Smart Russell Square Hostel

Great location, but minor issues with cleanliness The location of this property is excellent. However, I rated cleanliness and facilities a bit lower because I ended up with a few bug bites during my 3 day stay, which felt like they could have been bed bugs.

En las camas habían chinches. Aún a día de hoy estoy en tratamiento

I would have prefered to have 2 bunk beds on top of each other, but most rooms have 3 bunk beds, fact that made me feel weird the entire stay. Why? Because when someone is climbing to reach its 3rd bunk bed, the whole united linked bunks of 9 starts moving, so the first nights I felt like sleeping on the wavy Titanic boat! 😂 I told this to the sweetest Italian Suzana lobby sfaff and she changed my bed and room, and was much better. Another thing that was a little unconfortable was that the cleaning ladies were all Russians and/or Ukrainians (same ones cooking breakfast) and none knew one word of English, or they refused to speak it, because they understood what I was saying, but they were not replying, just keeping quiet. Yet, you could hear them talking slavic language and laughing all day. In those awful times with them having a war down there, I found it both scary and compassionate that the hostel hired them, I would just honestly recommend a mixed nationality staff. To tell the truth: I was afraid to have breakfast made by them, so I had my own food prepared by me! Me and another American girl from Texas start talking in the ladies showers and she said something nice compassionate to them, yet she mention that she has allergy to nuts, and thats exactly what they put in her food! She did not understand if they did it in purpose, out of hate, or they just dont understand the language! During my almost 2 weeks stay, I had only 2 bad experiences with 2 black guests: one girl who started smoking weed at midnigh in the room, hiding after her bunk bed curtain (staff asked her to leave next day), and a black man but who was coughing the whole night very loudly, like making it in purpose, and he was not even respectful enough to go downstairs to ask for a flu face mask from staff or a hot tea! The whole room got scared of being infected, many checked out, but I had already full stay paid, so I brought it to the staff attention and they solved it.

Bed. It had bed bugs. Very noisy. Small Bathrooms. Smells weird.

I was bitten by bedbugs, and I had a severe allergic reaction. The receptionist reacted very calmly, simply asking if I had caught a bug or not. I went to the doctor, and it was confirmed that these were bedbug bites! I didn’t realize it from the very first day, but all the areas of my body that were not covered by pajamas were covered in multiple bites! This has never happened to me before. When I returned home, I washed all my clothes, and the allergy subsided only after a week. The beds were very low, and I kept hitting my head. In the morning, it was almost impossible to prepare breakfast because the small kitchen was completely occupied by staff preparing paid breakfasts. The towel rental cost £4.5. The sink in our room was clogged, and the shower smelled strongly of chlorine, making it difficult to breathe. I was willing to forgive everything for the location, but definitely not the bedbugs!

Várias pessoas relataram bedbugs nas camas então eu não quis ficar nem a primeira noite, além de que eu já tinha pago a diária no app e quando cheguei no hostel me fizeram pagar de novo. Vim em junho e o quarto era muito quente e não tinha muita ventilação. Não recomendo.

!!! Punaises de lit !!!!!!

It’s probably one of the worst hostels I've stayed at; I was bitten by bedbugs, and it’s extremely crowded. I will never go back there.

Bedbugs!!

Unfortunately, I got pretty nastily bitten by bed bugs on my legs and arm. There was a lot of bites which made my legs blister and swell, and I had to get antibiotics for it. The staff was apologetic and offered me to change rooms as well as some free tokens for the laundry, which was appreciated. But it was still awful that I was bitten. Sadly I will not be recommending this place any time soon.

There seems to be bed bugs, the bunk beds make noise when someone moves which makes it hard to sleep, the rooms are very hot during the summer at night, the room doors make a lot of noise when someone enters or goes out, the toilets may benefit from more cleaning. One guy from the staff was unfriendly and asked me to leave while I stayed in the lobby while booking my next hotel.

BED BUGS

Some staff were nice, but others were extremely unhelpful, to the point being useless. Generally, I would say the hostel is clean, but on my last morning I woke up with some bug bites. At first, I thought they were from mosquitos as it was very warm in London during my stay. However, later that day I realised they weren't mosquito bites. I don't think it was from bed bugs, it doesn't look like it, but they were definitely from some sort of insect. My GP thinks they were from spiders. I also didn't like that guests had to make their own beds

Malheureusement je n’ai passé qu’une seule nuit dans cet hostel car j’ai retrouvé une punaise de lit dès la première nuit. Le personnel a été compréhensif et a accepté de me rembourser lorsque je leur ai annoncé que je souhaitais partir. Néanmoins, les autres filles de la chambre n’ont pas été informées, j’espère que le nécessaire a été fait. En plus des punaises de lit, le dortoir pour femmes est très petit dans lequel on ne peut pas vraiment rester. Impossible de se tenir assise sur le lit. Le sèche-cheveu est cassé. En général, je ne conseille pas l’hostel, le seul point fort : l’emplacement.

Beds are very loose And small. Also the have bed bugs 🐜

Be careful: There are bed bugs!!! Bettwanzen!!! The Hostel is not doing anything against it. You shouldn’t go there!!

BED BUGS !! I slept in one of their dorms and noticed itchy red bug bites all over my body after the first night, which clearly were bed bug bites. I told the staff, they didn’t nothing except for giving me an email where I could ask for a refund (only after I asked & they never replied to me). Shared bathrooms were also smelly and two sinks + mirrors for a whole floor is way to few. Would not recommend staying there

The personal was not kind enough for what I expected from previous experiences in similar places. The bedroom was clean and okay and unlike the tube, we didn't find any bedbugs. One random guy harassed me in the communal shower. I described him, they knew who he was and didn't kick him out. I felt totally vulnerable. They are strict regarding cohabitation, but they didn't solve my problem with that random guy that assaulted me nor even offered me a compensation for this horrendous situation, which is a shame.

My partner and I caught bed bugs from this place as seen from the pictures below (you'll notice the blue bed and white sheets) and the company has refused to give us a refund they promised in writing. Staff were kind enough let us use the washing machine for free for our clothes and backpacks, that was literally the only positive I can give to this place. The beds are a bit too small and the bathrooms were also pretty gross. Highly suggest finding somewhere else. This place is not worth it...

Good location and overall a nice organised setup with friendly staff but let down by a Small bed and, sadly, bed bugs

Bed bug infestion. As i have been staying in this hostel quite often i noticed i would get unexplained bites but didn't pay much attention as it was one or two. But this time all my exposed areas were itching and i couldn't sleep. I was looking atound the bed for any signs of bed bugs but found them in the seam of the curtains. I informed the reception, person in charge almost blaimed me for bringing them (i literally arrived in the evening) and wouldn't believe that they were biting me. I was told to wash all my clothes, so i did in the middle of the night. And then i was given another bunk. I sure won't be staying there anymore as i don't think they are taking bed bugs seriously. Good luck to you if you decide to stay

Great location in London but very hard to sleep because the lockers and beds are so noisy, even with earplugs (I was in a dorm of 9) Also I was in the dorm with my sister and she got bitten by bedbugs

Hostel had black mold, staff were rude, and one of our friends rooms was infested with bed bugs. Wouldn’t recommend to anyone and will not be back lol.

The hostel is a nice space, and the rooms are comfortable though quite noisy because of the metal lockers. I must say there was one staff member who was particularly unhelpful, bordering the disrespectful. His name was Matt. During our stay, my female friends and I avoided asking him for information or help because he didn't have a good attitude towards guests. He didn't speak other language other than English, which is something one would hope for a staff member in the tourism industry. When asked, he could not solve or help any of our requests, nor at least tried to. He didn't create, in my opinion, a safe space for guests. The rest of the staff, apart from Matt, was truly sweet. I found a bed bug on my bed one night. When I killed it it exploded with blood. Again, I didn't reach to the staff because Matt was on charge that night. Well, overall it was a good stay. Hope it would have been better.

Fucking bedbugs

Good location but be aware of bedbugs

heavy noisy ventilation making noise within the bedroom walls every 20 minutes (that wake you up at night), 6 beds dorm in the basement with a window on a wall that is just 20 cm away from the dorm window … super small bedroom and not cleaned enough (a lot of dust in between the bed walls = bed bugs paradise and sneezing paradise). I honestly wondered how you get out of it in case of fire or emergency. I would not stay there even for 1 night, considering the poor quality for the price (56 euro 1 night …. seriously).

Basic. You get what you pay for. Bed bugs in 106 and 107.

BED BUGS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!! The staff at reception laughed at us when we told them, then they didn't believe us, then they negated our accusations and we got no money back and spent the night in London doing laundry and getting medicine. Worst night ever. They just take advantage of the fact that people want to see london. Poor service, bed bugs and way too expensive. DO NOT STAY HERE!!!!!!

We had bed bugs in our room and it was not very clean.

We got 3 rats in our room, in mid of the night. We are still traumatised , and I asked the deskstaff day one plz tell us if you have a rat problem. Rude deskstaff. Good price & location, but we will never stay here even if we get it for free. Deskstaff told me to do what I wanna do and reminded me: comment as much as you want. And they said the manager has day off(info like this is written in many other comments). Bed bugs are common here aswell

Got bitten by bed bugs all over my body (15 bites in total)!!!! And every thing stinks in the room (linen and curtain).

El peor hostal en el que he estado, la ubicación es buena pero la limpieza.. si quieres pulgas o chinches de cama, este es tu lugar

Actually the whole place looks to be very to live. Breakfast okay. But it has hygiene problem. I was bitten by bed bugs and had to see a GP afterwards. My skin turned very itchy for a week..until I used the medicine from the drugstore for several days.