All In Hostel

This cozy hostel has rooms at a good, even very good, price. There was enough space to meet other guests, and the location is fun, with restaurants and metro stops nearby. I've been happy with my stay and most of the staff have been good, especially the woman on the night shift. She plays beautiful music, and one night when I couldn't sleep, she kindly listened to my stories. It's been a very happy experience. Thanks for the good times, and I hope to see you again soon. :)

If all you need is the bare minimum in a hostel, All in Hostel could work. Breakfast is very basic but not bad, and the place has the essentials to get by. Beyond that, though, there's little to like. In the three-story building I found just two dirty, poor open shower rooms, like old gym facilities, and the toilets were similar. There was barely any hygiene or privacy. I'd heard there might be some fabled rooms with their own toilets and showers, but I couldn't find them. There's no artificial ventilation in the rooms, so if it gets humid inside, you have to open a window and hope some naughty kid outside isn't smoking weed. If you like that, I guess you'll have a blast. There's no free WiFi, and people have trouble getting 4G inside the hostel. If those conditions aren't what you want, avoid All in Hostel at all costs.

Things began with some confusion but seemed to turn out well. Our group of five was told two triple rooms would be cheaper than a sextuplet. The rooms we were given had six beds and eight beds, and we were upgraded to private bathrooms instead of the shared prison-style showers we'd expected. Then we needed a replacement travel adapter. Reception was extremely unhelpful about how to get one, often acting as if they couldn't speak English, even though we'd heard them speaking it fluently to other guests. The only thing they offered was women's sanitary products, which was odd. On our last evening, we returned to find the cleaner had broken into the locker where we'd stored our things and wrecked its door. I'd read reports of things going missing, so mine were locked in my suitcase and nothing of mine was taken. Others in our group weren't as cautious and lost several items, including a phone with extremely sentimental photos and messages. We called the police and filed a report. Reception and the manager were no help, and even suggested that cleaning staff breaking in and stealing from rooms on guests' last evenings was common practice, perhaps encouraged because there would be little guests could do once back home. Looking closer, we saw that six of the eight lockers in our room were already damaged from previous break-ins. Take care with your belongings and keep valuables with you or locked away securely.

We only got the extra 120EUR back after contacting our booking agent. That's when we also found many other guests had the same experience of booking a double room and being put in a shared dorm. Apparently this has been going on for years, and I wish I'd read the reviews beforehand. At check-in, we'd expected the double room with private bathroom that we'd booked and paid for. Instead, the receptionist gave us keys to a cold, dark room with six unmade bunk beds. They said we'd have to pay another 120EUR to upgrade to a double room with private bathroom. We weren't happy, but assumed we'd made a mistake with the booking and paid up. The room looked fine at first. Then the mattress felt like a torture device, with springs I could feel all night. At 3am, people knocked on our door and sneakily ran off when we wouldn't open it. It was terrifying. At 6am every morning, weekends included, loud construction started on the floor above our bedroom, even though there wasn't supposed to be a floor there. They also won't give you fresh towels, however long you stay. They say housekeeping comes daily, but all the housekeepers do is mop the bathroom floor. A very weird version of housekeeping.