in the area I'm visiting and to eat the local foods, out with (if I can) the locals. (If you go for the hotel itself, you shouldn't be staying at Hostal Allende! :) As the US humorist Tom Bodett says on his advertisements for the cheap(ish) Motel 6 chain: "When your eyes are closed, all the rooms look the same." :) Anyway... there are goods and bads at Hostal Allende, and you'll have to deal with some of them (good and bad) before your eyes are closed.

I found Hostal Allende from a couple of sources -- Lonely Planet guidebooks (the ones you pay for the authors' research and distilling lots of info into a really short package) as well as TripAdvisor (for lots of reviewers in lots more places: more breadth, but usually less depth.)

When I rolled up, I was afraid I'd picked the wrong place: The street looked dangerous and decrepit, almost boarded-up and lifeless even at a busy time of day. (I travel cheap, but I want to be fairly safe!) Inside, though, the friendly staff and the pretty courtyard gave me hope. A big kitchen, individual rooms around the (fairly) attractive courtyard, big bottled-water dispensers (free), huge comfy chairs under the shaded overhang, and more, for a really good price! And the historic center is only a few blocks past the hotel on the same street. What a great find!?

Room 103 is in a quiet corner, farthest from busy Calle Allende. I tried to open the door; the key didn't seem to work until I jiggled it to the other direction. The room was stark white with some red trim -- not even a cheap art print to liven up the bare walls. The high walls (a nice tall-ceilinged room, maybe five meters!) were dirty on the bottom two meters or so. The bathroom was so small that I had to squeeze sideways around the basin to reach the toilet crammed into the corner. There were handy big shelves built out from the wall in the main room, but they were so wide that I could barely get around them to the side of the bed with the nightstand... and one stuck out at head level, so be sure you don't knock your head on it if you're getting out of bed after dark!) The two bath towels were on the bed, and one was folded into a nice swan shape... but there was basically nowhere in the bathroom to hang those towels. Oh, and the bathroom had a small towel, folded in half, lying on the floor in front of the shower doors... it looked dirty. I think it's supposed to be my bathmat, but I don't want my feet on it. (Was it washed??) I think I'll use an old t-shirt while I'm here.

I hadn't checked out any restaurants in the area (I didn't want to go far because I was really tired). I'd read a review here saying that there was Wi-Fi, but the check-in person hadn't given me any info... and, besides, neither my phone or old (for-the-road) laptop could find any signal. Luckily, the hostal had a couple of public computers to use. Unfortunately, they were both turned off... and after I turned one on, it took literally five minutes to let me go to a website (tripadvisor.com, BTW :). Then the pages wouldn't load. I turned on the other computer... it started pretty quickly, but it wouldn't connect at all. I could have asked for help (and hoped the staff would be experts on these ancient computers), but I decided to just "wing it" and see what I found nearby. 

Now for some good news. :) Around 7 pm, an hour after I checked in, I walked toward the historic center. As soon as I got a few blocks along the street, the city came to life. There were people everywhere, businesses open, and gorgeous sights partly-hidden in the part-darkness. But I should have done some research (before I came to the hostal in the apparent Internet desert) because all I could find in 20 minutes or so of wandering were a couple of little hole-in-the-wall places and a shiny McDonalds. I picked McDs :( but got a typical reliable meal with friendly staff. I headed back to my room -- this time not feeling threatened, as the traffic crawled (and, later, zoomed) by.

I was exhausted, so I pulled down the bed covers. The bottom sheet had what looked like faint brown water stains. There was a black hair (at least one). The top sheet was so thin that it was easy to see the blanket through it when they were folded over. The pillows seemed comfy, but, wait, there's more...

There was a strange smell (maybe from the dirty laundry, ready to be washed, in my bag? :) But the smell got MUCH stronger, and my lungs started to burn. I wanted to open the window next to the bed, but the window opened directly onto the courtyard -- with no bars or anything to prevent someone from walking directly into my room! It smelled as if something was wrong in the bathroom?

I decided to use the old trick of forcing fresh air through the room by opening the window and also pulling the room door back and forth, quickly, to move air around. (In a room with no cross-ventilation, I think it's the best way to get some fresh air quickly.) But that didn't help this time... the smell outside was much worse!! It was as if the pretty courtyard was filled with some kind of poisonous (?) fumes... at least, they smelled awful and felt worse in my lungs.

I would have asked to change rooms, but the awful odor seemed to be everywhere... I didn't think another room would help. I was exhausted (literally, by those fumes... bad pun, sorry) and had no idea where I could find a room, even if I did give up my non-refundable pre-paid multi-night reservation. I walked to the staff member at reception, almost gasping, and asked him (exhausted, in broken Spanish) about the fumes. His answer was basically "What fumes?"

Oh. There was a long green hose running from a big door on the ground next to my room, all the way through the courtyard, to a big tanker truck of sorts on the street just outside the gate. Water was running across the entryway, and a big leaky part of the tube was draped over a plastic bucket. As I walked out the entryway into the fresh air near the street, the fumes were mostly gone. But as I walked back in, things were almost as bad again.

Although the staff member still seemed baffled (and I may have seemed like an idiot to him -- or was he being honest?) -- I think I've figured it out. That truck pumping a liquid may have been pulling something out of a sewer, under the door on the ground which was at my end of the courtyard.

As the old joke goes -- OK, now I'm dating myself :) -- "I am not making this up."

The fumes started to die down -- and I felt safe with the window open as long as I was awake -- but my head was still pounding and I was having trouble breathing.

So I left my room and headed out to look for a Wi-Fi signal, late at night, hoping that the fumes would be gone when I got back. (My head was still splitting, as well as my lungs burning.)  I also wanted to get the word out to other TripAdvisor readers ASAP!

If it weren't for the fumes... things would be pretty good. I felt safe (as long as I didn't open my window while I was asleep!!), in a great location, for a low price, with friendly and helpful staff (if sometimes seemingly clueless, as with the fumes).

When I booked the room, I thought that was all I wanted. But now I wonder what will happen in my next several days here?? I hope there's no more pumping of whatever liquid planned for the next four nights. The dirty walls are okay; I'll wear head-to-toe clothing in bed; I'll check the Spanish for "gas mask" and buy one just in case. (Dark humor there; sorry.)

I believe that TripAdvisor won't let me edit a review after it's posted, or add another one for three months (I think?!). So, if you'd like to read the rest of the story, please click on the "ask An0nyMs" link. I'll try to write up the sequel to this horror film and have it out in the next few weeks... after I get my breath back.

Even with the pluses I mentioned, this is the WORST place I have EVER stayed in decades of traveling. (Even the place I stayed in Guatemala, where they laid pads on boards hangng off the sides of a building, at least it had lots of fresh air! (I am not making THAT up either.)

Whew! (Phewwww!!)

P.S. I forgot to mention the cracks in the wall next to the bed.

Hotel and Hostel Allende Morelia

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