Hotel Aruma Ha

Be prepared to be scammed by invented "tourists taxes." If you talk to other tourists and locals on the island, you will find out there is no such thing, certainly not to the extent that is charged. Bring an extra 500-1000 pesos in cash and see if you can get a receipt. A raccoon family lives there, don't be afraid of them. People feed them so they are comfortable around people (they don't have rabies!). If you leave food in your garbage can outside your door, they will probably visit, and who can blame them.

WE WERE ROBBED. A male housekeeper BROKE INTO A HOTEL SAFE and took all our money! After that he quit. Before coming here we got a note via *********** messenger that we should bring cash as there is difficult to use credit cards in the restaurants and bars and that ATM many times run out of money. So we did. When checking in the manager specifically said to put all money and valuables in the hotel safe. So we did. On the 2nd day we came back to the hotel and found the doors of our room widely open. The manager apologised that an employee that was cleaning the rooms unexpectedly quit while cleaning our room. We were shocked that they did not at least close the doors of the room as we had laptops in and other valuables inside the room. After a couple of hours we needed the cash and tried to open a hotel safe but the lock was stuck. It was working perfectly in the morning and that made us feel a bit uncomfortable. After numerous tries to open it we contacted the manager and we tried to open in together with her key copies. She brought all copies of all the safes in the hotel and we tried one by one. No luck. The maintenance personnel came and forced open the hotel safe. The passports were in, Euros were still in, but ALL US DOLLARS WERE GONE. After that we were dealing with the police until early hours of the morning and when coming back to the hotel we found the copies of all hotel safe keys still on the fence of our door accessible to anyone! They do not care about the safety at all! The whole time staying here (5 nights) we were dealing with the police, the owner and the manager. The manager and the owner handled the situation very badly. I am still shocked by the lack of help they offered us. They did not clean our room the whole time, did not give us clean towels, no eye contact, turning away from us as soon as we stepped into the hotel premisses. In the end we felt like we were the the guilty ones. We are utterly disappointed.

4 days before arrival we tried to change the booking owing to a personal tragedy. The owner and *********** suggested that the other party was responsible. As it transpired the owner could have given permission to waive the booking but CHOSE not to. I was able to travel and found the hotel of poor quality for the amount charged. The only saving Grace was the manageress Rebekah who was extremely helpful.

Location is ok, nice and quiet. You can walk to the beach and centre, but I would advice you to rent a bike. They also rent bikes, but very crappy ones to be honest. Also bring your own lights if possible. Because at night biking with those bad roads is handy. We had the upper room. The beds sleeps good. The showerhead needs to be replaced. It went all over the bathroom.