Hostelworld

I booked a hostel through hostelworld, and then had to cancel it almost immediately after making it as hostelworld's info was incorrect. The confirmation email from the hostel had a different number of beds than what hostelworld said ("beds" and "people" are not synonyms). I cancelled it online, and yet was surprised during my trip weeks later when I was charged in full. I know I cancelled it, I remember filling out the form online and seeing it removed from the upcoming trips section. The response I got from them was "our team don't cancel bookings".
Their site and support just aren't worth the risks, contact hostels directly yourselves if at all possible. A simple issue with the number of beds turned into several hundreds of dollars being charged while I was overseas.

They just steal your deposit and leave. My travel agent also tried contacting them to see if they could help with my situation and the only reply that was constantly received was, "We will be in touch soon..." What a joke of a company. Absolute garbage customer service and please for the sake of your time and effort don't book through these fools.

I attempted to cancel one of my reservations but Hostel world is very good at ignoring you and not returning emails. Interestingly, they do not have a phone number contact, apparently because this further allows them to ignore your concerns and steal your money. I tried to cancel a reservation several days in advance. What made it difficult to cancel was they never sent me a confirmation email of my purchase. A corrupt organization!

No email replies, so horrible cs. Checked out with a total price of $300, once I entered in my CC info, they said it would be $425 and want to charge a booking fee. Had to dispute with my CC company. Will never deal with again.

When I use a travel site I do not only for their searching engines but also because I need sone kind of warranties. Seems that Hostelworld is only a search engine. Having a problem with one Hostel (information published incorrectly and cancellation), they asked me to request the hostel the refunding (who fully charged us), not them. They don't assume any responsibility (only refund the reservation fee). The Hostel did not assume responsibility either (they said that Hostelworld published wrongly, that they did not passed our cancellation, etc), so the customers fell in the middle, loosing. It's a really fake.

Do not use Hostelworld for your bookings. You may loose your deposit.

On a recent trip to Porto, my booking was cancelled upon arrival. Nonetheless, Hostelworld refused to refund my deposit. They even presented themselves as generous in offering a 'credit' for future bookings with them on the same amount as a 'gesture of goodwill'. Obviously, the chance that I will make another booking with Hostelworld is zero.

Hostelworld's behaviour is second only to pure theft.

Dont use this site, they charged me 20% extra without informing me that its a booking fee and not a deposit. An absolute scam and total rip off. Never again will I use this site, id love to sue them for misleading the public with their rubbish site.

I had to cancel a booking immediately after making it since HostelWorld DID NOT show me the hostel's full guest rules/policies until AFTER I paid. Once I was able to read the full policy list, I realized that I would not be able to stay at the hostel and had to look for different accomodations asap. I asked HostelWorld for a refund and they were completely unhelpful and tried to guilt me instead. Said I "should have selected the flexible booking option." Oh really? How come I never saw this option at all or any type of additional insurance while I was booking my stay? So many important details are hidden from their website until you're already stuck with a reservation. This company is a joke that will just steal your money. Please don't waste your time with them and just book with the hostels directly.

They make zero effort to protect their customers.
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A hotel/hostel operator on their website stole my credit card data and made a personal purchase with it. When I contacted Hostelworld about the issue, they said they stated that they saw no issue and would not do anything about the issue. This was despite me having concrete evidence of this occurring and the hotel operator being responsible for it.

Hostel World gave me a voucher credit rather than cash return in 2019. This was because our reservations were canceled by pandemic travel restrictions. We were not told we would not be able to use the total amount on future bookings. Rather we can use the voucher for the 15% deposit only. Leaving a balance of 703 Euros that I cannot use and I must pay $1,090.00 US dollars to cover the costs of my hostels and cannot use the voucher credit.

This is unacceptable and deceptive by Hostel World. They knew I would not be able to redeem my total amount but lead me to believe I could pay for my hostels in total.

Hostel World responded with apologies, but this is their business practice. And they kept my money now too.

$#*! you Hostel World for $#*!ing me out of over $1,090 dollars with bull$#*! voucher credits.

Hostelworld is an absolute nightmare! The fees you see when booking are not the ones they actually charge you. When you notice this and try and ask their customer support for help they simply deny it and do nothing about it. Also the utter lack of transparency of the company and how they manage your data is concerning. You can't even delete your account on your own. Don't use it.

Hostelworld shows a total price without VAT. This gives the impression that they are cheaper than the competitor, which in reality is far from true.
In addition, our hotel conditions stated that you we could cancel free of charge 24 hours prior to our stay. Due to a down payment to Hostelworld we were still stuck to the booked hotel (and Hostelworld). Avoid!

If you change number of nights stays you lose a substantial sum of money - the hostel we stayed in confirmed we would only be chsrged one night ( reduced from 4) - hostel of the sun in Naples - but we were then charged 67 euro on top of 35 euro deposit paid - so 103 euro for a sub standard / basic room stay. Terrible service a very deceitful. We strongly recommend not using Hostelworld or hostel of the sun in Naples.

I booked 2 nights in Vancouver Backpackers House through Booking.Com and 1 night through Hostelworld. Both the times I had to give my Credit card details. 14.40 was taken through Booking.com and 5.50 through Hostelworld upfront. While leaving, the Hostel took the entire fee saying I will get the refund after 15 days from both online booking companies. I called Booking.com and they told me that they don't take any money for reservation and hence they would call the Hostel. They got back to me with 30 minutes to say that they have spoken to the Hostel and I will get my refund within 48 hours... I got my refund with 24 hours actually. Hostel world in turn does not have any Customer care number. You have to email them. They take their own sweet time. Then I was told to deal with the hostel directly. The Hostel guys manipulated the numbers and said I dont get any refund. Stay away from these Hostelworld jokers... They are scammers...

If anyone wants to get a class action started against this company, please let me know. They aren't returning money even though services haven't been rendered. Please message me if you're interested. I am in the works of speaking to an attorney.

I booked a couple weeks in this hostel from Hostelworld. Payed a lot of money as it was a cheap place and thought it looked good, and if it wasn't I would cancel and get refunded. I checked into the hostel. Unclean and had bed bugs. Took two nights before someone noticed and I realised I had ten huge bites on me. Checked out the next day and immediately contacted hostelworld about cancellation and refund. That was 9 days ago. I have since sent another two emails. The only contact I had from them was one automatic response and an email telling me they were still looking into my issue, which was also a week ago. Do not use this site, it's a scam, and the hostels being advertised are unreliable.

Me and my girlfriend booked a twin private room in Porto, but ended up getting a bunkbed room, causing us to book a new hotel last-minute. After almost 2 weeks we are still waiting to be reimbursed by Hostelworld.

Booked a weekend away (with cancellation cover). Had to cancel through e-mail as the booking is nowhere to be found on their website. As their team couldn't find it either we were charged for the deposit and the first night. Even called the hostel in LA when their number appeared on the credit charge.

They confirmed the e-mail. Provided all evidence to hostel world yet each time they 'will look into it'. Save your money and use a different provider.

Poor service when things go wrong: for example when I reported:
'My son and wife have just reported to me that the Hotel Globe in Amsterdam is infested with bed bugs. You claim in your sales information that the hotel has 'good cleanliness'. It was so bad last night that they had to sleep on the floor. If you search this hotel on line it is obvious that there have been previous problems with bed bugs. I can support this fact with photographic evidence. They left this morning and you offered them 75% refund which I feel in the circumstances is not acceptable. I shall be forwarding this information to the press today and feel that you need to take a careful look at this hotel before reporting as having 'good cleanliness.' They just said they couldn't discuss under data projection laws - very poor suggest you do not book with them.

I was cheated by mistepresenting prices for a hostel which was £11 cheaper on all other sites, even after explaining and providing proof of this to customer care they were adamant that it was shown correctly by them. Never again booking from them for their lack of ownership and responsibility!

We used a flexible standards deposit and still your deposit won't be refunded. They are misleading and greedy and only think about their own interests. The use of flexible is wrong since even if you pay extra to have a flexible deposit, you WONT be able to get your money back. We feel tricked and robbed. Dont book on that site

The reviews on their site are not realistic. Some hostels are receiving 10 or 9.5 of 10 on their site while they are too old and dirty, cannot get more 5 of 10 at most.
They never refund the deposit in case of a problem even if it is their responsibility.
Very bad and dishonest people.

I regret I ever did the booking with them. Not only property owner said they are overbooked A WEEK after the booking and other arrangements for an area where made, but people from this site wanted to force me cancel my reservation (and didn't have an alternative for the same price) and said I cannot review these crooks. "As only people who stay at the property can review!" They are working with crooks and making these crooks untouchable!
Awful experience!