We booked a room (for two nights) in advance and paid a deposit, and confirmed our reservation the day before arrival. When we arrived to check in, we were told there was no record of our booking and certainly no record of the deposit. The young lady at reception was very rude, and clearly did not want to investigate the matter, even after we quoted our booking number and showed her our reservation confirmation.

We were asked to come back in a few hours, after guests had checked out, and see if a room became available. Luckily (sort of), a room did indeed become available, and the receptionist miraculously found our reservation and a record of our deposit.

While the room was clean and the bed comfortable, the shower was temperamental and hot water sporadic at best.

The staff are only friendly when they are trying to make a sale (from the associated tour and travel business), or trying to extract a favourable review out of you. We got bus ticket quotes for a bus ride to Chile from the tour/travel desk in reception, but the prices were more than double what you can pay at the terminal.

Yes, it’s quiet and clean enough, but I dare say there are better places you can stay for the same price.

When the time came to settle our bill, we again had to “remind” them that we had already paid a deposit. Eventually, they acknowledged our deposit through gritted teeth... not very professional (or honourable), to say the least.

After 2 sleepless nights in the famous Wild Rover Hostel in La Paz I moved to Republica, which is just on the other side of the street. I spent 4 nights in a 6 beds dorm for 70 Bolivianos (no breakfast included). The shared bathroom was OK, mostly clean, and water was hot. During night it is calm inside the hostel although if your room is located towards street you may hear the bass drum of Wild Rover s bar a bit.
The internet is quite slow, the staff seemed OK to me. You can easily cross the street at night and go to a party in Wild Rover s, so it s good to get to know other travellers. Also the famous Loki Hostel ( a party hostel too) is just around the corner.
I was satisfied, but it was far away from perfect.

We stayed here for almost two weeks and while the room and bathroom were nice there were many negatives. The Internet hardly worked. The staff were rude and unhelpful. They said they offered a discount if you prepay, however we had to battle with them everytime to get it. We reserved our room for when we returned from Rurrenbaque. Our flight was delayed and arrived two hours later than our anticipated time. They gave our room away! We asked to speak to the manager but she refused to talk to us. We asked for a discount on the only remaining room 270 bs vs 166 bs which was the price of our reserved room but this was refused.

Hostal Republica is recommended by Lonely Planet and may have been better in the past. The photos on their website make it look much better than it is. I made a reservation months ahead, recomfirmed a month before and a week before as we were flying in at midnight. They had the reservation but not a room with two beds as reserved, only one with 5 beds that they wanted to charge us more for! The beds were very narrow and short (children's?) and the furnishings old. The toilet trash from the last people was still in the bathroom bin! Next morning they moved us to a better room like we had reserved. We left to go to La Paz after 3 days again reserving a two bed room for the one day we needed to be back in La Paz.. Again they had the reservation but now only a dank room with one bed and no window, not the room we had reserved. We left and went elsewhere. Hostal Republica does not honor its agareements, you can do better.