Edorta Pentsioa

Do not book here. Having stayed here last year with a positive experience, we booked a return visit months ago. However, with no notice, we found out the day of our arrival that our reservation, made months ago, had been cancelled and were told there were no rooms available to us. We had to scramble to find different accommodations, of course at a higher cost and not located in the old town. Although this is our second visit to San Sebastian and we plan many more, never again will I stay here. We have travelled the world for years and have never had an accommodation cancel our reservation with no notice. Terrible. Do not book here, ever.

Pros:눇The pension is in the best area of San Sebastian, if you wish to taste the pintxos in this city. Public transport is nearby. You do not need a car for this city. The property informed us at booking moment that there will be external working on the building in the period of our accommodation (with 4 month before). The staff was very polite and informed us about the area, the city. The room was nice, refurbished not longer ago, clean. Good value for money compared with the rate of other hotels from San Sebastian. Cons:The entrance in the building is not very friendly, and the sound-proofing of the rooms can be improved, especially the one between the floors. As the location does not offer breakfast, a kettle would be an useful accessory for the rooms.

I travelled around the world for twenty years and have never seem a place, overall, as bad as the DOT rooms pension Edorta, San Sebastian, as it is poor in all three categories, room, service and location. I checked into its room on the first day, could not tolerate it, found another hotel in the morning at about 2 AM, and moved out. The other hotel was located across the Playa de la Concha beach, with A/C and ocean view, overall far better than DOT Edorta and cost the same. I normally do not bother to write reviews; but my experience at DOT Edorta was so bad that I would like to warn travelers to be more careful of their selections. In my view, DOT wants maximum profit, provides worst facility in the nosiest location, and gives as little service as they could get away. Allow me to explain: 1. The service and management were the worst: DOT Edorta DOES NOT have staff on site. If you need help with inquiries (including entrance and exit. As the staff works REMOTELY and you may be at risk of waiting a long time without a key during arrival), guidance, and reservation, etc, you may be out of luck. They took no responsibility for erroneous phone instructions and their inability to take care of the customers. Their excuse would be that this facility is a pension, not a hotel. The reality is that there are indeed hotels around far better than this one, at competitive price. In my case, their service staff, Silvia Dot, DID NOT even know that DOT Edorta is near a dead-end street where Old Town taxis are BLOCKED FROM ENTERING. Unfortunately, I trusted her to make a taxi reservation for an important appointment which I made six months ago. No taxis ever came, and they will never come. Finally, we left the waiting site on our own and caught a taxi on the main street; but we were late for our appointment. All the time, her attitude was terrible. She swore that taxi would come at her designated location and stated that this was a pension implying services supposed to be zilch and she was doing us a favor. 2. The room was bad and not comparable to the website: Travelers will find nice, large and comfortable rooms in their advertisement; but in reality, our room was old, beat up, no furnishing, dirty, uncomfortable, and we could hardly turn around in a jammed space. The two single beds were hard, tucked together and covered with dirty linens. A ceiling fan blows directly over our heads, which could make us sick. Please see our photos illustrating the condition of the room. 3. The location was in the nosiest place inside the Old Town. When we opened the window for air circulation, we heard thundering noise from the street well into the morning. This place was so hot, so it would be impossible not to open the window. There is no possibility to gain sleep. 4. This place has NO Air Conditioning. San Sebastian can be extremely hot, particularly in Old Town. This is especially important for travelers who need rest after a full day of activity under the sun. It is our opinion that one should not stay in a place without air conditioning, particularly when there are plenty hotels around with A/C.

I made a reservation and paid for the Santa Klara room #10, checked in online the day before, and received the entry code. The code worked for the front door and second floor of the hotel, but there was no room #10. There were two rooms marked “privado” that required a key to access instead of a code. I messaged the WhatsApp number for assistance per the instructions in the confirmation email but never got a response. I sent an email asking for help and never got a response. Finally had to find another hotel and dispute the charges with my bank. Someone responded through WhatsApp two days later asking how they could help and insisting the room was marked #10. Managers seem to be unresponsive and unreliable.

The location is amazing. And I appreciate this is a relatively low cost option (shared bathrooms) in a city where hotels are expensive. But our mattress in the first room we stayed (a room booked for a couple for 5 nights) was neither comfortable nor appropriate for sleeping. The mattress was unacceptable for a couple for 1 night, or a single person for 1 night, let alone a couple for 5 nights (I ended up sleeping on a hard wooden floor for 2 nights before realising we had to say something). We were immediately moved after we raised the issue which we appreciated. But they continued to put couples in our old room for the remainder of our stay. It’s not clear to me why some rooms are used more than others or why nicer rooms with better mattresses are not used as often or more often than smaller rooms with mattresses that cannot be slept on. The mattress in room 5/Donostia should immediately be got rid of to avoid this room being the room from hell for anyone else.