Hostelworld

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.

Well, I am charged even without staying in one of your hostels and even after writing million emails, I didn't get my refund back.
DO NOT FALL IN THIS TRAP,
There's a big scam going on here.
Better go for BOOKING.COM

I ran into an issue regarding a booking I wanted to push back by a few dates for a pretty legitimate reason. The first date of the booking was just within the 48h free cancellation but the rest of the 8 days were okay. I contacted the hostel first and they said they cannot do anything if booked through them. First red flag with booking through them. So I tried to contact hostel world and since they are based in Ireland only people from there can make calls unless you have an international calling plan, so that leaves me with email. The first email I made through customer care I was sent back an automated email which I had already read on their website that deemed my issue resolved. There fore the customer care had not even got to read it and it was filtered out by a robot for some reason. I had replied to the email with a more detailed description of the help I needed and I received another email back saying the recipient's mailbox was full and cannot accept anymore messages at that time. Clearly there are so many complaints and unresolved issues that they cannot receive anymore. The website and way their customer care is negligent and lazy. 1 star for a non helpful app that doesn't make things flexible for travelers with ongoing changing itineraries.

The Grand Hostel Berlin Classic is one of the best hostels I have been to. The decor is impressive and the reception staff were flexible (for example, they like you to pay with card, but accepted cash because the Hostelworld email said they did, and they let me stay and charge my phone when I arrived early (my Hostelworld email said they opened at 12 noon, but they don't actually open until 3pm)). They stored my rucksack in a locked cupboard and offered me a drink (there is a very nice bar). Being an older solo woman backpacker, safety and cleanliness are important to me and this hostel provided that. The all-you-can-eat breakfast (10 euros) is excellent. The outlook and location by the river is interesting though inevitably noisy, but there is double glazing. Despite there being no lifts (the hostel is on several floors), no self-catering kitchen (there are lots of cafes etc nearby), and no places to hang washing or towels to dry (they offer a laundry service for 10 euros where they take your clothes and wash and dry them for you), the atmosphere was great and I enjoyed my stay.

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

OMG what a dreadful company and I reckon if enough people presented there complaint to EU commission on fair trading standards or Trading standards office in Dublin Eire or presented a Smalls claims in a court you would win your claim its that simple and just takes a little time to present... Also if you paid with PayPal or a credit card you can go and ask for a refund and likely to get it

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

Impossible to cancel reservation.
Also, they lie on a website. The hostelworld website said - free cancellation, but they charge for cancellation. In my case, I can't cancel at all.

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.

We have booked a number of Hostels via Hostelworld for our Roadtrip in Scotland. The week before the start of the holiday a number of Hostels cancelled our bookings Dispite various request Hostelworld refuses to refund these bookings.

DONT USE THEM! THEY ONLY WANT YOUR MONEY, THEY PROVIDE 0 CUSTUMER SUPPORT!
I am cancelling the non-refund booking only because the Austrian government has blocked the country to tourists, but they still refuse to refund, even the hotel accept and understanding will not charge for anything!

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.

This company will steal your money! They will hide behind the "policy" argument.

If I could I would give them 0/5 stars. This incident has happened too many times to people I know.

We were traveling to Maui but had to cancel due to Covid reasons. We reached out to receive a refund for the money they charged us upfront. It's been 2 months since then and have spoken to 4 different people and have yet to see the money. They have no sympathy or understand and do nothing to try to make things better.

One email correspondent actually stopped responding to the email thread.

The funny thing is the hostel we had booked actually answered our phone call and was super nice and willing to help us out but since it was through hostelworld they couldn't do anything.

Hostelworld stole our money and refuses to give it back.

If you're looking to book a hostel do yourself a favor and just call the hostel directly, you'll get better rates and won't have to deal with virtual customer service that hides behind made-up rules/ policy.

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.

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.