Heart of Gold Hostel

This place at best offers an affordable bed to sleep in with a dirty and under stocked kitchen (something like 1 spoon, 3 teaspoons and a few forks and knives for a hostel of 100+). Having stayed in hostels across Europe this one gave off a rather souless vibe. I'd say that the guests didn't help with this. No one was very friendly nor socializing so would not recommend to a solo traveler. Lastly the shared dorm was weird and a bit shady. Never have I been so cautious to lock up everything. One man would stay in the hostel room most of the day and night vaping, eating, making coffee all out of his bed. And then he would get up and down throughout the night and eat food at 4am. People would also come check into the room in the middle of the night 2am. Which is disruptive in it's own right. The key card also broke after one night and needed a replacement. Showers have mold all about. Overall no bed bugs and a place to sleep so it's fine. But don't come here expecting a magical hostel experience it's very mediocre and I was happy to get out. I would not have felt safe as a solo female traveler given the clientele as well. Also location is accessible for tourist things and public transport. But in a rather dead part of the city for any evening activities, lacks a vibrant scene.

Please don't stay here there is bedbugs everywhere the room was not clean

Biggest Issue: Bed bugs - my friends and I got them while staying there. Hostel is understaffed, toilets not cleaned everyday, nearly every toilet ran out of toilet paper, rooms dirty and hot. Beds squeak waking you up in the middle of the night. You had to keep pressing the shower button to enable the water every 3-5 seconds. Makes it impossible to wash your hair. Small fridge, unable to pack my stuff inside, and the kitchen was dirty and full of dishes (left over 3 days, staff didn't take initiative so everyone suffered).

Summary: Adequate hostel, but BED BUGS, BED BUGS, and more BED BUGS!! I don’t know where to start with this hostel. they offer the basics, a bed with bathrooms and not much more for an incredibly high price, definitely not worth it. I booked it based on its reviews and was really looking forward to it. No tours, no crawls or activities. What a disappointment, but here’s what was worse than everything else. After waking up on the first night, I found a few red bumps on my arm and legs, thinking it was just mosquito bites I ignored them. Second days was much much worse! Dozens of red bumps that itch and many of them were 3 bumps in a straight line, which is indicative of bed bugs. My arms and legs were covered by them. I couldn’t even wear jeans it was so bad. By the last day, I couldn’t feel anything but itchiness, bed bug bites all over. I spoke with the night reception who seems to take the matter a little seriously and moved me into a new room. He said they will look for bed bugs ASAP. The morning reception was completely different. He said no they didn’t have any, but he said they looked for bed bugs but didn’t find anything. I asked if they would be able to at least wash my clothes to kill any of the bugs, which they did reluctantly, only to return my washed clothes still wet in a garbage bag. Thanks. What they don’t know is that I looked for bed bugs in the seams of the bed/mattress and pillows and found them before reporting to reception. If me, an untrained, professional that doesn’t even work in hospitality can find bed bugs, then they have a massive infestation. I returned to my original room with the bed bugs only to find the cleaners have already prepped the bed for a new customer. Cherry on top was the receptionist said it wasn’t the hostels fault… Well then, who’s fault is it? Your beds have bed bugs… So please, what ever you do, please please don’t stay here due to the bed humbugs and the risk of spreading bed bugs to your home. It is a nightmare.

A spacious hostel with very nice staff and a pretty good bar too. Atmosphere could do with an improvement however. My main gripe with the hostel however is that despite all the amenities and plethora of immaculate bathrooms i was still unable to sleep one night due to the fact that I awoke covered in HIVES due to my mattress and bedding being infested with what I can only assume were bedbugs. Great theming though, if you're a fan of Hitchikers guide to the galaxy you'll love the subtle references to the franchise scattered throughout the hostel.