Pepo Hostel Tel Aviv

I’ve stayed in hostels for years and actually enjoy sharing rooms and meeting people from different countries, but most of the guests here were locals and showed no interest in chatting or being friendly. The internet was also terrible, only working downstairs, and Wi-Fi calls wouldn’t work at all. I’d planned four nights in Tel Aviv, but left for home on the second day because I couldn’t keep sleeping there. Arrival was a mess: there was no reception or signage, and I didn’t get the check-in instructions until the following day. I arrived after 10 PM to find bedding left dirty by the previous guest. The replacement was supposedly clean but had hair on it. I had to ask three times for a towel and only got one the next day. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this place.

We stayed three nights and weren’t happy with the place. The only common space is the rooftop, the kitchen is so small that only one person can use it at a time, and there’s no lighting in the toilets. The Wi-Fi was poor, there’s no reception, and the host was rude. We also didn’t trust the Booking reviews because the host had us write one in front of her and asked about the ratings we gave.

I left first thing in the morning after one very short night, and I wouldn’t stay here again, especially for safety reasons. The staff could have made the people causing trouble leave, but seemed to prefer keeping them around as friends. Instead they let them keep shouting in the dorm, and we girls had to hold the door shut for protection. Police were called. Then, instead of apologizing, staff marked me as a no-show on Booking so I couldn’t leave a bad review. The hostel was already shockingly dirty when I arrived, but things got worse. Some local guests seemed to know the staff. One man smoked crack on the terrace in front of me and kept calling me sweet names until I yelled at him to stop. Another person smoked weed in the room at night, and other people who seemed high fought in the hallway and shouted at us girls in the dorm. After travelling around the world, this was the worst hostel I’ve found.

This was the only bad memory from my travels in all of Israel. We’d booked a private room for our last night in Tel Aviv so we could sleep for three and a half hours before our flight, but the woman on the phone said we had to sleep in a dorm for some reason. The room was already paid for. She was unfriendly and rude, and we felt she was trying to scam us. She also wasted time telling us to check the hostel rules because we arrived two hours after they “close,” even though Booking says the hostel is available 24/7. We cancelled and used the cash back option, so we spent the night on the beach instead. Avoid this place. I hope it closes soon.