Hostelworld

They are taking your money without your concent! I book for 10 days in a hostel, UNITEDHOSTEL in barcelona, for 14.17 euros a night and I was charge it for 24.90 because they say it change regarding the day. They just charge me more of what I accepted in my credit card, but also If I were paying day by day in the hostal I will have got a betetr deal! Take care with this transnational, they just take your money legaly and do whatever they want!

I wish I could have read the reviews online before I booked too~ It's a scammer's website. When the transaction can't be proceeded by hostels, the hostel will cancel the registration but the platform would still charge people and cannot refund. Paid money but no service provided, That's whay this company did. I don't know why there are still people buying their shares in stock. Boycott it and make it shut down. DO NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYONE.

I wish I would have read the reviews before I had booked with this horrible horrible company. They give you one price and state that it includes ALL taxes, they then proceed to collect a portion of the reservation upon booking and tell you that you will pay the difference at check in. NO. You pay the full price upon arrival and when you ask WHY the representatives give you a round about answer and do not give you your money back. This company is full of liars and thieves. AVOID AVOID AVOID.

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.

They r sucks. Website said have best price guarantee. That's meant if u found out other place is cheaper than them on same type of room and date, can claim the difference within 24 hours from u made the booking from them. I met all the conditions they wrote on the website but they tried to use different types of ridiculous reason to cancel your claim. For example, they said they checked the room that i booked was unavailable, the available one is not the same type of room i book. But i check it so many times even I screenshot to them. They said screenshot is invalid. And said "you are choosing a "SHARED" room. Which is cheaper than a DELUXE 4 Bed Female dorm Ensuite when you choose a shared room this mean that the group can be sent in different dormitory, there's no guarantee that the hostel put you in the same dorm." That's totally bull$#*!, they are actually the same room just different name between different website. So many things that u guys can read on my screenshots that i just uploaded.

I wouldn't book with them again. I made a booking with cancellation and pay on arrival, was surprised to see the hostel had taken the full amount for my booking today. I went to the accommodation and Hostelworld asking why that happened. They stated it was for bauma and claimed it was in the terms. I checked the app as well as my confirmation email but it said nothing about bauma. I sent them the confirmation email and a screenshot from my app showing it didn't have anything about bauma so they resent me a new confirmation email claiming it was the original which included the bauma conditions, as if it was always there. My original confirmation email sent in November and the fact that it wasn't in the app shows otherwise. This is fraudulent behaviour. You can't change the conditions of the agreement after the agreement was made.

Hotelier, if you have other choice, do not go with hostelworld!
They are NOT here to help you at all. They only want make money on your work, and will never give you a suitable service.
- They do not have any phone number since covid happen (why? No reasons.)
- They take a huge commission on your price (15%), and do not even have customer service,
- They do not have the phone customers phone numbers mandatory, even though you ask for it,
- They cancel your booking for free the day of the arrival, even though you have a 48 hours cancelation policy,
- They never answer to your request, but they will send you way too many mail asking you to lower your price to sell more rooms,

Booking.com is WAY MORE RELIABLE

Absolute worst case scenario: I booked my hostel three weeks before I arrived, received my booking confirmation and reference number, then arrived at 3am to find my booking had NOT been made, the customer service number they provide is not connected and nobody responded to my 20 odd emails demanding urgent assistance (as per their 24/7 customer service guarantee). I had to contact crisis care to put me up in emergency accommodation as everything else in town was booked due to the same event I had travelled there for. Two days later (when I returned home) I found a couple of emails saying "yo what's the problem?" like I hadn't clearly explained it in 20 separate emails. They are now giving me the run around with further insulting responses like "we can see your booking, was there a problem?" I've never ended up in such a helpless situation and it was all because of this company a) not booking my hostel and b) not responding to my customer care enquiry. They did NOTHING. The Salvation Army paid an $80 cab fare to put me up for 2 nights in a motel 2 hours out of town. My weekend was completely ruined. Still no closer to getting in contact without someone at Hostelworld besides generic email responses. Unreal. NEVER again. I've used this overseas and I'm terrified now that this could have happened where I didn't even speak the language or know which local homeless charities existed. Like you should need to. Wow. Mind blown.

This is a scam. The hotels that are on here aren't associated with this site and so you won't be booked in anywhere. They'll just take your money with no refund

Avoid this company, they steal your money
Avoid this company. They not just only do FALSE ADVERTISEMENT but also STEAL YOUR MONEY. The phone number in the website doesnt work, so its impossible to have a chat with them and if they decided to keep the money they will. I am in the process of suiting them. And also I have contacted 4 different locations of the Burea of consumer protection. Do yourself a favour and stay away. Use booking.com. I never had a problem with them. The Hostel that I stayed in Seaside hawaii its disgusting and old. Bathrooms gross. Terrible.

I had a problem with a voucher, and customer service had it sorted very quickly with some helpful tips for the future.

I don't know how many emails I've been sent so far and no one gives me a solution.

I have reserved 4 nights at the MadPackers hostel (8-bed room) for an amount of 27 dollars, and when I came to the hotel I decided to reserve two additional days in the same shared room. When I was making the reservation at HostelWorld there was a power outage that was restored after a few minutes. At that time, before the power went out, I was about to make the payment for the two nights. When the light was restored, the website asked him to confirm the payment and I did so.

I was surprised to see that at the time of receiving the confirmation the amount was no longer 70 dollars but 530 dollars, so I immediately canceled the reservation. It's all been very confusing.

I have received an email from Madpackers telling me that there is no refund, and I have contacted HostelWorld for a solution and so far no one has responded.

I am losing almost 80% of my travel budget, in a country that I do not know and that is very far from home. I am desperate and no one can help me.

Please, you guys have a good reputation especially with backpackers. I need my money back and for this reservation to be canceled on your side.

I'm desperate.

This business has terrible policies and basically robbed me of close to $80 for the deposit and never confirmed with the hostel and we had no place to stay when we arrived. They had told me that the booking was confirmed and accepted my deposit. However, when we got to the hostel where we were supposed to be staying for 4 nights the hostel had cancelled the booking since it had never been confirmed with the hostel itself. When I contacted HostelWorld they said that the hostel had tried to send me emails that I NEVER received and could not give me back my deposit. They were not helpful or nice about the situation, not only would they not give me back the almost $80 deposit that was what the business charges it's customers but we had to struggle to find a new place to stay. PLEASE DON"T USE THIS WEBSITE, YOU"LL BE ROBBED.

Minutes after booking I was told my creditcard doesnt work and told to book it through a different website. ( scam) And they told me to send my credit card details on a email. ( big scam, which I obviously didnt do)

Then they still booked the deposit through my creditcard and I lost that because they said thats just how it works. ( T& C's)

So basically how I see it is the hostel cancel the booking then tells people to rebook it through their website so they skip the commission to hostelworld. So win for them.

Then hostelworld still books off the deposit. So win for them.

HOSTELWORLD IS A SCAM!

Booked through hostelworld with a free cancellion. I paid Hostelworld's deposit of $US20.56, however whilst hostelworld promised to refund the deposit, it continues with its duckshoving, excuses, delay, delay, more excuses, but never any action to refund my deposit. This has continued for 18 months, still delay after delay. WARNING. - DO NOT BOOK THROUGH HOSTELWORLD, it will not fulfil its promises.
Update 7 December 2021 - guess what, they've now just deposited the refund to my bank account, it only took 18 months. But still use caution if you book through Hostelworld.