Guest House 32

I felt scammed by how this was handled. I wouldn’t have minded paying a late check-in fee, but being left unsure whether I’d have anywhere to sleep was awful. If they’d told me when I emailed that they wouldn’t wait past 9:30 pm, I would have canceled and saved us both the trouble. I booked through Hostelworld and said I’d arrive after 9 pm because I was taking a bus from Serbia. My email got no reply, and neither did my WhatsApp message. When I finally called from the bus, they said they had seen my messages. A quick confirmation would have been nice. They said they’d wait until 9:30, but if I got there later I should find somewhere else because they wouldn’t wait. I was on a bus and couldn’t control delays or know how long the border crossing would take. Taking my money while refusing to honor the booking like that was unacceptable.

After a long, exhausting flight, I arrived expecting the room I’d booked a full week earlier and paid a deposit for. They told me there were no beds available and called the reservation a “mistake.” They had no trouble taking the money, though. There was no apology or offer to help me find somewhere else, just a shrug and “we’re full.” That’s completely unprofessional and disrespectful to travelers relying on a confirmed booking. Avoid this place, they clearly don’t care about guests.

We stayed here recently as a family. The location is excellent, the rooms are large and nice, if quite bare, and the beds were comfortable enough. The big problem was how dirty the place was. The floors, shower cabins, and toilet bowls were fine, but most other surfaces had thick dust. It looked like proper cleaning hadn’t happened in months, maybe years. We also came across half-full vodka bottles left by previous guests and an opened box of condoms in the nightstand. Thankfully there weren’t any used ones. It felt more like a rough hostel than a guesthouse, perhaps because it’s often rented by people in their twenties coming to Bulgaria for cheaper drinks. The owner should get it professionally cleaned and keep up with it. As it stands, it doesn’t meet the standard I’ve seen at other AirBNBs, guest houses, or hotels in Bulgaria.

We never made it there because the owner wouldn’t allow even a 5-10 minute delay at check-in. I’d warned him ahead that we might be tight on time, but he wouldn’t budge. Buses can be unreliable in this country, and we would have arrived at the hostel at 9 pm sharp. His response was, “closing at 9 doesn't mean you can come at 9”. A few minutes was all we were asking for. He showed no consideration for travelers, and that says a lot about his personality.