Byskolansvandrarhem

Comfortable rooms in a beautiful setting.

Our weekend in the Swedish countryside was supposed to be a quiet break with a sauna and jacuzzi. My girlfriend and I had booked a cabin for ourselves at Bysmedjans vandrarhem for 22-24 September 2023, but we ended up somewhere else. When we arrived, the landlord called to say the toilet in our booked cabin was broken, so we couldn't stay there. He put us in a smaller, lower-standard apartment instead, for the same price. That made no sense to me, since it wasn't at all what we'd come to Sweden for. Noise from guests in the other apartments carried right through, and it woke us early Saturday morning. After we told the landlord, he offered another apartment upstairs, but that wouldn't fix the noise. He then wrote that we'd get our money back if we checked out by 11 a.m. Saturday. We agreed, left by then, and sent him our account number at his request. We have all of this by email. A few days later, with no sign of the promised money, we emailed again. The landlord refused to refund us because we'd left a bad review. He's entitled to his opinion, but we had only written about our experience, and he didn't like it. Despite what he'd promised, he said he'd only return our money if we removed the review. We reminded him that this wasn't the agreement, but he kept coming back to the review. The emails went back and forth, and he started saying he'd refund just one day. Then, 14 days into this email mess, he claimed we hadn't cleaned properly. We're still emailing, and it's an uphill struggle because he hasn't honoured what he put in writing. I can't recommend staying here when you might not get what you booked and getting your money back can turn into a fight, even after an agreement. Please read this before booking at Byskolans Vandrarhem. We booked Bysmedjan and were moved elsewhere. There wasn't any firewood for the sauna either, so we couldn't use it, even though it was listed when we booked what we expected to be a peaceful, cosy weekend in beautiful Sweden.

We had the whole house to ourselves for a weekend, nine of us in all. Björn, who owns the village school hostel, is a very nice host, and the place has a hot tub we could use whenever we wanted. Everything felt fresh and new, with cleaning included. There are also horse rides a few hundred metres away, a fun thing to do on a partly cloudy day. Definitely a good hostel for an overnight stay.

Bring all the food you need, since the nearest shop is a long way off. The bins for all the rubbish could do with an update. Otherwise, it's very cosy and quiet, with beautiful surroundings and a very good standard.