Hostelworld

Good range of hostel with affordable prices. Good customer service, I'm very satisfied with them. Whenever I have an issue, they dealt with it promptly.

My ref************** be aware of this site, they will book a nice hostel but in reality they will send you different place a hostel which I never did the booking there. The costumer service it is the worst if you write an email they will reply after two weeks. They might offer promotions but there are fake, this is my first and last, it is a scammer by the name DO NOT BOOK ON THIS SITE.

I looked options for two people, and the page gave me the options, so I picked one and made my reservation for two people, I paid the partial amount to the page, the hostel charged me the rest, then one day later when I looked at the reservation it said it was for only one person, I requested a refund and they refused. I lost around $500. DO NOT USE THEM.

I booked a "Basic Single Private Shared Bathroom" using hostel world. Total Cost: US$53.72 paid deposit Total Paid: US$12.36 for two nights.

When arrived they were asking 19% more for Taxes. Notice that Hostelworld usually displays final price and have been using many times. So basically they were asking 10USD more. This is a scam because unless you read a fine print you don't know it and hence cannot compare with other websites.

The "Basic Single Private Shared Bathroom" turned out to be a Pod! That means only a bed in a wardrobe - much worse than Japanese Capsule Hostel (no amenities at all).

Hostelworld is also responsible for the misleading ad (no mention to the pod) and also the Tax. (See photos attached)

Notice 53.72$ minus 12.36 deposit = 51.57! According to their arithmetic...
HI STAVROS, YOUR BOOKING IS CONFIRMED
Reference Number: **************

CDMX Hostel Art Gallery
Paseo de la Reforma 169, Colonia Cuauhtemoc, Mexico City, Mexico

Telephone *******100

My hostel didn't accept My booking. I contacted hostel world, and they replied a week later! A month later, I still haven't gotten a final solution. Very disappointing.

I made a reservation, made a partial payment and they never sent me a booking confirmation email. They have my money and they dont respond to my emails.

It is by far the worst booking platform which neither provides good service to the listed properties, nor to the travelers who count on their reliability. Their commission policy, which charges over 20% of the total amount for the booking is consciously hidden from the end customer. NO ONE who books through HW knows that the so-called "deposit" goes to Hostelworld pocket, not to the property. This is totally misleading the customer's awareness where their money go to. From our experience as hostel owners, we were totally surprised when one of the HW managers Anna Necajeva cancelled more than 11 reservations without our knowledge, based on her personal attitude towards us. Another big disappointment is their software which is completely outdated, there is no app for the properties, the password reset procedure takes over 48 hours, which might ruin anyone's business. Moreover, by default one property account adjust its availability not only at Hostelworld, but also at Hostelbookers, Hostels.com, etc. which might lead to a serious problem when a password reset is required. HW Team Leader - Aislinn Sheehan., was totally disrespectful when we addressed to her our complain for an improper customer behaviour, she neglected our case and her arrogance forced us to cancel our partnerhip with Hostelworld.

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.

Super easy to use, fast way to plan trips and accomodations, friendly and efficient customer service!

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

Booked a hostel on Penang through hostelworld, the hostel simply doesn't exist anymore. Now I'm trying to get my money back...

It was a one off mistake, which I have forgotten and forgive.I will always book my holiday hostel with hostel world.

I booked through them last minute. As I had made the booking (non refundable) I realized it was the hotel that said they had no availability.
The contract stated, no matter what, I had to pay to Hostel World 38 Euro via PayPal and the Hotel would then charge me for the room to my cash card. It also stated that booking was conditional on confirmation by the hotel 24 hours prior.
I sent the hotel an email with the "confirmation" of Hostel World and never received a confirmation.
As my friend was arriving within hours I booked her into other accommodations - last minute and at a lower standard, since no availabilities could be found with my criteria (locality).
I never heard from the hotel, even though a local phone number was provided.
AFTER 24 hours into the stay of my friend my cash card startet to be charged 5 times at 40 Euro. Not the whole amount mind you, but a minor charge per day.
Talking with the proprietors they stated that it was considered as a no show, that I had to pay therefore and the room "JUST" had been rented out! So NO ROOM and NO SERVICE.

The Hotel Anixi Boutique Hotel at Athens will hear from me by legal way. They supported they never needed to confirm!
And... they said literally, that service did not mean or constitute communication with the customer, but only the provision of a room!

IT IS A SCAM!

Booked at stay at Bposhtel in Charlotte. Looks decent on Hostelworld website. However, once we got there, it turned out to be a literal slum. People were hanging around with hoods up and masks on. In our check in line, the guy ahead of us was drinking whiskey out of a bag. Upon check in, the lady couldn't find my reservation. Turns out they're running two businesses out of the same address- one "hostel" for unsuspecting travelers who frequent hostels and another transient motel/temporary housing type thing for all the folks who were loitering outside. We were asked on our way out something we couldn't understand by a dude who was incoherent. We were also made feel unsafe by all the folks loitering outside. It was more of a slum/prison than something we'd actually pay money for.

Now for Hostelworld. We tried to contact them immediately to inform them of this. The listing on the website and what's actually there are two distinct things. First problem, Hostelworld DOES NOT have a contact number for the US. Fine, we left a detailed email (with images) and finally got a reply two days later. We were not issued a full refund- only deposit- and were told to go back to the property to seek the rest. We left that property as quickly as humanly possible once we had taken pictures as proof of the issue and now Hostelworld were telling us it was our problem to get our money back. Do you think the type of person who runs a "business" like that is going to entertain issuing a refund to 3 solo travelers? No is the answer to that.

Anyway, all I can say is- I see why Hostelworld has a 1.7/5 rating. Please, please, please don't use them. If anything happens with your stay, you'll have ZERO support and accountability from them.

BEWARE OF VOUCHERS BEING OFFERED IN LIEU OF REFUND; COMPANY WILL NOT HONOR THEM.

Long story short, my friend and I had to cancel a reservation we made through Hostelworld because of Covid, and they offered us a voucher for 150% of our original payment so we thought why not? We eventually were going to book again so it seemed a great option. WRONG.

We booked another hostel recently and our voucher was not used for the booking. So after several weeks and several back and forth emails, we eventually got a straight answer from them telling us that our voucher cannot be used towards our booking, only towards the deposit for the booking. WHAT?
On top of that, we were still charged $20 for the deposit which was apparently supposed to be covered by our voucher and they told us that we would be refunded that $20 and it's been several weeks and still no refund.

As well, they set an expiry date for the voucher so it has to be used up within a certain time frame, which is ridiculous considering the voucher is for roughly $200 Canadian so we'd have to book a minimum of 10 times just to use up the remaining balance.

So now we are out about $150 for the original booking and no way to use it up before it expires. I honestly cannot belive they're allowed to run their business like this.

Save yourself the trouble and book directly with the hostel to avoid nonsense like this in the future.