Don’t be fooled by the positive reviews which are just an act of kindness in return to the very kind employees at the bar, but it is not based on the actual stay.
I stayed five days, during which a guest had his belongings stolen, good way to spend time at the police station. There is a balcony, when it is open, two rooms of eight people each are connected via the balcony, so it means that fifteen other people can come in your room to steal your stuff. The price of the dorm bed adds up to almost being the price of a private room in a regular hotel because you have to pay for your towel and for your padlock otherwise anyone has access to your belongings. There is one bathroom and one toilet for 8 people. One for 6 if the room is for 6 people. So if you wake up around 8:00 or 9:00am, you’ll have to wait 15 minutes times 7 until all the others are done with their shower. The toilet in the mixed dorm smells like a public toilet but less so in a female dorm toilet. If you want to feel exhausted during the day, sleep in this hostel’s dorms : there is no acoustic insulation in the toilet, anyone can hear another person breathing in the toilet or bathroom. I got back in the room after midnight. Even though people walked on egg shells, one guest snapped and shouted that it was 1:30AM and it was too late to make noise. I too, the night before, could hear all the people coming in and out while I slept. People can hear each other all night in one dorm room.
If you book directly with this hostel, keep in mind that they keep your card details without saying they do, you think you are giving your card details to a third party company but their computer registers your card and they can debit your card at their will as many times as they want without your signature or pin code for each time they debit the card. If the risk of being stolen from the high traffic of people was not enough, for which there is a sign warning you about it in the elevator, the host also tries to squeeze as much money as possible from the guests by charging as much as possible. Indeed, Aïcha, the mother of the host was not pleasant at all and even shouted twice that « guests should not look at the computer screen » in spite of the screen showing the price of a booking, being oriented in the guests direction, so it is hard to not see the screen.
The night before, I had to change my train ticket and after that, because it was cheap and my stuff were already here, I put an option to extend until 3:30pm, Aïcha the mother of the host, led the employee into thinking he could tell me to sit on a chair and say he would keep this option for me, I was at the reception at 3:20pm. Twice at 3:27pm, I made sure that I would be able to confirm the option and if it was okay for me to sit and let new comers behind me, do their check-in. The employee tells me that even after 3:30pm, I would be able to as no one was going to book within few minutes after my option expires. At 3:32pm, Aïcha tells her employee to say that I can no longer use my option, that it is canceled and I have to pay the last minute price online which was double the price. I looked at the employee hoping it was a joke. The employee was caught in the middle, with the host bullying the guest into paying more. But Aïcha, the host, was not joking, she wanted to squeeze more money out of her guest. This was literally tricking the guest into paying more. She texts her son boss, the host, Saad, before he arrives, to insist in making me pay the last minute high price. He sides with her and makes up some lie that I must have come at 5:25pm and that I must have been in the back of a queue and literally tells me to shut up even though I listened to the excuse he made up. First time I hear a host say these words to his guests, I never had anyone tell me those words before in any situation. Even though I paid my last night at this hostel, they gave me the impression of ripping people off, so I did not feel like staying another night even though I paid for that last night. This ripping off, on top of all the other inconveniences, I had to book an hotel elsewhere and slept the night there. Of course, there is no way to ask for your money back for the night where you did not sleep there but at another hotel.
On top of that, check-in can be tricky, in the middle of the day, Aïcha, the mother of the host was at the counter locking the main door, she said it was “for security” and focused on her phone, several guests were left locked outside with their luggages under the heavy rain upon check-in, all the other guests panicked in trying to open the door for them, she heard nothing, until we let her know that people were waiting at the door under the rain. This event happened before she tried to rip me off. She ended up opening the door after all the guests were soaking wet and their luggages as well. Guests often get stuck locked outside because they sometimes block the door and our pass won’t open the door. When this happens, they open the door manually if they notice you are at the door and your pass is not working. This can also be