Hostelworld
reviews and complaints

When it comes to Hostelworld, the reviews are quite polarized. Some customers have had positive experiences, praising the ease of booking and the quality of accommodations. On the other hand, there are numerous complaints about hidden fees, poor customer service, and issues with refunds. It seems like a hit-or-miss situation, so if you decide to use Hostelworld, proceed with caution and be prepared for potential challenges.

From a hotelier perspective i requested to find out about their pms backpacker online, nobody never got back to me about that. Then i created a mega micro site with them it was buggy (with i. E. chrome, mozilla) and it took ages to get published and still not right. Not a lot of bookings either.

Don't use your personal account all programmed for billpay, direct deposit, and personal checks. Use a BofA, or Visa reloadable card and you won't miss the tears and sweat. I've booked with them for years now and stayed in brilliant locations introduced to a whole lifestyle unknown before the millennium but with only one problem; teachy owners who twice ignored cancelled bookings, occasional crude rudeness. Woops, somebody got my number againl But someone bought out a fabulous org.

Booked 4 hotels in Japan through this website. They all worked out fine so have nothing to complain about. The benefit of this website is you only put down a deposit for the rooms via the website then pay the remainder when you arrive at the hotel, rather than all up front.

Hostelworld is the primary website I use to find places to stay around the world while I am traveling. The customer service is very helpful.

Hostelworld Customer Service Team:
I needed to merge email on account. Within 2 verification emails it was done!
Fast and Simple.
Keep it up!

I made a reservation for one pod at *** through Hostel World for the dates 1/27/23-1/29/23. I sent an email to request a refund because when I paid on the Hostel World website, it indicated that I was paying for two nights for both my wife and me (see screenshot below). Less than two hours later, when I called the hostel to confirm the booking, they informed me that the booking was actually only made for one person, not two. They also told me that upgrading to a pod that could accommodate both my wife and me would cost an additional $266. Since Hostel World stated that the price I paid was for two individuals for two nights (see attached screenshot), I emailed them to request a refund for this pod. I believe I am entitled to a full refund because (1) Hostel World provided incorrect information, (2) the booking was made less than two hours ago, (3) I am within the hostel's refund policy timeframe (see attached video), and (4) I paid extra for the flexible booking option. However, despite sending over 6 emails to Hostel World, I have been unable to obtain a refund. The customer service agents keep responding by saying "well, that's not what we meant on the website, we meant that it was only for one person, despite writing that it's for two, so we won't refund you." Please be cautious of *** at Hostel World (see attached screenshot). I need a refund, but she refuses to acknowledge the mistake made by Hostel World and keeps insisting that there is nothing wrong.

I booked a hostel for 11 pax on 14 Feb. When I received the confirmation email I saw I had been charged for 12 pax. I reached out to them immediately because I was suddenly made aware that I would lose my deposit if I made any changes or cancelled the booking.

But on the website it was advertised as a 'free cancellation' booking.

I have 11 permits to do a hiking trail where I booked the hostel. Why would I book for 12 pax if I have only 11 permits.

Even if I made a mistake, why is hostelworld not honouring the free cancellation promise THEY made?

This is a seriously dodgy company. I will never do business with them again. I advise EVERYONE to think twice before using them. Pay more through booking.com. Hostelworld sucks.

Hello, we have a booking under Rozan Huskisson for the 28th to the 31st that we have tried to cancel several times. We sent many emails last week and never got a response. I was just on the phone with a representative who said that they are very behind on emails and this is why the booking wasn’t cancelled and we were also unable to cancel through the Hostelworld app as the booking was not even showing up. We were just charged the rest of the amount even though we have tried several times to cancel well in advance of the 24hr threshold. I’m very unhappy with the customer service I received on the phone and at this point will be leaving a poor review so that no one else falls into the trap of booking with you guys.

Upon arriving at Mellow Hostel it is nothing like what is advertised on the website. The photos look completely different to what is the reality. There is no real bedding, only a fleece blanket which is dirty.

The website says each room has a shared bathroom, which is not the case, there is a shared bathroom for the whole floor.

There were no towels for hire as advertised, only to buy.

The atmosphere is not “safe and peaceful” as advertised, the facilities are not in a good condition, with out-of-order bathrooms, and leak in one of the room, and the door to our dorm room not closing properly.

We were meant to stay for 3 nights (21st - 24th June 2023), but only stayed the first night - because we had a late check-in and couldn’t find other accommodation that late. We would like a refund for the other two nights that we are not staying at the hostel but have paid for.

Booking (85496-[protected]) for TOC Barcelona from 31/5 to 3/6. The website gave me many options and I selected Euro 74.34 per night as non-refundable offer and confirmed booking and paid part advance.

But when I received booking they have indicated Euro 74.34 for first night, Euro 154.17 for second night and Euro 171.73 for third night. All non-refundable and for the same accomodation of single bed in shared dormitory.

This is either an error or a fraud. Their customer-care number does not work. Please advise how I can get redressal.

TOC says they cannot do anything at their end as all payments for Hostelworld bookings are processed by Hostelworld

I made a reservation through hostel world from August 3 till the 15th . I was charged 485 $ I canceled my reservation upon arrival because the actual charge was over 2000 $

The hostel refused to give my refund because they said they can't refund me because it's 3rd party reservation I did not stay but they claimed that 331 $ was taken as a commission for the 2000$ from hostel world although the add say it's 30$per day

My reservation is 310917-[protected]

This is scamming

Pleaze help me refound my money I just live two day at hostel beautiful 2 

Ands then I go another I paid more 

I have lost a lot of money

I want to refound my money couse I consultation about my healthy! came on the second day two boys who had been bitten by splinters I immediately got 3 of my own back, I had a very hard time the next few days! I had to leave the hotel immediately in a country I do not know, I closed, I suffered a lot

every day my roommates also changed and for 3 days they never cleaned up, the toilet was smelly now with so many people!

simply unacceptable. please help me get the money back

I was bitten by scabies. I just want to stay in a place where hygiene rules will apply! I want my colors back I laugh and I leave but I need the money to stay in a safe and healthy place.

I have to go and other hotel 

263676-[protected]

I cancelled two reservations within the legal deadlines to obtain a refund of the amounts paid.

I've never seen those values. The problem is that I received an email with a print screen saying that they had returned it to me, this never happened.

To my surprise, the cancelled hostel charged me the full amount. As soon as what happened, I sent an email to which they responded quickly asking for proof.

I sent the proof and they never responded. Situations like this cannot go unpunished.

Don't book in this platform, they are liars. Companies that cheat people shouldn't be in business.

Hi,

It was a worst experience we went through lot of trouble by booking in this property, I have booked for 5 people 3 adults 2 kids one with 12 years one with 10 years at the time of booking it gave option to book when I entered the details about the passengers it also gave an option to enter the kids age land at the hotel the they did not allowed to check in at the hotel because there is one kids when they don't allow kids why did they mentioned an option for child and the age, they are asking to pay 4500/- per day to allow kids for two days its 9000/- it aws out of my budget,

They asked to leave the property we were on the road with 2 kids they is no humanity no courtesy

At 10 night we checked in the other hotel which is 18 km away from the property which I booked I want a compensation for the hotel transfers and the unpleasant experience transport charges

I want the compensation of 8000/- if not I will approach to consumer court, post everywhere in the social media including tripadvisor

I want the refund for my 10$-800/-
Transfers charged 800/-
Hotel I booked for 3290/-

Check In details

Trippr Chikkamagaluru

Arrival date: 22 Dec 2020
Departure date: 24 Dec 2020
Booking Reference: 293418-[protected]

Regards
Rani
[protected]

I had a trip booked for june 2020, this was a 24 hour notice refundable booking. Due to Covid the trip was cancelled, i have been chasing my refundable deposit ever since and Hostelworld are refusing to return my money until April 2021 this is not acceptable, who do i need to complain to about this company as far as im converned they are stealing my money! they just ignore emails or if they do respond im told to be patient.

the Hostelworld website charges a commission to take your reservation - you pay them and then they pass your credit card details to the hotel, who then charges you for the full reservation price which is more than what they charge without Hostelworld. this price is NOT made evident when you pay for what you think is a deposit on your reservation - when i made my booking, Hostelworld showed me a "DEPOSIT FEE" (to
me this means a deposit on my reservation price not an additional commission fee) then I was charged by the hotel for the full reservation at a higher rate. this is not fair practice as I am stuck paying without even checking in and THERE WAS NO INDICATION OF NIGHTLY RATE - this is a scammy way to trap people. Hostelworld is great for searching a hotel, MAKE SURE TO CONTACT THE HOTEL DIRECTLY AND DO NOT USE THIS SCAMMY WEBSITE TO MAKE ANY RESERVATIONS

I booked a stay at stone hostel in Utrecht for 3 nights from 8th-10th November. I was expected to pay on arrival and charged an extra 5.50 - apparently for a breakfast I was never given the option to refuse. After one hideous and sleepless night's stay at stone hostel sleeping in a room that stank of faeces I requested to cancel my further 2 nights. The hostel refused to do this.

I have since made many attempts via hostelworld to claim back the overcharged amount and the money for the unused nights. Hostelworld have made very little attempt to investigate the situation and believe the lies of the staff that work there.

The place was/is unfit for habitation. They know this very well. It's not something that can be resolved in an afternoon, so to save myself I moved on and did not make a complaint there and then.

On returning home. I at first didn't want to get them into trouble over the condition of the place, but after being lied about and ignored several times I thought it was fair enough to bring up the issue that drove me out of there so fast.

I know they (hostelworld) say in their disclaimer (good luck finding it) that they will not act on behalf of their clients, but since they are advertising stone hostel under false pretenses, I am surprised they do not seem to care even slightly that a premises they support is unhygenic to the point of disgusting.

I have made several refused requests to have my deposit refunded back into my bank account, but instead it sits in my "hostelworld accout" which needless to say I shall never again be using.

So I've lost 57.50 Euro in total.

It's not even about the money. There is just no protection for the consumer when going via this company. The cancellation policy is worded in a way that is completely misleading and there are obviously no standard checks in place to ensure properties meet minimum hygiene standards. And they just hope the customer will shut up about any mistreatment they may have experienced.

Shocking and grotesque example of the abuse of trust on an online booking platform.

Really shocking

I arrived at a hostel in Jerusalem which I payed for the week to stay. I was in a panic to learn that I could not stay their due to an age restriction. The manager struggled to find on the third page toward the bottom of the page an age restriction. I was turned away and was assured the money and the commission would be refunded. Hostelworld true to its name hostel. Refuses to return the commission fee associated to this booking. Forget the fact I was in a foreign country without a place to stay forget the age discrimination. REFUND MY MONEY FOR SERVICES NOT RENDERDED. Hostelworld is pocketing $22.43 based on an unforthright and I indirected business practice. They may well steal my money but they lost a costumer and one costumer know another and another.

I booked to stay 5 nights in Jacaranda Hostel Valparaiso, Chile and £269.38 was taken out of my MasterCard account. When I got to the hostel the owner said he had no knowledge of booking, He said the hostel had been closed for a while and that he had not accepted bookings for the hostel for a while.

If what the owner says is true then I am complaining that Hostelworld are advertising hostels and accepting money for accommodation which is not available,
I am also complaining about the fact that customers have no easy right of redress to get their money back that is owed to them.

There is plenty of information about the responsibility of the customer but none about the rights of the customer to have their money reimbursed when no service or facilites have been provided.

I made a reservation for Found Hotel in San Diego for August 30, 2019 arriving at 10 PM, since my flight from Hawaii won't get there until 9:30pm. We needed a short 5-hour stay because our connection to another vacation would start until the next morning.
I paid a cancelation protection of $2 so I can get my deposit back if I cancel within 48 hours.

On August 28, 2 days prior, at 2:30pm Hawaii time, I was at a Marina waiting for a boat for a dolphin cruise. We decided to cancel the reservation and since I was not anywhere near my laptop, I called Found Hotel directly to cancel. I did receive a cancelation email later on that day. REMEMBER THIS IS OUTSIDE OF the 48 HOURS since my arrival wasn't going to be until 10 PM on August 30th !

When we returned from our cruise that evening, I immediately went on Hostelworld and CANCELED AGAIN, just to be sure. This was around 9:30-10pm my time in HAWAII.

What was strange about this was that the website STILL SHOWED a reservation AND at the same time SHOWED a cancelation. Don't know why the system was like this. But there it was, still SHOWING A RESERVATION AFTER I CANCELED IT.

I also reached out to Hostelworld via email to request for my DEPOST BACK. When I did this, I forwarded the CANCELLATION EMAIL FROM THE HOTEL AS PROOF THAT I CANCELED PIROR TO 48 HOURS OF ARRIVAL.

Well, several emails went back and forth, they inisted that I did not cancel BECAUSE their stupid website still showed a reservation. They did not bother checking that under CANCELATION, it ALSO SHOWED A CANCELATION ! Really stupid website.

At any rate, they refused to refund my money even though I had canceled MORE than 48 hours prior to my arrival time. Not only that several emails back and forth showed how little they actually investigated the matter. Even at one email, they TOLD ME TO CaNCEL with the hotel, when I already DID (by forwarding the cancelation email from the hotel to them INITIALLY).

It has been tiring to work with these VERY STUPID people, failing to READ the entire emails accordingly. They keep telling me things that either IS FALSE or REFUSING to acknowledge their part in this, and now REFUSING TO REFUND ME.

I never used them before this and I will NEVER use them again! HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PEOPLE HORRIBLE ORGANIZATION who steals other people MONEY! I should have listened to my daughter and NOT go through reservation with Hostelworld.

SIMPLY the WORST and INCOMPETENT people, WORST organization EVER! Please make reseravation directly with hotel or hostels...Do NOT go through them!

I started booking through Hostelworld many, many years ago. In the early 2000s the site was an excellent resource of independent properties and reliable reviews. Several years back, though, I started having issues with bookings and frustratingly slow responses. They've gone from bad to worse in recent years and I would warn anyone against using their site. They've held $76 in "flexible booking" credit that I've been trying for over a year to use. They keep extending the expiration deadline, which is useless because every property I have tried to book (in Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Dublin, London, La Paz and Bogota--so far), is listed with their new "free cancellation" bookings. (Or, Pay in full/Lose in full, if you prefer zero flexibility.) I emailed them a handful of times over the past year, imploring them to either refund my money (since they have changed their site/booking functionality), OR apply the credit funds to the price of a booking that offers "free cancellation". They have refused every time, growing snarkier with each reply. Absolute garbage service. And while $76 isn't a fortune, on principal, they are just wrong.

I booked a hostel in Hong Kong through hostelworld. They took the deposit and the hostel took the full price of the booking (it was not made clear that this would happen at the time). I cancelled the booking on the next day. Whilst I have received a refund from hostelworld the £70 that was charged to my account from the hostel - that I at no point gave consent for them to share my details with - has not yet been refunded. It has been 20 days since the cancellation and I have contacted the hostel itself on 3 separate occasions and have received no response. Nor have I received any word from hostelworld customer service as to how this is being resolved. Each time my reply to an email is picked up it is by a different person who just asks me to contact the hostel again. This is despite 14 emails back and forth with hostelworld's customer service. As this is a hostel that hostelworld not only endorses but allows to take money from their customers they need to rectify this.

I have had an appalling experience with this hostel. After staying 2 nights with a lumpy mattress with a dip in the middle I now have a sore back. I made the hostel aware of this at the time of my stay but they did nothing to action it. After 2 weeks of chasing up my complaint they are now refusing to compensate me. Disgusting service. They have admitted to replacing the mattress now, and offered one night's stay as a resolution. This is not acceptable as I will not be wanting to stay there ever again after how horrendous the aftercare was. Several emails unanswered and calls to the hostel where they kept fobbing me off saying the person I needed to speak to wasn't there but they would call me back, they never did of course. I just don't want other people to have to go through the same ordeal.

I have had my worst customer service experience booking with https://www.facebook.com/Hostelworld/.
Due to a change of flight, I was in touch with the hotel to move my night to another one. The hotel agreed but wanted me to charge for the 2 nights. We couldn't find an agreement and I was not very happy with it, but eventually agreed that I would still come on the scheduled night.
The next day the hotel cancelled my night (THEY did) because they "didn't like my attitude and I said I could leave a bad review" (!). They took my money and forbid me to come to their place. Unbelievable.
Since Hostelworld is not defending me nor giving me money back despite having booked through their service. They never answer my documented complain correctly, take weeks to get back to me, and say that I had to deal with their hotel despite booking through their service.
This hotel stole my money and didn't give me the room and hostelworld is not protecting me as their client. Now going viral with my story - shame on your Hostelworld, this is an absolute shameful way to treat your clients.

Hi, my name is Hannah Daghighi and I have come across bed bugs in our room on the 18th of August 2017 in Plus Hostel Florence when I stayed with my friends Christina Gell and Laura Green. Our booking reference number was [protected].

They agreed to give us a full refund through contacting us by email but we have not heard anything, despite emailing them. We signed a document with our emails in which the hostel has agreed to give us a full refund. One of the receptionists assured us that we couldn't receive a refund immediately because the hostel had to contact our banks, thus they would email us soon (she called her manager who gave her this information).

They failed to deal with the bed bugs issue of another hostel guest and are now evading our refund. A girl with bed bugs instead of being moved to a private room and given new clothes was moved into our full hostel room, risking the infection of everyone. The morning of the 19th she found another bedbug in our room.

Because of the above incident we have reason to believe that the hostel not only failed to deal with a health and safety issue but is going against our confirmed refund. They have not responded to our email.

We are hoping you can help.

Kind regards,

Hannah Daghighi