Embassie Backpackers Liverpool

I left at 3:30 a.m. and went to the Z Hotel, where the staff were human and the beds didn't smell of regret. That should tell you how bad this was. I'd rather sleep on a pavement than go back to the Embassie. Women and children, stay away before something really bad happens. The smell hit me as soon as I walked in, a mix of sweat, mould and old socks. The bedsheets also smelled awful, and the place was filthy and felt unsafe. The kitchen looked like nobody had cleaned it since a party in 1986. They advertise free breakfast, but cats were crawling out of corners and walking across the table, so I didn't want any. At 3 a.m. a man wandered into our room, sprinkled cocaine on the bed, then lay on the floor and exposed himself. I went looking for staff and found the “manager” sitting with seven empty cans of Carlsberg, staring into space. Guests seemed to be in drug-fueled trances. The bathroom sign asking people to close the shower curtain because it was “deprived of water” wasn't reassuring either. This felt less like a hostel than a social experiment in human endurance, and more like a halfway house for people society had given up on. It seemed like a genuine danger to women, students and anyone else. Booking.com or any other platform listing it should take it down before someone catches something incurable. The photos of the rooms are false advertising.

We had the couples double room, tucked away privately at the top of the building. The bed frame had definitely seen better days and sagged in the middle, though the mattress was comfortable enough. For the price, it was what we expected, a clean place to crash after a great time in Liverpool.

I nearly froze in the room and shower because there was no heat. I'm not usually a softie, but it felt like survival training. Don't touch anything, drink a lot and take three strong sleeping pills, and maybe you won't check out early.

The owner was kind and welcoming, and I appreciated that, but it was the only good part of the stay. The building was in awful shape, very dirty, with three spider webs that I spotted and a strong unpleasant smell. The long-term residents didn't seem to care about other guests, and random people wandering around made the place feel unsettling. I was travelling alone, and the men's use of the female-only bathroom made me feel unsafe. My room was freezing, with no radiator, so I piled on sheets, but they didn't feel clean either. The pillow was so dirty that I had to find another one myself. The whole place felt unhygienic and uncomfortable, and although breakfast was advertised, I never saw any. I wouldn't recommend it, especially to women travelling alone.