Urban Panda Hostel JBR Dubai

We paid 180 AED in advance for two beds for five days, only to find the address on our Hostelworld booking and email was in Satwa, nearly 30 KM from the JBR location shown on Google Maps. Instagram says the building is Sadaf (JBR), and the listing mentions Sadaf-2 buiilding. There is no Urban Panda Hostel in JBR or anywhere else in Dubai, and no listing on their website. This is blatant misrepresentation of the location. We called the Hostelworld number to clarify the mismatch. A person answered from India, not UAE, and verbally abused us instead of explaining. He gave us a so-called “manager” number for Akhilesh, but calls went unanswered. As of 3 Feb 2026, we still have no explanation, resolution, or refund. Fake location listings, abusive outsourced call handling, and no accountability aren't how a legitimate hostel operates. I strongly advise travelers to stay away and not risk their money or trip. Please investigate and shut this down before more people get scammed.

The place was awful, dirty, cramped, and smelly, with no sign outside. They pack several people into one of the three rooms in what is just an apartment. And don't be fooled by the pictures, they aren't of the real place and are really misleading.

This was the worst hostel I've ever been to. It's a tiny, filthy apartment, not a hostel, and there's no sign at all. It feels clandestine. The kitchen and bathroom are a horrible color, and the photos on social media don't match the real place. It's disgusting. Don't go, especially since they don't give your money back.

The kitchen and bathroom are filthy, and the whole apartment smells rotten when people leave dirty dishes and other things sitting in the kitchen for days. It’s a three-bedroom place with just one bathroom, far too cramped for the number of people there. What a rip-off.