Selina Reviews 29

This was the worst experience I’ve ever had in Cancún.
It appears that the staff at this hostel may be involved in organized theft targeting guests. This is completely unacceptable and deeply concerning.

During my first stay, I was in a shared dormitory and was completely robbed. When I reported the incident, I was told there was nothing they could do because it happened in a shared space.

To determine whether this was specific to shared rooms, I booked a private dormitory during my second stay. I intentionally left some money and a charging cord behind. Unfortunately, the money was again stolen—clearly proving that even private rooms are not secure.

The police have been informed, and there is surveillance footage as well as eyewitnesses. However, despite an official order from the Fiscalía (public prosecutor), the hostel staff refused to provide the video evidence or any further information.

This hostel is not only unsafe—it seems to be actively covering up criminal behavior. I strongly advise others to stay far away.

I am submitting this anonymously because I do not feel safe attaching my identity to this report, due to fear of retaliation.

It was horrible. The room smelled like dump and was small without sunlight. The keys were never working and the staff were so rude and unhelpful. At the end they even charged me for the key which I returned in front of my friends! However they refuse to refund it and charged me for it after I left and without a warning!

Horrific experience. Pre-paid for 4 nights in Mexico City and turned up to find out Selina has closed down. Not only was I not informed of this before arriving, they have taken the money and haven’t responded to emails. Total crooks, avoid!

I had booked a one-week stay in Paraty, Brazil. Fifteen days before my arrival, I was informed that my reservation had been unilaterally canceled due to the closure of the establishment. The issue is that I had already paid for my stay in advance.

They asked me to fill out a form for the refund, which I promptly did. However, since then, they have completely disappeared. I haven’t received any updates or replies to my messages for over a month. It’s impossible to reach customer service. They’ve simply vanished.

Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for my $450 refund. The service is terrible. Don’t make the mistake of booking and paying in advance as I did.

I have stayed at the Selina located in Porto. The hostel is located in the heart of the city, and in the heart of the hostel (the garden that you can see in the pictures) becomes a bar that closes at 2:00 am. All the rooms overlook that garden and until you arrive at the place no one informs you of this situation. Sleeping before 2:00 am becomes an arduous mission.

In addition, the receptionist, Marta, is not a friendly person who knows how to face the public.

WARNING! We arrived at the hotel in Tulum, which marketed itself as a healthy lifestyle hotel offering yoga and other wellness activities. However, upon arrival, the hotel was filled with partying youth, with excessive drinking, loud music, and drug use. Our room was poorly soundproofed, so the music was just as loud inside as it was outside. The room was very dirty, with burn marks on the sheets.

When we spoke to the reception, they said this is simply how the hotel operates. They cut off our wristbands and asked us to leave the premises. We quickly had to book another hotel and relocate.

The following day, I spoke with the hotel manager, who promised to compensate us for the unused nights. We provided our details, but nothing happened in the following month. We reminded them, and they promised once again to reimburse us.

After six months, I contacted Selina's Chief Financial Officer, Barbara Zubiria, who guaranteed a refund soon. Now, two years later, despite repeated reminders, we still have not received any compensation from them.

I had rebooked and paid in full for 6 rooms at Paros Selina for a week. The hotel was closed before our arrival. Despite following up with customer service for 3 months, I have still not been refunded!

Boy do I have a story about Selina Nomad Agafay Camp.

We arrived at 15:45, and check-in is from 15:00, so we thought check-in would be quick, instead we had to wait about 35 minutes before we were taken to our rooms at 16:20. While we waited, they kept saying, 'just one moment,' rather than just being upfront about our rooms not being ready, so we already got off on the wrong foot. We had asked for 2 a tents next to each other when booking, but we had tent a couple of tents apart.

Then, we get to our tents and realise they haven't provided locks - which they don't provide apparently, but they also didn't tell us to bring locks, so that's concerning. I managed to get a couple of locks off reception after a little back and forth, which again was annoying. The day staff at this point already weren't friendly. Before giving us locks, they said 'this is a very safe place, don't worry,' as if that was going to work.

Shortly after this I realised one of the two tents were has booked, was falling apart. It had rips along the outside and part of the top of the tent was missing. So I made a note to complain about this.

We also booked tents that had a shared bathroom, which I didn't think would be a problem, but of course it was. First of all, there was no female's or male's, just one shared one. The bathroom was falling apart, it was dirty, tiles were falling off or missing, two of the shower cubicles didn't even have curtains, and the ones with curtains had translucent curtains so what was even the point? Not to mention they were mouldy and stained. The unisex bathroom situation was made worse by the fact that the cubicles weren’t big enough to get changed in, so I had to just get changed out in the open of the bathroom, with men and women walking through to use the loos! Absolute joke of a situation.

Following this I decided it was time to complain (to the very unhelpful staff). By now the evening staff had arrived, and they were somehow even worse. This was a 2 hour long back and forth, where myself and my 3 companions all had to join in, as the man at reception would not take me (a woman) seriously at all. He kept telling me ‘calm down,’ when I was very calm and level headed. I asked if we could be upgraded, as our tent was falling apart, instead they offered an empty tent next to my companions (which I had requested before arriving, and they hadn’t accommodated, even though it was clearly available!) I said I either wanted an upgrade or a full refund for our 2 night booking, and to leave immediately. The terrible man at reception said he couldn’t do this, and kept saying his manager is off-site so he has to call them, but they weren’t picking up. All her would offer us was a free meal, which just wasn’t going to cut it. After I refused all of his options, eventually another manager someone was on-site, and after waiting 30 minutes for her to arrive, she told us she would upgrade us and cancel our 2nd night and give us a refund.

Also, their card machines weren’t working, so we couldn’t even buy drinks while we waiting for things to be sorted out!

About an hour after this we finally got into our new rooms. This was all fine for about 10 minutes, when my friend and I noticed to noise of a cat. We assumed it was outside the room, but in fact, a cat had given birth to 4 kittens, behind the spare single bed in our room! This of course followed with the stench of cat pee. We notified the unhelpful man at reception, to which he responded with, ‘what do you want me to do?’ So we just spent the night in a stinky room with noisy kittens.

Then there is the matter of dinner. The options were not great, and the service was worse. It took about 45 minutes of us calling the waiters for them to finally arrive and take our orders, and then another hour and a half before our food arrived! When it did arrive, it was cold, stale, and it had the taste of reheated food.

This was in April, and it is now nearly July, and we still haven’t gotten the refund for the second night. At this point, I want a full refund. They owe use £300 for the second night alone. As we left early, we had to find accommodation for 1 night elsewhere, so they put us further out of pocket. They won’t reply to us, when they do it’s with more excuses, and just tell us to wait longer. I’ve never known a refund to take 3 months, so this is an absolute lie. Booking.com, who we booked through are just as useless. Now they’re telling us to contact our banks, instead of just giving us the refund they owe us.

Awful, scammy, liars. Horrible place, with falling apart tents and bathrooms. Disgusting food, and the worst misogynistic staff, who need to do some customer service training.

Give me my refund!

I had prepaid Selina Colive for seven weeks before even stepping foot in Costa Rica, where my bookings were. With Colive, you get a cc 30% discount on monthly stays, one free wellness class daily, and access to coworking spaces. It's all good on paper.
However, the hurdles caused by the unprofessional and unresponsive staff made my stay hellish.

1. They organised an itinerary that jumped from coastline to coastline, the mountains, and back, with 8-10 hours of travel time between locations.

2. I was told there was no need to rent a car, as I could use their shuttle services. On the morning of my departure from A to B, I was denied the prepaid shuttle (70 USD) and forced to take a private one (200 USD) because the shuttles were not dog-friendly. I have a small service dog that flies in a cabin and has a standard flight bag. The shuttle broke down, and after two hours of trying to fix the overheated vehicle, the driver told me to take a taxi.

3. My partner arrived and visited my next location, Selina Santa Teresa. I have booked two-person suites for the entire duration of my stay. Despite the fact that they informed me they needed to charge me for my +1, 50% of what I already paid. I paid nearly 4000 USD already for the stay in question.

4. They tried to charge me an extra of 12 USD/day for my service dog post-factum the Colive agreement, knowing full well he is a service animal, and giving me an offer accordingly. That amounts to another cc 1000 USD.

5. SANTA TERESA
Unsanitary conditions, they refused to clean my room more than twice a week, because I was with Colive.
There was no water and electricity for hours per day, multiple times a day. It is a hot beach town. People staying with Colive live and work on the road.

The AC wasn't cleaned properly and it gave me an ear infection with a high fever.

There was no wifi, and I lost clients due to the inability to call.

The staff often had parties in the Cowork where they hang out and chitchat, making it impossible to work. No phone booths.

The staff closed down the restaurant to party in the pool several times. There are people who don't work or love there always in the staff quarters.

The pans and pots are all scratched teflon (health hazard), broken and the oven doors are rusted, dangerous and do not work.

The stairs are rusted, and there are rusty metal rods coming out o the walls.

The staff are rude, do not communicate with each other. They do not even give their guistes fresh towels. My rooms flooded twice during my stay.

COLIVE
The agents have conflicting information, are not knowledgeable, and it was an all around disastrous customer service experience. I have chosen Colive for the peace of mind, and I have gotten nothing but frustration.

So the places are generally one of the safer hostels BUT they are robbing you blind with the food and beverage prices they charge more than some clubs for drinks it’s not nice Selina! Also the crowds tend to be not as nice in this hostel probably because of the pricing lol

I’ve been to three selinas in Mexico 🇲🇽
One in Nicaragua 🇳🇮
And one in Colombia 🇨🇴

So I know… they are all over priced

I had a great time at Selina in Mexico city. The bedrooms were clean, there were more than enough bathrooms and they had free salsa dance class for peopel who stayed there :)

Digital nomads this is a warning for you, do not stay at Selina hostels.

They do not manage the properties well. I was actively ignored by management. Staff were actively ignored by management for three days which I know of in this instance. I was specifically thanked by Diego and Alejandro (staff) for my respect for them when dealing with this situation.

As a former service worker and restaurant manager, I recognized that they were not the problem. We have a separate thread communicating that we were promised a refund and the amount when the management was not responding to them.

I have not received my refund even though staff seemed to be entering my card to process the transaction.

There was a real electrical fire hazard on the property that was a risk to guests and the physical structures. The air conditioner in the room next to ours sounded like a revving broken car engine for 3 days - it could be heard by guests and staff a couple of buildings away in the courtyard. I was getting increasingly sick from no sleep. This is not the 4-star property that the company claims.

In addition to the guest safety issue, we were never actually able to book excursions over the two months ahead of our stay when trying to request to make those purchases. They advertise that you can book excursions with them through their website but we had to spend our money elsewhere (lost revenue!).

Cockroaches in the room and had to ask the staff 5 times for fresh towels.

What a terrible service, difficult to reach and non-refundable rooms even if it’s 4-5 days ahead. Really nice hostel but crazy they get away with this kind of criminal policy.

I was supposed to stay at Selina Cuenca but then the cartels took over the country. Single woman traveler, asked Selina for CREDIT (not refund) to stay at a safer facility and they refused. Please seek an operator who cares about their patrons' safety. This app doesn't allow links but Google > inmates-on-roof-of-ecuador-prison-as-police-officers-held-hostage-inside and let me know if you would have stayed at this facility.

Dirty hotel. I’m Tara Brandy and my husband Federico Chavarria and I stayed at this hotel and the customer service was very poor. Never again will we be staying at this nasty place.

Please, be kind to yourself and avoid Selina at all times.

In every City where they are located ther are so manny other hostels that offer a service and keep agreements properly, or if this is not the case they make a compromis with you.

You pay Selina and then you are on your own. No help, no service and no compromis on their mistakes.

My first time I was placed in an overbooked room (we we’re with 5 in a 4 persons room). One Guy had to sleep on a sofa.. (Mexico)

And now I lost €400,- and can’t get in thouch with them. No whatsapp, no email, no phonecall, no instagram, no facebook… (Brazil)

So as you can see: Great service after you’ve paid…

I had booked reservations at three different Selina locations in Mexico (Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum) several months in advance, with the option to cancel. Unfortunately, my flight schedule changed, necessitating a change in my booking dates two months ahead. I reached out to all three locations via email, and only Tulum responded in a helpful manner. The other two locations did not reply, so I contacted their main email address, which redirected me to the specific location's email.

I explained my communication issues but still received no response. Finally, Cancun Downtown responded, informing me that I couldn't change the dates but could cancel and rebook, which would be significantly more expensive. To my surprise, they also charged me in advance, despite the initial agreement to charge upon arrival.

To make matters worse, just two weeks before my planned arrival, I discovered that the Playa Del Carmen location was closed. I never received any notification about this change.

Furthermore, I noticed numerous negative reviews on Google, citing complaints about stolen belongings, overpricing, unfriendly staff, additional charges for pool chair usage, and cleanliness issues. These revelations led me to cancel all my reservations, totaling approximately €1400 for an 18-night stay. I initially had plans to visit more Selina locations, but my experiences have deterred me from doing so.

Online reviews show plenty of people stay at Selina hostels and enjoy them, but that was NOT my experience and I would advise anyone I know to never book with Selina.

I booked a stay at Playa Del Carmen a few months in advance directly through their website. The reservation was fully refundable and payment was due upon check-in. I ended up changing my plans and had to cancel two months before my planned check-in date. Selina staff confirmed via e-mail the reservation had been cancelled.

A few weeks later, on a random day completely unrelated to my cancelled reservation, my credit card was charged a few hundred dollars (a different amount than my reservation would have been) by Selina. I e-mailed the hostel to ask about it repeatedly before and while I was taking it up with my credit card company and they never responded.

A few weeks later, I had to cancel my credit card for fraud because of a single $2,000 charge from a Mexican airline. Sure, it could be an unfortunate coincidence. But then I found out the hostel closed out of nowhere. On Hostelworld, reviews were saying people showed up to their reservations to a sign on the door saying the hostel was closed. Of course now the hostel has been taken off the website AND nobody can leave Google reviews because the location is permanently closed.

I'm pretty understanding of simple mistakes, ESPECIALLY at hostels because I've worked in them. But something about the whole situation was so fishy, it even has me hesitant to book direct with any hostel or hotel in the future knowing how vulnerable it makes my credit card info. If it was an honest error, Selina could have apologized and refunded me and I wouldn't have thought twice about it.

So yes, Selina is a real company, but something about the whole experience to me just says SCAM.

Selina Évora with an épic pool party. Staff very friendly and Young. Such a good vibe modern cosy hotel. Will comeback for sure. Amazing experience

We stayed in Selina (Rawai Bch-Thailand) in feb. It’s amazing how small the rooms can be. WOW!!! We were near the main road & it was extremely loud. In fact, I had to take Ambien to get to sleep! AlSo, the bathrooms are not made with doors. It’s not that there were missing doors. Oh no they were made purposely to not have doors. And unless you are very thin, u are not turning around. And last but not least the shower: The rain shower did not work. Also the hand held shower head came apart in my hand. The bottom line is look around.