Osiris Home

I hated it enough to leave after two nights, even though I’d paid for five. It’s a beautiful house, but having 16 people there is far too many. This is a family house hosting 16 people, with two toilets and bathrooms and one kitchen. It should be limited to four to six. There’s nowhere to store your stuff, so expect to live out of your backpack. I couldn’t sleep either night because it was so loud and busy. People came and went, setting alarms at all hours to try to catch the Aurora, and nobody was there to keep the house quiet overnight. There’s always someone cooking, so making a meal is hard, and it’s difficult to avoid waiting for the toilet at any hour. It’s a 40-minute walk from the city centre. Tours start and finish in the centre, and although there’s a bus, it doesn’t run at night, so you should expect to walk back in the snow. Any Airbnb room would be better.

The house has great facilities and works well for backpackers and solo travelers. Check-in and check-out are self-service, the directions were clear, and I had no trouble finding it. A grocery store is about a 10-minute walk away. It takes around 13 minutes to reach the city centre on bus 34, with the stop a five-minute walk from the hostel. If you have a night excursion, plan on booking an Uber or getting a ride from friends, since that’s the advice for getting back. Your stay can depend on luck with roommates. I’d suggest clearer signs for guests and their beds, a chart of the house rules, and extension cords in the rooms for charging. Still, it wasn’t a big problem because there are several outlets around the house. I’d stay here again if I come back to Tromso.

Osiris Home sounds promising, but my experience fell well short. During my three-night stay, the first two nights were loud and busy. The last night, when Miguel was complaining about noise, was much quieter: people were just talking and having a relaxed evening. His accusations were hard to understand. He accused people he hadn’t even seen of disturbing others the night before, and his confrontational manner and aggressive approach to cleaning made guests uncomfortable. There was also confusion about room assignments. Miguel’s email listed a room with no available bed, and when I contacted him, I learned I was actually in room number 5. Other guests told me this wasn’t an isolated case: they described frequent room changes and misinformation, including three new arrivals, two of whom hadn’t been informed by Miguel. He seemed not to understand the situation and rushed to solve it. The laundry setup was poor. The detergent drawer was filthy and full of powder, despite instructions to use liquid detergent only, so I cleaned the machine myself. The dryer didn’t dry clothes even after a 12-hour cycle, which someone else had also had trouble with. The sheets came out of the laundry with their cleanliness in doubt, especially since the machine didn’t seem to clean properly. The shared fridge was awful. Three of us worked together to empty and scrub it, and found expired food dating from May and July. We threw out a full garbage bag of things. The cupboards had more unpleasant surprises, including moldy bread, old grapes, and other expired products. The entrance door had no working lock and stayed open. It was left ajar for three hours once before anyone noticed. That may not bother everyone, but a simple code lock could reduce the risk. The house rules were confusing too. Not sleeping on the couch seems reasonable, but on the first two nights, two older men from UK were quietly reading there, and another guest was using his phone. They were lying down, but not sleeping. Then Miguel suddenly introduced a rule against putting feet on the couch, which confused and frustrated guests. He singled out someone else and spoke aggressively. Clear communication would help. Osiris Home is more modern and quieter than most hostels, and the idea has potential, but the reservation process, hygiene, and security need attention. Keep in mind it’s an hostel in Tromsø, where people go in and out a lot, especially with so much to do at night or early in the morning. That part didn’t bother me, but some people may not be used to it.

-1000 stars. I’ve spent the last five months backpacking around Europe and stayed in hundreds of hostels, so I know how these places normally work. You can usually leave your bags before check-in without getting into your room. Here, I arrived at 11.30am for a 4pm check-in, but there’s no reception. The host sent no email or key pin, and I was left outside in the snow. I met a neighbor and asked her to call him. The first thing he said was, “why the F are you at my property 7 hours before because the checkin is at 4”. I was there four hours early, not seven. Whatever time I arrived or whatever I was asking for, he had no right to speak to me that way. I asked him not to talk to me like that, and he told me to FO his property and kept verbally abusing me. The situation escalated because I wasn’t going to accept a stranger cussing me out. It was a non-refundable booking, and he refused to let me check in after abusing me. I requested a full refund through booking.com, and he declined it. To me, that’s a scam: take money for a non-refundable booking, verbally abuse a guest, then refuse a refund. Booking.com refunded me in full without questions and opened an investigation to remove him from their platform. If you want this kind of stay with a rude, disrespectful owner who treats paying customers badly, go ahead and book.