Bario Hotel

What a historic 23 room gem of a hotel in renovation! Could not have found a better spot...totally walkable to the "sights" of Willemstad proper....RIF Fort, Bridge, restaurants,..is on all historic tours....has dancing lessons a few nights a week, FRIENDLY staff...walkable to Starbucks....eco friendly.....Bright colors...restaurant and bar...... free parking .Cura

I stayed here in late April after booking over a month in advance. I wanted to stay at a small, locally-owned place and thought I’d done well to find this well-reviewed hotel in a Google search. I was traveling with a friend - who came all the way to the Carib from Australia - prior to booking, asked to make sure I could get two 1-one bedroom rooms close to each other. I was assured by their team that it would be no problem at all, and I ended up booking one “regular” and one “luxury” one-bedroom rooms for 5 nights. When we arrived, we could not find any signs for check in, so we ended up wandering about the block until we quite literally bumped into the Customer Experience Manager. I told her my name and reminded her of the request in my reservation, and she acted like it was the first she’d heard of the request. After waiting on her for a short while, she came back and explained they did not have 2 rooms together in the hotel but that they owned property nearby that they rented as well - and she had 2 of those apartments close together. We agreed to take the off-site rooms and set off with the Manager to see them. We walked around the corner where we were shocked to encounter a garden wall that had broken shards of glass affixed in concrete to the top of it with - apparently a low budget burglary deterrent installation of some sort. The apartments themselves are located in amazing old historic buildings that would make fabulous accommodations if some investment was made to modernize the infrastructure, but these places are in terrible condition. They’ve done little more than slap on some paint on the flaking walls, install cheap cupboards in the kitchen, and outfit the place with second hand furniture and stiff, scratchy bed linens. I never did sort out what the difference was meant to be between the basic and luxury rates, but I can assure you there was nothing luxurious about the place. The garden between the two has numerous different unlevel surfaces, crumbling concrete, outdoor furniture was dirty and cluttered with yard debris, leaves, etc,. My friend fell the first night in the garden on one of those unlevel surfaces - thankfully with no injuries apart from bruises. Both apartments were clearly cleaned prior - but had been completely closed off for some time and, upon entering, were now sweltering hot, humid, dark, and full of mosquitos. There was also an overwhelmingly strong odor of septic that pervaded both adjoining houses and the garden between them. Although it was laughably awkward to not even acknowledge the putrid smell, I didn’t say anything to the Manager about it, trying to be an easy-going guest. I also live on a neighboring island in the Carib and am totally used to transient septic smells that occur as a result of a recent clean or repair being done, so I genuinely assumed it would dissipate. Except it never did. We stayed there 2 nights and that stench never got better - the entire area smelled like portable toilet th

This local hotel was a fantastic find! It is located within walking distance of many attractions, has lovely accommodations with attractive furnishings, a pool, relaxing and comfortable public areas, as well as an excellent restaurant on site, One of the co-owners offers an interesting two-hour walking tour weekly that introduces guests and other visitors to the history and development of the Otrobanda neighborhood, where the hotel is located. The tour provides introduction to the area and is a great deal for $10!