Jugendherberge Flensburg

There’s table tennis, table football, and a play area for children, and the hostel is clean and spacious. The food was fantastic and not expensive. Big cheers to the team here. I’d love to stay in places like this again.

I had such a bad experience that I left for another hostel the next day. I met other people who had also “run away” from this one, and none of them wanted to return. The extra charges were a major problem. I was told I had to pay something extra no matter what, including a “welcome stamp” on my receipt for a card with the hostel’s stamp on it. I clearly told reception I didn’t want it, but they said I had to take it and pay. I don’t know the rules in Germany, but I’ve never seen anywhere else force guests to pay for something they don’t want. If these charges are mandatory, why aren’t they included in the Booking price, or clearly mentioned at the start of the listing? I paid in full at check-in, including the item I didn’t want. The next morning, when I checked out, the receptionist said she needed to ask her boss whether they would charge me even more. It was strange that some 15 hours later they apparently still had no payment information in their system and needed to check. Yet when I questioned the extra fees, they immediately had a well-prepared printed document explaining why I had to pay them. Reception seemed much better prepared to argue about charges than to help with anything else. The shared bathrooms and toilets were dirty and frightening, with live and dead spiders and insects on the walls and floor. There were also teenagers from what seemed to be one or more football teams, wearing different uniforms and making noise. Breakfast was overcrowded, with long queues. In a six-bed dorm, there were only four power sockets, none near the beds, so keeping a phone charged felt like a luxury. There’s no shared kitchen, so you can’t even boil water for tea, let alone make your own food. You have to make your own bed, too. Getting there was inconvenient. It’s far from the city center and main train station. We had to take a bus for about 20 minutes from the central station, then walk another 10 minutes to the hostel, and sometimes wait 20 minutes or more for the bus. Everything about the place was awful for me.

The rooms were clean and decent, but one person snored so loudly that we moved our bedding and slept in a random room downstairs. The walk to the city center took a good half hour. Also, why are the shower doors so small?

The service was okay, but the rooms and the place itself felt like military barracks. If you’re older than 27, you have to pay an extra 8 Euro per night.