Posada Don Mario

The only amenities provided were soap. There was no shampoo, conditioner, body lotion or hair dryer.

This place was clean, easy wall to the center of Oaxaca. You can get a taxi at the end of the block. Staff was friendly.

Do not book directly with Posada Hotel Don Mario. I booked a reservation for 6 nights at the fully reimburseable rate and paid in full. The receipt which came back to me the same day showed I paid for one night and that this is not reimbursable. When I tried to make a change through both email and phone call I was asked to send my receipt to show this. I received no response. I decided to cancel in full as I did not want to ruin my vacation by arguing that I had already paid. I have to challenge the charge on my VISA card as the hotel is trying to now say that I am only due reimbursement for the one night shown on my incorrect receipt. This is taking me hours providing all my documentation. Do not subject yourself to this.

While this hotel was a great location, I had a scary and ultimately extremely disappointing experience with this hotel. Oaxaca City is a truly incredible place, and the one drawback to my stay was the experience here. I stayed several nights at Posado Don Mario, and because the hotel isn't staffed during the night (which I completely understand!) each guest is provided a key to enter through a side door at night. I did so easily, and without issue, every night of my stay until the final stay, when I returned home from a friend's house and was not able to enter the hotel through the side door with my key, as I had on previous nights. Several people in the street came to try to help and use the key, all of them informed me it was not working because the door seemed locked from the inside. I knew how to open this door from my previous nights at Posado Don Mario, when I entered it without any problem, and I could also feel that the door had been locked from the inside. This is simply unacceptable. Whether the lock on the door was messed up or someone had bolted it inside, the hotel needs to take immediate action to ensure this does not happen again. I stood and knocked for about half an hour in the middle of the night, and I rang the bell repeatedly. No one came to help me. I was standing at the door until midnight and it felt like a dangerous situation and I was very scared. I am a woman traveling alone and I did not know where else I could go in the middle of the night to safely sleep, therefore I remained alone in the dark knocking for a long time, hoping that someone would come and open the door. One of the hotel staff had been sending personal texts to me at the phone number I was asked to give upon check-in (this was also problematic and very unprofessional). I was able to access the wifi and send him several texts about the situation and that I would have to find somewhere else to sleep. I informed him later that I slept at Casa Angel and paid 378 pesos to do so. He made no offer of a refund. The situation was distressing not only because it was unsafe and I did not know where to go, but because my cell phone was dying, my charger was in my room, I had none of the clothes or things I needed to sleep (it was very cold), and because I needed to retrieve my passport at 6 AM to take a COVID test in order to make sure I could fly to the US the following morning. Because I could not enter the building, I did not know if I would be able to retrieve my passport in time to make my test appointment and therefore to take my flight. I was up all night freezing, and worrying. I essentially paid Posado Don Mario to be locked out of this hotel and stuck out on the street at night without my belongings and then walked somewhere and paid again to sleep in a bunk bed instead of my own room. I shared all of this information with the hotel via email seven weeks ago and have heard no reply.

I would have loved for this stay to would have been different, instead, it was terrible and it almost ruined my vacation. The check in was nice, I felt welcomed, until I was told that my room had a shared bathroom, which was not clear or even on the property’s description, I decided to accept it, the charge for my reservation was already made. While I was setting up in my room, I noticed that the door lock had been tempered with and was broken, I reported it to the staff and was , told that it had been reported by the prior tenant, they gave me the room anyway!! This didn’t make me feel safe but was told that the manager would be informed. When I came back from a tour was told that the lock was still broken plus there will not be running water from 8pm -1am., with a shared bathroom? Really?! tried resolving the issue and get a refund from the hotel or a transfer to a different room and was unsuccessful. At this point the staff was not willing to assist or resolve and no manager there, i didn’t feel safe staying in this room with a tempered lock and will have to find another place to stay in a foreign country. I made the decision for my safety to leave the room and return the keys, the clerks refused to provide me proof and I had to call the police to witness the activity. They did. I am now at 8:10pm trying to find another room away from my country of origin and fear for my safety. I demand a refund and sanctions to the hotel as they put me or guests in danger.

I stayed here last summer and had a pleasant, problem-free stay. So when I needed to return to Oaxaca, I had no hesitation in rebooking it. Maybe the management changed, but it’s not at all the same. When I arrived, there was a kerfuffle with my reservation. No biggee, we worked it out. In the morning, where previously they had offered a simple selection of toast and cold cereals, they now included a cooked breakfast. The waitress was surprisingly rude, telling us that we either eat breakfast now or forget it. It was 830 am. When it came, it was literally inedible—quite an accomplishment in Oaxaca! The so-called enfrijoladas consisted of two tortillas with runny beans poured over them. We bailed. That evening (after the earthquake) the neighborhood disco cranked it up. Impossible to sleep. I went to the reception desk and there was NO ONE THERE! The following day, I mentioned to the clerk that the housekeepers had forgotten to provide the little bottles of water in our room. He informed me that water was provided on the first night only, and that I would have to buy some. I have NEVER been in a Mexican hotel that didn’t somehow provide water for their guests. This is just being ‘codo’(cheap). This morning we had no water at all. They explained that they were waiting for the water truck —in other words they had neglected to keep their tank full, despite having relatively few guests. At that point, I blew off my last night and found a better hotel at a better price. I shall mot be returning