If you are planning a stay at Hostal Providencia, in Santiago, Chile, you can walk through the whole hostel before you book. The 360° virtual tour covers 81 views across five floors: the patio, the bar, the kitchens, the lounges and every type of room, from the 8-bed dorm to the family rooms. You can open it in English, check the room you want and start your booking without leaving it.

This guide shows what you will find in the tour and how to use it.

Where Hostal Providencia is

Hostal Providencia is in the Providencia district of Santiago, a few minutes’ walk from Baquedano metro station and close to Barrio Bellavista, Barrio Lastarria and Plaza Italia. The building is an old corner house with several wings joined by patios, corridors and staircases.

The hostel has a 24-hour reception, and the staff speak Spanish, English and Portuguese. Check-in starts at 2 p.m. and check-out is until 11:30 a.m. Details like these can change, so confirm them with the hostel when you book.

Hostal Providencia reception desk covered in black, orange and green travel stamps, with a wooden top, the Providencia Hostal sign, a list of services painted on the wall, a clock, a map of Santiago and a key board
Reception · open 24 hours

How to use the virtual tour

The tour opens in your browser’s language, with English, Spanish and Portuguese available. To be sure it opens in English, use this link. You can switch languages at any time with the ES, EN and PT buttons at the top, without reloading.

The first view is the garden patio, the heart of the hostel: colorful floor tiles, string lights, plants and tables where guests meet. From there:

  • Look around by dragging the image with your mouse or swiping with your finger.
  • Move between spaces with the arrows on the floor or the round markers with the name of the next space.
  • Open the amber info points for practical tips in each space, such as luggage storage, breakfast, the bar’s opening hours and the laundry.
  • Use the gallery at the bottom to jump to any of the 81 views, filtered by floor.
Garden patio of Hostal Providencia in the 360° virtual tour, with turquoise walls, string lights, trees and colourful tiled floor, the title Floor 1 · Garden patio, the ES, EN and PT language switch with English selected, the orange Book button, a Patio entrance navigation point, floor arrows and the scene gallery with the floor filter
The tour in English · starting in the garden patio

The hostel spreads over several wings and staircases, so the Map button helps. It opens a floor plan of each floor, with tabs from P1 to P5, a dot for every 360° view, your current position and the direction you are looking.

Enlarged floor plan of Hostal Providencia's first floor in the tour, with a dot for each 360° view, the current position with its viewing cone, tabs for floors P1 to P5 and the caption Floor 1 · Garden patio
Map · one plan per floor

See your room before you book

The Rooms button opens every room type in three groups. Each card shows the floors where that type is and opens straight into its 360° view.

Room types panel open over the tour, listing shared 4-, 6- and 8-bed dorms and private single, twin, double, triple, quadruple with private bathroom and private bunk-bed rooms, each with a thumbnail, a 360° badge and the floor where it is
Room types · shared dorms, private rooms and family rooms

You can also open each room type directly:

Look at the details that matter to you: how many beds, whether there is a window, where the wardrobe is and whether the bathroom is inside the room or down the corridor. Some room types come with a private bathroom, and the tour shows it, too.

Twin room at Hostal Providencia with two single beds with wooden headboards and blue, white and turquoise striped bedspreads, a bedside table with a lamp between them and yellow walls
Private room · twin
Family room at Hostal Providencia with a double bed with a striped bedspread and brown cushions, a light wooden bunk bed at the back, a red chair, a window with beige curtains and a turquoise wall with a mirror frame
Family room · double bed and bunk bed
Private bathroom of a triple room at Hostal Providencia, with white tiles, a sink with a mirror and wall light, a red towel, soap dispensers and a glass shower cubicle with a black shower
Triple room · private bathroom

Book from inside the tour

The Book button is always at the top of the screen. It opens a “Book your room” panel that works like the big booking sites:

  1. Pick your dates and guests. Check-in, check-out and the number of guests, with the number of nights counted for you.
  2. Filter the rooms. Private rooms, dorms, or only rooms with a private bathroom.
  3. Choose a room type. Each one shows its beds, capacity and what is included, with a link to its 360° view. Bathroom options appear as choices, like rates on a booking site.
  4. Check availability. The button opens the hostel’s official booking page in a new tab, with your arrival date, nights, guests and language already filled in.
Book your room window in the tour, with check-in and check-out dates, two guests and two nights, the Private bathroom filter on and the twin room with ensuite bathroom selected, summarised under Your stay next to the Check availability button
Book your room · dates, guests, filters and room type

You confirm the room and see the final price on the hostel’s booking page. The tour does not show prices, because rates change with the season.

It also works the other way round: in any room’s 360° view, the Book this room type button opens the booking panel with that room already selected.

Six-bed dorm on floor 2 of Hostal Providencia shown in 360°, with white bunk beds on both sides, a green accent wall, a tall window at the end and the Book this room type button under the title
6-bed dorm · “Book this room type” under the title

The common areas

A hostel stay happens outside the room, too. In the tour you can walk through the reception, the breakfast room, the bar, the shared kitchen (there are two), the games room, the lounges, the computer room and the laundry.

Shared kitchen at Hostal Providencia seen through a wide blue-framed window, with cupboards, microwaves, a stove, a coffee maker, a white-tiled counter and a fridge on the right
Shared kitchen
Bar at Hostal Providencia with a wooden plank counter, five yellow metal stools, a black band with BAR and phrases written in chalk, a mermaid figurehead on the wall and a shelf with small flower pots
The bar

Getting there

The pin button in the tour opens Directions. Google Maps and Waze plan your route to the door, and Uber opens with the hostel already set as your destination. On a phone, there is also a Cabify button: it copies the address and opens the app, so you only have to paste it as your destination.

Directions window in the tour with the hostel address blurred, Google Maps and Waze buttons to navigate and an Uber button to request a ride
Directions · route on Google Maps or Waze, ride with Uber

At the street corner, an info point shows the nearest metro station and Plaza Italia. At the reception, another one suggests what to see nearby: Bellavista, Lastarria and Cerro San Cristóbal.

On your phone

The tour runs in the phone’s browser, with no app to install. The Book button stays in the header, and the menu brings together the languages and Directions, including Cabify.

Three phone screens of the Hostal Providencia tour in English: the garden patio with the Book button in the header and floor arrows, the Book your room window with dates, guests and room filters, and the Directions panel with Google Maps, Waze, Uber and Cabify
On a phone · patio, Book your room and Directions

Share a room with your group

The tour’s address follows you as you move. Copy the link while you are in a room, and whoever opens it lands in that same room, in the same language. It is an easy way to show your travel companions the room you have in mind before you book.

About this tour

The Hostal Providencia virtual tour was photographed and produced by gm360, a Brazilian studio that creates 360° virtual tours and publishes 360° photos on Google Maps. The same photos are also on the hostel’s Google Maps profile. For reservations and questions about your stay, use the Book button in the tour or contact the hostel directly.

Open the Hostal Providencia virtual tour in English