Do not stay at this hotel unless you absolutely cannot afford something better, cleaner and safer. Here is our story: My husband and I were in Salvador de Bahia for 7-nights. We toured all the major attractions and local beaches, including the popular Morro de San Paulo island and the cute Praia do Forte beach. We stayed the first 3-nights at the Golden Tulip Rio Vermelho and really enjoyed it. We stayed 2-nights at a great pousada in Morro de San Paulo named Pousada Aquarela and loved it as well. However, for our last two nights we got a special deal at the San Marino Hotel from a local travel agent who booked our tour to the island. First we looked at the hotel's website which made the hotel look very modern and comfortable, then we checked the online reviews. All the reviews warned us not to stay here, but we didn't listen. Why didn't we listen? Ahhh! The price was so great we thought we were getting a deal...but you always get what you pay for, especially as a tourist. Where do I begin? Here are major reasons not to stay here: (1) The rooms were awful. We had no bath or hand towels or toilet paper in our bathroom, nor did we have hot water or soap. Our double beds did not have blankets or a comforter on them, just a fitted sheet and top sheet. We had to go to the front desk and request these items. Not surprisingly they did not have any soap to give us and only had one blanket to spare even though we had double beds. (Our reservation was a for queen bed as we are married.) We got two small towels that I questioned were clean as the front desk guy pulled them out of a garbage bag sitting on the floor behind his desk. Our hotel room was like a room in a mental institutional in a horror movie. Plain white walls, small 13 inch TV sitting on an old wooden stand, and one old wooden night stand. It was late at night when we checked-in and we had pre-paid for the room so we toughed it out and stayed, but we made sure to stay gone for as long as we could. (2) The lock on our hotel room was very flimsy and there was no in-room safe. We did not feel safe sleeping in that room, so we locked ourselves in tight. The next day we left to tour the city as early in the morning as possible. We took our laptop computers and other valuables in our backpacks as we did not feel safe leaving them in the room. Like I said before, we tried to stay out of our hotel room as long as possible. The Shopping Barra, an upscale mall with a nice food court and free Wi-Fi, is about 4 blocks from this hotel. No joke....when night fell we stayed at the mall until closing because we felt safer and more comfortable there at the mall food court with the free Wi-Fi than in our hotel room. We dreaded going back to that hotel room. Even though we only stayed for 2-nights it felt like an eternity because the room was so horrible. (3) The hotel room stay included breakfast, but do not bother eating here. The food was not fresh or appetizing. The fruit and meat had flies buzzing around it, the coffee tasted like it had been sitting out for hours and the food trays were all empty. We twice asked for the eggs to be replenished, but after 20 minutes we gave up on waiting and walked to restaurant and paid for breakfast. In the end, we ended up spending more money staying away from our room at the San Marino Hotel than the money we saved on the "deal" we got for the cost of the room. The cost of our room at this hotel per night was only $30 cheaper than the 4-star Golden Tulip Rio Vermelho hotel that were previously staying in. (We got a hotel room deal at the Golden Tulip on Hotels.com so that is why the prices were close. Without the Hotels.com deal the Golden Tulip hotel is more expensive, but at least you get what you pay for.) In the end, we kicked ourselves for not going back to the Golden Tulip rather than staying at the San Marino Hotel just to save a few bucks. What were we thinking? It was not worth the money and hassle, especially when you are traveling in a foreign country and do not speak the local language. (4) This hotel advertises itself as a good place for tourists to stay, yet no one at the front desk speaks English. As a traveler to a foreign country I do not expect anyone to speak my language unless they are targeting me as a customer. Oddly, the San Marino Hotel wants tourists to stay at this hotel, but does not speak English. It was frustrating at check-in to try to get our confirmed queen room after we were assigned a double bed room when the front desk guy did not speak English. We were stuck with the double bed room because no one could understand us. (5) Last but not least, the room we were assigned was right next to the hotel's public TV room. The TV was blasting and could be heard into our room. We attempted to communicate to the front desk guy the problem. It was 9pm at night and my husband and I wanted to relax. After lots of hand signals the guys wrote down 11pm and signaled that is when the TV would be turned off. At 11:30pm the TV was still on loud. My husband went back to the front desk to complain and saw an hotel employee sitting watching TV after the time it was supposed to be turned off. The front desk guy turned off the TV, but did not saw anything to the employee and did not seem at all apologetic for the hotel's only employees disturbing our peace and not following its own policy. Very bad customer service. In short, trust the reviews about this hotel and do not stay here. The only redeeming thing I can say about this hotel is its location. It is right across the street from Barra Beach, one of the most popular beaches in Salvador. But you can always stay somewhere else and take cab or the public city bus to this beach. Parts of this beach area is sketchy at night so you don't want to be out at night wandering the streets. This hotel also sits on a main street and you can catch the local public buses to all the tourist attractions right in front of the hotel. The public local bus the goes to the airport also stops right across the street from the hotel. Also, the Shopping Barra Mall is within walking distance to this hotel. However, the local public buses in Salvador run very frequently and have stops everywhere, so this is not a motivating factor to stay at this hotel.