I am a Peace Corps volunteer in the Colca Canyon. I have lived in the Colca for a year and a half working with tourism and small business development and I usually make trips to Arequipa city about twice a month. My girlfriend and I had heard about an amazing room that overlooks the monastery from other Peace Corps volunteers. I made a reservation for two nights during the anniversary of Arequipa two weeks in advance. When we arrived to Arequipa, they told me the room was occupied. I asked them why they didn´t reserve the room and they said ¨there has been a recent change in management and the reservation was lost¨. In the book my name was clearly marked for those days.
We tried to give the hotel another go. I made a reservation again for the days my girlfriend was coming. I happened to arrive in Arequipa early in the morning to pick her up from the airport. We ended up getting the room, but only because we arrived first. There were two other reservations for the same room on the same day as mine! The other two reservations were unhappy to say the least.
The third time we tried Reyna was on the 26th of October. I had made the reservation about 4 days in advance. I told the lady that I had had problems with reserving a room there in the past and I would really like them to try and get the reservation right this time. Sure enough, the morning I got there on the 26th, they hadn´t even written down my reservation and the room was taken!!!! I also made a reservation for the 30th and 31st the same time I made the reservation for the 26th, which they also did not record. I told the man to write down my reservation for the 30th and 31st and that I didn´t want this to happen again.
Yet again, the same thing happened!! The said the room was taken even though I had a reservation. I was furious!! First we had to deal with a girl that worked there that said we were wasting our time complaining because we weren´t going to get the room. After refusing to take blame for what happened, she started to get very rude. Then another employee came to talk with us. He explained that the people in the room were older so they got the room over us. We explained that this has happened to us 3 times already and they refused to take blame!
The room at Reyna is a very nice room and well priced, but the administration is so unorganized and untrained in how to treat customers that it infuriates me. I would not recommend this hostel to anyone.
- La Reyna Arequipa
