In 2005, Hostel Bekuo opened its doors and became, according to Lonely Planet and many other guides, “the most beautiful hostel in Costa Rica”. Today, unlike many hostels in San Jose, Bekuo is further improving and reinvesting in its business, making it easy to see why it continues to be the highest rated hostel in San Jose according to Hostelworld.com, as well as a number of other rating sites. lodging.
On my most recent visit to Bekuo, the newer improvements to the hostel were easily noticeable; a new 50″ flat screen in the living room, a new Wii for the old 42″ flat screen, a foosball table, some amazing lamps, as well as a fair amount of new art created by guests and past employees. I have always noticed the little things, and enjoyed them very much, which they also do in Bekuo. For example, the employees live in the hostel and get up every morning to prepare breakfast for the guests. Not some milk and cereal, quite a strong breakfast of pancakes, fresh fruit, toast and jam, coffee and tea. At night, when things are running low for the night, the lights are turned down in favor of candlelight throughout the house. The owners say this helps reduce electricity costs and also discourages people from making noise at night.
Bekuo has also been upgrading their mattresses lately. The private rooms, in my experience, have always had good beds, and now the dorms have high quality mattresses and matching toppers. When I ask the owners how they can afford to make all these upgrades while charging just $12 a night for a dorm bed, they point out that the lodge isn’t their only income (Ramon is a vet and Storm does design work), so they don’t need the income from the shelter to survive. They are also quick to point out that the hostel is basically home for them and their employees, and that they would not want guests sleeping in their own home on an uncomfortable old mattress and having nothing to entertain themselves with. The owners even asked Hosteling International (HI) to remove Hostel Bekuo from their website. HI is one of the largest hospitality organizations in the world and was sending quite a few bookings to Bekuo, but according to Ramon and Storm, they were not sending the type of backpackers they were looking for and it was very difficult to maintain a cool/relaxed atmosphere in the hostel with these guests.
It has taken years for other shelters to start opening in San Jose. For a long time, Toruma, Pangea, and Backpackers existed. But today, there are a handful of high-end hostels like Hostel Bekuo, Mi Casa Hostel near La Sabana, and Hostel 1911 near La Clínica Bíblica. Still, though, even these higher-tier hostels fall short when compared to Bekuo. Other hostels that have opened in recent years like Casa Yoses, Kabata, Tuanis, Tranquillo and a few more have really fallen in the quality area. It is as if they have become too heavy a burden for the owners, and their facilities continue to deteriorate, rather than improve.
If you are looking for a place to stay in San José, Hostel Bekuo is the easy choice these days. If some of the other smaller hostels start to follow suit, that may not be the case forever, but until they do, as they say in Bekuo: “If you’re paying $12 a night somewhere else, you’re being fucking”.
