Hostelworld
Reviews and Complaints

Stayed at Hans Brinker hostel for one night. Arrived at 7am, told beds would ready at 2pm, arrived at 3pm and they were not ready until 6pm. Booked an eight person room, instead placed in a double room used to house staff members, got absolutely ravished by bed bugs, refused a refund/room swap and were abused by male receptionist who made us (two female travellers) feel extremely scared for our safety.

I booked a hostel for a night in Rome at friendship palace, here is the reservation number: 263677-[protected]. When we got there, our room had been booked twice and there was no room available for us. The guy at the frontdesk was extremely rude, he treated us badly and did not assume their mistake until half on hour later. They ended up asking for us to try to book another place by ourselves (which was impossible at 23pm). Finally, they said they had found a place really near for us to go. They made us carry our luggage for many blocks, it was not near at all! We had been waiting for almost 2 hours for a solution and they sent us to a Hotel were we got a room that was nothing like we had booked and had to pay even more than we had to pay at the original destination. The only reason why i agreed to this was because it was almost midnight in a not very nice place in Rome and we had a plane to catch at 6am the following day.
It was a horrible experience. I do not understand how can these things happen and, more over, why should be mistreated for it when we had done nothing wrong.
I request an explanation and a way of compensating us for this expensive mistake from your end.

Kate Ealey
Booking reference number is 101724-[protected]

To whom it may concern,

We booked this accommodation and have just arrived and checked in.
I am completely mortified with the place and very unhappy and disappointed. Albeit I know it is a hostel, however it is far below the expected standards it should meet.
The accommodation is dirty, it smells, it is unclean, no soap to be found, no towel provided. The shower cubicle and toilet is very very small and no room to manoeuvre at all!
There are dirty sheets on the bed with stains over the blanket. In the room, you need to keep your shoes on its so filthy. As for the wardrobe it is unusable.

Also it was listed they provide bicycles here, well we have found out that they don't. This is false advertisement.

I would like someone to call me today to resolve this matter i.e move accommodation or at least be refunded back for the stay.

Yours sincerely

Kate Ealey
Mobile: [protected]

On 22 May, I've made reservation on Hostelworld.com for "Family Glavinic, Dubrovnik Croatia", to stay one night on 21July. The host emailed me in 6th June saying that he can't host me anymore. I contacted Hostelworld and the host of Family Glavinic immediately for the process of refund or transfer to another booking, however, 3 days has passed, none of them border to give me a reply!

Without confirmation and refund, I can't proceed for another reservation in case of duplicate bookings.

As days passes without any answers from both Hostelworld and the host, there will be lesser choice of hostel and the price of room will go up as well.

This bad service is totally unacceptable, this might lead us to no place to stay for our trip!

Beware of this service failure website!

I got charged by the hostel even after cancelation of booking well before the cancelation date given, and not received the refund even after 3 months of charging. Its hoteliris who charged for booking made from hostelworld. This hotel don't even pick the call or reply for emails. This is my email id in case i got resolution [protected]@gmail.com.
Thank you

When I tried to use my credit card at the supermarket yesterday, it wasn't approved. I got an email from Netflix that my payment was refused. I called my bank and they said Hostel World (located in Germany) had gotten hold of my credit card number and had tried to charge more than $300.00 twice on my account yesterday. My credit card was cancelled and I have to wait for a new number and notify organizations that charge my card monthly that I will have a new credit card number soon.

I booked the room through the website www.hostelworld.com. I got the confirmation info and everything was ok, but one week before the flight, this stupid company cancelled my room. They needed to return money back, but they haven’t done it. I still haven’t received anything from them and won’t advise to book through them. They are liars and scammers, so be careful and better avoid them. As well as post comments about your experience with them.

Hostelworld is showing facilities options for places to stay-- as being "wheelchair accessible". I recently traveled with a friend of mine who is in a wheelchair. I contacted hostelworld to let them know I would be making a booking using these search requirements. They told me that I needed to contact the hostel post booking to make sure that the hotel is accessible. I tried booking three facilities and via email the facilities telling me that they are not accessible:
Kuldeep Friends Hostel, New Delhi, India
booking ref: 60459-[protected]
10th Jul 2014, 5 nights
Fernloft City (Chinatown), Singapore, Singapore
booking ref: 28456-[protected]
15th Jul 2014, 3 nights
B88 Hostel, Singapore, Singapore
booking ref: 64002-[protected]
15th Jul 2014, 3 nights
I lost two dollars per booking trying to arrange a place for me and my friend to stay. 6 dollars total. I then booked a hostel at "hotel the spot"
Hotel The Spot, New Delhi, India
booking ref: 53910-[protected]
10th Jul 2014, 5 nights
They misrepresented their hotel as being accessible. It was not. We showed up at the appointed time and my friend couldn't even get to the door to the hotel because it was 15 yards down an unpaved alleyway strewn with concrete and trash. I lost $16.40 on my credit card for that transaction---even though it was the hotel that was not accessible and they misrepresented themselves to us, the clients. Hostelworld at my complaint said that I could use $14 out of the $22 I lost booking the hotels with them---as credit up to 6 months in the future. I demand a full refund. The company is misrepresenting that they are wheelchair friendly and instead, they've created nothing but problems when booking with a wheelchair user.

I used the website of Hostel World in order to find and book the hotel room for my vacation. After I booked the room and sent the payment, I didn’t receive any confirmation email or other documents. I contacted this company, and they told me that my card was declined and I needed to provide another, but they already took money from me. This company is scam, be aware of them. Post your comments, please.

I booked 3 rooms through Hostelworld in a hotel in Kastoria-Greece (Limneon Resort) for 4 nights, the charged immediately my credit card with 10% of the total ammount and when I called the property to confirm my booking I found out that there has never been any booking. I then contact Hostel world who diverted me to a company named Travelmed and they asked me to provide another credit card by e-mail or fax because as they claimed my card (which was already charged)was declined from their system! The did not bother to provide any other solution and at the end the cancelled my booking!

I had a horrible experience with hosteworld site. I did not get any confirmation page with booking reference numbers while booking rooms in balmers hotel (interlaken) through the site www.balmers.com and neither did i get an email of the two bookings (715-[protected] and 715-[protected]) done using my credit card .
The lady at the reception brought to my notice that multiple bookings were done in my name and told me that the credit card has also been charged 385CHF (around 350 Euros) without my notice by hostelworld.
The amount has been deducted from my thomas cook credit card [protected]-****-0130.

Without a confirmation email i was not made aware of the bookings done and was not able to cancel the booking also.

After countless calls and mails and everything still no refund has been done. It has been almost 1 months now and it seems to me now that these guyshave taken my money and run away.

Please do not book in hostelworld unless you want to lose your money

I have booked a hostel for 4 people for one night at the Dover Castle Hostel in Dover, England. The booking was confirmed a few days before we arrived. When checked in at 12, 1:30 and 6pm. Every time we showed up to get into our rooms, they said they have rooms but they don't have the key or the rooms weren't ready. They said hostelworld overbooked but they'll figure something out.. Well at 6pm, we still didn't have our rooms and as alternative, they showed us an attic bedroom which was a construction site, unsafe to stay in and extremely dirty. We had to leave and find somewhere else at 6pm. I reported this to Hostelworld and they said I can't get my deposit back. I don't care about their $50 booking guarantee, it would be sufficient enough to not to be taken advantage of in broad-day light. On top of it, the hostel lied to Hostelworld and said we didn't want to stay as we wanted to stay in the same room. If that was the case would we have waited until 6 pm to make that decision? This was a total lie. And as if this is not enough, the Dover castle hostel claimed that they didn't sell the 4 beds they didn't even have (as if they did we had a place to stay for the night) and charged me for 54 pounds. This is stealing. There is no other words for this conduct. And to add to hilarity of the problem, they replied back confirming that they indeed didn't have enough space for us. Go figure! I've been trying to get this resolved for the last 2.5 months. I get nowhere with the hostel and the hostelworld is just happy to get their 6 pounds back and walk away. They are great, until you have a problem. And when that happens, you are on your own with your money long gone. Guarantee, booking confirmation is all for nothing, just for show. As if it was something, they'd stay behind their word and wouldn't ignore customers when they had problems like this. All they care about is your few dollars. Never again.

I've sent over 6 emails to "Simona Casciato" from the "Customer Service Team". She hasn't replied to any after she asked for my bank statement, which got the heart of the issue about 3 weeks ago.

I was charged the full amount for a "no-show" and it is clearly written on HostelWorld's Terms and Agreement that only the first night's stay will be charged. I can never trust HostelWorld again.

- On the 6th of june 2012 I booked a twin room (shared bathroom) in the Ocean Inn Rio Leblon in Rio the Janeiro (Brasil) at www.hostelworld.com for the period of 11-02-2013 until 15-02-2013 (Carnival), with the following policy:

To confirm your reservations for Carnival, NYE or Rock in Rio you must contact the hostel to pay the remaining balance up to 2 weeks after your reservation. IF NOT YOUR RESERVATION CAN BE CANCELLED WITH NO REFUNDS!

- On the 10th of june 2012 (so within 2 weeks after reservation) I sent them an email to confirm my reservation and ask about how to pay for the room:

Dear Ocean Inn,

Last week I made a reservation at your hotel on www.hostelworld.com for the period of the 11th to the 15th of february 2013. (reservation number 48370-[protected]) Hereby I want to confirm my booking. If it is necessary to pay any remaining amount of money that I have to pay to stay with you, than I would like to receive some more information details about how I can transfer that remaining amount. Please contact me to let me know how I can pay the remaining amount of money to confirm my booking with you.

- On the 21th of june 2012 I sent them this message again, because I didn't get an answer the first time.

- On the 25th of june 2012 I got an email from the hostel with confirmation of my stay:

Your reservation is confirmed. Soon the department of reservations will contact you.

Thank you

Best Regards,
Ocean Inn Rio Leblon

To be clear: Until the 27th of november 2012 I never received any other email than the confirmation email.

- On the 28th of november 2012 I got the following message from the hostel:

Hello Sander
Since we are under new managment all reservations that not follow our
policies were canceled. Unfortunately your resevation 48370-[protected] was
cancelled acording to our policy:

If you have to cancel your booking, you must do it at least 48hours before
arrival except New Year’s Eve* and Carnival. We do not refund reservations
for New Year’s Eve* or Carnival for these dates; if you don't cancel
within at least 4 weeks in advance the full amount is going to be charged
on your card. To confirm your reservations for Carnival and New Year’s
Eve* you must contact the hostel to pay the remaining balance up to 7 days
after your reservation. If not, your reservation can be cancelled with no
refund!

Because we are under new managment we are refunding all the cancelled
reservations. Please let us know how would you like us to refund the 60, 00
reais that you paid.

Best Regards,
Ocean Inn Rio Leblon

So my confirmed booking got cancelled now. I did whatever I possibly could to fulfil their policy, but since I didn't get any detail from the hostel where to send the money, it was not possible for me to follow the policy more than I did. I booked the room in the hostel many months before my stay, because the availability and prices during the carnival in Rio can rise very quickly, so it would be very hard for me to find a good hostel later on. I assume that when a booking is confirmed by email, that it should overwrite a policy for sure. The hostel however, answers me that they already booked other people in my room and that my reservation just got cancelled.

When I contact hostelworld.com about this they take at least one week to answer me everytime I write an email to them. First they tell me that sometimes there is a problem with a booking coming trough and that is why things went wrong here (not true!). They don't offer me an alternative and point with their finger to the hostel. They contact the hostel and afterwards they tell me that the hostel should contact me to pay me back my deposit! (the deposit I paid to hostelworld.com!) But the hostel doesn' t answer my many emails and from that moment also hostelworld.com stopped answering my emails. So they just got my deposit and don' t care about what I do or don' t get for the money I paid them. It is just ordinairy robbery, but then in the modern way. I even made a second complain about my first complain, but they simply don't answer me. And now I want to delete my account at hostelworld.com there is no way to do that... AARRRGHHHH!

I hope people will stop using hostelworld.com for booking. They have great low-budget hostels and the reviews come in very handy, but when there is a problem with a booking they simply won't help you for sure. They just want to make easy money, money that is supposed to go to the hostel or hotel you book. As far as I know Hostelworld.com has got the worst costumer service I ever experienced.

My final conclusion: PLEASE DON' T USE HOSTELWORLD.COM! booking.com or hostelbookers.com are perfect alternatives and their costumer service is great.

Booking made on 27th december 2012. Stay at vic bay surf lodge in dormitory for 29 and 30 deposit paid

Confirmation received. E-mail send to vic bay surf lodge. Arried - fully booked and according to vb they received no confirmation from hostelworld

Double booking and just collection 10 % commission is fraud!

Thank you

Servaas de kock

Clean and looks good, but you can tell that these guys don't care about improving their system anymore -- that they've put in the work and are willing to take their paychecks without any further input. What you get is a virtually self-sustained site that has no problem taking your money but has absolutely no customer service. I emailed these guys about a problem for over two weeks without any response whatsoever. I've given up on the money that I've inadvertently given them, but will never use their service again.

I booked by accommodation through this website, my credit card details were inputted correctly. however i have received an email from the hotel

"Unfortunately the given credit card details are unvalid. Please send us a valid credit card number with expiry date, that we can guarantee your reservation. The other possibilty is a bank transfer in advance."

I went to the bank TODAY! they told me the deposit went through!
The site said that i would pay the deposit only and pay the rest when i arrive. why has the hotel or that site also tried to get another $200 extra when it was deposit only?

IS THIS A SCAM?

Having viewed the hostel/prices/reviews 96%, through hostelworld.com I booked on line, one night in May, and two nights in October. Having contacted the owner direct to arrange a taxi, this did NOT meet us at the airport. Arriving at the house, it was nothing like the photos on the web site, but the location was good. OK the room was fairly clean, hot water, but an awful breakfast. On my return I have been trying to cancel my booking in October via "My World" my booking was not showing, even though I have a booking confirmation confirming the deposit.
Being unable to cancel the booking on "My World" 5 replies were sent via customer services to log in, but no details were showing.Phoning the owner, she promised to cancel the booking, and advise me my e-mail, no response. Phoning hostelworld.com 6 times, I was put on hold, leaving 2 messages to phone my mobile number, no contact after 3 days. Now they have my card details, and if I do not cancel, they will take the first night accommodation charge. I even phoned directory enquiries in Ireland, and there was NO listing for this company, at the address given on the web site.My bank have advised me that the money could be taken via another subsidary company!

Dear Editor,

I decided to write you adding my experience because I want complain about fraudulent online hostel booking but I'm a tourist (italian scientist researcher) and I don't know very well the best way to do it in USA.

I booked online a hostel in New York last July (I have the receipt you can read below) but when my plane arrived in NY (during the evening) I phoned to the hostel and they simply told me than there aren't rooms! I didn't find any other rooms that night (was a Saturday night in very high season period)except very expensive hotels so I decided to sleep in my car with my husband and my son but it was not a great experience and it could has been dangerous!

I hope you can help me and send this letter to competent organizations.

Thank you very much
Dr. Milena Merlo Pich

From : [protected]@hostelworld.com
To : [protected]@libero.it
Cc :
Date : Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:29:02 +0100
Subject : Your Confirmed Booking from hostelworld.com

Booking Confirmation [protected])

Confirmed for Milena Merlo Pich at 09:29:01 25th Jul '07

Hostel Info
Greenpoint YMCA
99 Meserole Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222
New York

p. +[protected]
f. +[protected]
e. [protected]@ymcanyc.org
Booking Info
Date Room Type USD Persons Total EUR
28th Jul '07 2 Bed, Private Room (Shared Bathroom) 34.00 2 68.00 51.17
28th Jul '07 2 Bed, Private Room (Shared Bathroom) 34.00 2 68.00 51.17
29th Jul '07 2 Bed, Private Room (Shared Bathroom) 34.00 2 68.00 51.17
29th Jul '07 2 Bed, Private Room (Shared Bathroom) 34.00 2 68.00 51.17
TOTAL: 272.00 204.66
Deposit: 27.20 20.47
Service Charge: 2.00 1.50
Cancellation Protection: 3.00 3.00
Charge on Card (Service Charge + Deposit): - 24.22
AMOUNT DUE ON ARRIVAL AT GREENPOINT YMCA:
244.80 -

NOTE: A non-refundable charge of EUR24.22 has been billed to your credit card.

Upon arrival at your accommodation the BALANCE OF USD 244.80 IS PAYABLE. You are due to arrive here at 21.00. For your convenience, we have stored your booking in [1]your account
in the new Hostelworld Travel Network
You have purchased Cancellation Protection for this booking.
If you wish to cancel this booking, do so through [2]your account.
Your account with then be credited with the value of the cancellation.
To download your New York City Guide, [3]click here.
This is an automatic email please do not reply to this email.
Contact hostelworld about your booking [4]here!

DIRECTIONS
From La Guardia or JFK International Airport, take the New York Airport Service bus to 42nd Street & Times Square. Take the underground metro to 14th Street then transfer to the L train to Lorner Street. Transfer at Lormer St. to the Queens bound G train, one stop to Nassau St. Go upstairs and walk to Meserole Avenue. CONDITIONS

* The outstanding amount is payable to the property directly upon your arrival.
* Cancellations must be notified directly to the accommodation provider at least 24 hours prior to arrival
* In the event of a no show, your card will be charged for the first nights accomodation total.
* For any changes to an existing reservation, please contact the accommodation provider directly
* Should your credit card expire or your credit card details change prior to arrival, please contact the accommodation provider directly with the amended details
* In the event of cancellation, the booking deposit and booking fee are non-refundable.
* Please read our [5]Terms & Conditions
* If you have a question, please see our [6]FAQ.