By Lambe Lamis 
In 2005 Hostel Bekuo opened their doors and grew to become, in accordance to the Lonely Planet and quite a few other guidebooks, “Costa Rica’s nicest hostel”. Nowadays, as opposed to lots of hostels in San Jose, Bekuo is bettering even much more, and reinvesting in their organization, producing it quick to see why they are even now the greatest rated hostel in San Jose according to Hostelworld.com, as effectively as a host of other hosteling web pages.
On my most modern stop by to Bekuo, the latest upgrades to the hostel have been effortlessly recognizable a new 50″ flat monitor in the dwelling space, a new Wii for the previous 42″ flat monitor, a Foosball desk, some awesome lamps, as properly as a fair amount of new art developed by past visitors and staff. I have usually found the very little factors, and appreciated them quite much, that they do at Bekuo as nicely. For case in point, the staff members essentially live in the hostel, and they get up every single morning to make breakfast for the attendees. Not some milk and cereal, a very hardy breakfast of pancakes, fresh new fruit, toast and jelly, coffee and tea. At nighttime, when items are winding down for the evening, lights are turned off in favor of candlelight during the household. The homeowners say this allows reduce electrical power fees, and also discourages individuals from being loud at nighttime.
Bekuo has also been upgrading their mattresses as of late. The personal rooms, in my practical experience, have usually experienced great beds, and now the dorm rooms are having superior excellent mattresses and covers to match. When I talk to the proprietors how they can afford to make all of these advancements even though charging only $12 a night for a dorm mattress, they point out that the hostel is just not their only revenue (Ramon is a veterinarian and Storm does layout do the job), so they really don’t need to have the cash flow from the hostel to endure. They are also swift to point out that the hostel is fundamentally property to them and their workers, and they would not want attendees in their personal home sleeping on an old, uncomfortable mattress and have very little to maintain them entertained. The proprietors even questioned Hosteling Global (Hi) to remove Hostel Bekuo from their world wide web web page. Hello is a person of the greatest hostelling businesses in the world, and had been sending pretty a several reservations to Bekuo, but according to Ramon and Storm, they were not sending the variety of backpackers they sought, and it built it seriously tough to retain a great/calm atmosphere in the hostel with these friends.
It can be taken yrs for other hostels to get started opening in San Jose. For the longest time, there was Toruma, Pangea and Backpackers. But currently, there are a handful of larger conclusion hostels like Hostel Bekuo, Mi Casa Hostel in close proximity to La Sabana, and Hostel 1911 in the vicinity of La Clinica Biblica. Still, nevertheless, even these higher tier hostels drop limited when in comparison to Bekuo. Other hostels that have opened in the very last couple of years like Casa Yoses, Kabata, Tuanis, Tranquillo and a number of extra, have actually fallen off in the good quality location. It’s as if they have grow to be also considerably of a load for the homeowners, and their services go on to deteriorate, as opposed to strengthening.
If you are wanting for a area to remain in San Jose, Hostel Bekuo is the effortless decision these days. If some of the other smaller sized hostels begin next their direct, that may not be the case forever, but until finally they do, as they say at Bekuo, “If you happen to be shelling out $12 a night somewhere else, you’re getting screwed.”