Yolo Hostel Medellin

The hostel facilities are great! Plenty of showers/toilets and a nice hangout area with hammocks. For me, the standout feature was the clean, functional kitchen—and of course, the price is hard to beat. But here’s the catch: the staff REALLY let this place down—including the staff from Betty’s Bowl, who also share the hostel facilities. A simple hello goes a long way! After staying 9 nights, I can confidently say the energy here is just… off. There’s no warmth or friendliness, and it often feels like you’re an inconvenience. Given the positive reviews I read beforehand, I was surprised as I expected a friendlier atmosphere. Two particular experiences also left a bad taste. I had booked a more expensive room because the 10-bed dorm was full. When I went to pay, the desk staff said we could stay in the 10-bed. I asked if it would be cheaper, and he said no. I asked to see the other room before deciding—again, he refused—but insisted the 10-bed was “better” because it’s bigger and cooler. It was clear he wanted us to stay put, so I agreed but requested fresh sheets after 5 nights, which he treated as a huge inconvenience—even though we were literally paying more just to stay in the same room. After five days as a guest, this felt unnecessarily rude and it also turned out that the 10-bed ended up not being full! To make matters worse, he acted like he was doing us a huge favor and seemed irritated that we extended last-minute through HostelWorld instead of directly— plans can change?! The irony is, we did ask for a price to extend in person, but it was far more expensive than booking online—so of course we chose HostelWorld. Later, we met other guests who said he’d honored their original nightly rate when extending in person. Why not treat all guests the same? The whole interaction felt awkward and unwelcoming—made worse by the fact that he behaved this way in front of who I assume was the owner, who also chose not to say anything. And then there were the bed bugs. A few days before checkout, other guests in our dorm discovered them in their beds. The hostel removed the infected beds but told us it was “to create more space,” rather than acknowledging the issue. On the day we checked out, we also found a large adult bed bug in my boyfriend’s bed. When we showed it to one of the cleaning ladies, she tried to gaslight us by saying it was a ladybug—even though it was clearly a bed bug full of blood. This lack of honesty and accountability was extremely disappointing. So yea, unfortunately overall it was a disappointing stay! If you were staying for 1 or 2 nights max, and don’t mind bed bugs then the price is hard to beat! P.S Shout out to the male worker who cleans and does the night shift—he was by far the kindest staff member there and had genuinely good energy! Update: The hostel has us mistaken for other guests as we never washed our bags or clothes nor did we come from Salento from a hostel where we experienced bedbugs ?! Also, having bed bugs doesn’t mean your hostel is dirty or unhygienic (YOLO was actually very clean/spotless)… having bed bugs isn’t even the issue here. The high high foot traffic in hostels means it’s bound to happen at some point. But It’s how you dealt with being told that is the problem here! Gaslighting guests saying you don’t have them when you clearly do shows that you don’t value them. We literally carried a live bed bug on a towel to cleaner as proof & she tried to say it was a lady bug?! Like come on, a ladybug doesn’t look like that and it was full of blood!! A better response would have been to acknowledge the issue and offer to do the guests (staying in that room) laundry to kill any hiding on garments and to have carried out an extermination in the room to stop the spread. For this reason alone I would not recommend to other travellers.

It has good facilities—a clean kitchen, plenty of bathrooms, hammocks, and cheap beds—but the staff ruin the vibe as they are not friendly!! After 9 nights, the energy felt cold and unwelcoming, despite the positive reviews. We had issues with extending (cheaper via HostelWorld than in person, yet treated poorly for it), staff rudeness, and even bed bugs, which they denied. Saved only by the cheap price, good location and the kind male, night-shift cleaner, it is only good for 2 nights max!

There was a party on next door which literally had our room shaking all night. That was the least of our worries that night because we found evidence of bed bugs in our room but were told nothing could be done until the morning. We were eventually moved to a nice private room for the remaining 3 nights. 3/4 nights we didn’t have hot water in the shower.