Socialtel Copacabana

I have been to a couple Selina hotels already but this is the first one in Brazil. Being half Brazilian and speaking the language (aka, may I specify, Brazilian Portuguese), I got very surprised (and thought it was quite disrespectful) that the staff would automatically speak Spanish to us everytime (?!). Especially when we tried accessing the rooftop one evening and the security was extremely dry and told us it was impossible due to a private event in SPANISH. The rooms are very small and basic, and the hotel itself is tiny. Two extremely slow elevators for 10 floors full of rooms, definitely a bad choice. All in all, the Brazilian Selina experience was pretty bad! Too expensive for what we got!

The 6 people mixed room is around 6 squared meters that barely fits the 3 bunk beds. The ceiling is 2.3 meters high with not enough breathable air for 6 people. There is one tiny window leading to a wall and you have to leave the AC always on in order to not suffocate. The top bed of the bunk bed doesn't fit you if you want to sit. And there is a wooden box in the interior that you will certainly kick when you are asleep. The private bathroom is ok, big enough and clean. There are no common areas to hang out with other guests, the kitchen is small and with no natural light with a window that leads to the same wall as the room and of course ventilation is by an AC that is always on. Of course you can go to the beautifull rooftop, then again, overpriced and you cannot bring your food or berberages. You belong to the "Cave" they gave the name kitchen. They provide transfer service between Selina Copacabana and Selina buzios, but they know nothing about it. We struggled 2 days in order to get confirmation of price, availability and time of departure. The service is like a "free video game", everything is an extra fee. They don't provide room towels, so extra fee for a towel 20 Reais, more than 4 USD. Selina Copacabana doesn't have a laundry room, and that is ok, however they provide laundry service that is way overpriced. As a comparison we went to a self service laundry place that costed us 40 Reais, around 9 USD for 8kg of clothes. However Selina charges you 25 Reais for 1kg, 200 Reais for 8kg, around 43 USD. They gave us confirmation for the transfer the very last night that they were picking us up at 7 am, so we would miss our already payed breakfast. They offered to check us out at 6:45 and give us the Breakfast to go at 7. Of course they charged us 5 Reais extra, more than 1 USD for the packaging. They din't provide any cuttlery so they expected us to eat it with our fingers, the coffee and the juice without the lids and no case to carry them safetly. We were able to eate it in the hostel because the transfer was delayed, otherwise we wouldn't be able to bring it with us. I will never come back to Selina Copacabana and I hope Selina Buzios is better. If you can, check for other hostels. Being 1 block away of the beach is not worth it for this shitty place.