Brxxl 5 City Centre Hostel

Ok for the low price I guess but the Bedbugs ?? So many red spots on my body after I left. Staff was friendly but not really helpful. My room door wouldn’t lock, I spent time trying to fix it myself, ask the staff, say they would have it fixed and I came back 5 hours later to the door open!! The safe next to mine was also broken so overall not really a safe space in an already sketchy location :// good location besides that, close to the center and the station.

My only issue is that one person in my room claimed to have bed bugs, but not sure if there actually was. I also had someone in the room wake up at 6am switched the light on and began shouting.

The place is FILTHY. It smells bad, the was “hair” all over the room and they have some SERIOUS reviews about /!\ BED BUGS /!\ They don’t give you the option to book with free cancellation, when I discovered the bed bugs reviews I tried to cancel and they didn’t even answer! Not even booking’s customer support helped. Also the lighting on the room and bathroom was poor, there were noises all night long (people on the corridor and from the above floor), and the door was not working. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS HOSTEL

Bed bugs, no wifi, dirty

Within an hour of getting into bed, I got bit by bed bugs and had gotten very itchy. This happened at 1am and I went downstairs and reported it right away. At first the staff simply changed the sheets—which obviously does nothing to address an infestation, even though I requested a new room. They said everything was full so I got back into bed only to find an hour later, another live bug since I started feeling itchy again. Only then, at 3am, was I moved to a different bed. Unfortunately, the staff did not move the other guests in the room. The entire situation was handled poorly. When the staff initially came to inspect the bug, he said it was not a bed bug and flicked it away. So the room is still compromised. Bed bugs are a serious health and safety issue, yet the staff acted like it was a minor inconvenience. That night, I requested a refund and the front desk denied me. Then, when I checked out in the morning, I once again requested a refund for the horrendous experience and was told to send an email. I have contacted the property twice afterward requesting a refund and received no response. I barely slept, had to check all my belongings for contamination, and spent the rest of the night anxious about bringing bugs with me. And then spent the majority of the next day going to the laundromat to decontaminate my clothes. No guest should have to deal with this. This was one of the worst hostel experiences I’ve ever had. Until they address their cleanliness issues and improve how they handle serious problems, I strongly recommend staying elsewhere. Additionally the wifi does not work at all. They claim it only works in the reception area, but I could not connect at all. The holes for the lockers do not fit a normal combination lock, so I had to rent one for 2 EUR + 5 EUR cash deposit. Do not stay here.

Bedbugs wouldnt let me sleep

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. I usually give the benefit of doubt when reading negative reviews about hostels but this place has a serious problem with bed bugs. My bedding was covered in small blood stains and what looked like bed bug faeces and I was refused a change of room or refund when I asked reception for a room change, he claimed that the reviews about bed bugs are lies and it was an issue they dealt with 6 years ago but there are recurring negative reviews.

I got bedbugs during my stay here. Didn’t notice till I got home.

First off, the area didn't feel safe at all... the hostel itself did, but I wouldn't recommend anyone to stay in this area, especially solo woman. If you do, dont walking alone at night. The area aside, it also had the following issues: - There was a hole in the wall with electrical cords sticking out. - The walls are paper thin so you hear everything inside and outside. - The beds are extremely uncomfortable. - You couldn't control the room temperature. There was a door with a balcony, however, the bar or restaurant next door was so loud all afternoon and night that you didn't want to open it. - The previously mentioned bar was also full of creepy men who eyeball you as you walk past.

The hostel is located in a rather unsafe neighborhood. While the service wasn’t terrible, the cleanliness was appalling. On my first night, I found bed bugs in my bed and pillow during the early morning hours. I was badly bitten and couldn’t sleep at all. I immediately reported it to the front desk, and although they changed my room, the experience had already been ruined. Needless to say, I couldn’t get any rest. Fortunately, I was checking out the next day. I would not stay here again.

The room was very dirty. It was impossible to walk barefoot on the floor, there were a lot of sticky things. The shower drain was clogged. At night we were bitten by bedbugs, so it was terrible to sleep (the bed, by the way, was also dirty). And there was constant noise in the corridor, the sound insulation is poor

The neighborhood close to the Gare du Midi train station is ghetto like. Stayed only one night and got Bed bugs bites all over (!!) A scary atmosphere. Two tenants in the 4 person room dorm had an argument at 2AM and one was expelled by the staff. You better pay a few Euro more in another hostel. This hostel seem to attract people that don;t have much choice. You usually have a higher chance of bedbugs in cheapest accommodation in town and this is +/- cheapest in town.

Bedbugs

This property was filthy and unhygienic - we inspected the room upon our arrival to find that the bed sheets were filthy and even found bed bugs on the mattresses. The bathroom was also dirty and the place smelled like sewage. This property is not located in a safe area for women in particular. There was a lot of men hanging around the hostel reception. It was difficult to tell if they were even staying there and the streets contained mainly men passing up and down the hostel. We refused to stay in such accommodation and when we asked reception if we could cancel our stay they refused to help us with our cancelation.

This was a very bad stay. The place does not offer the minimum hygiene conditions for the public, not sure if it even complies with public health guidelines. I stayed at a hostel and shared the room with 3 other people and the cleaning lady only came every 3 days, so there was garbage pilling up in the bathroom and near our beds. During this stay I got a serious skin issue due to the fact that this hostel had bed bugs. This means I got bits all over my body during my 1 week stay there. I'm still recovering from this health issue even more than 1 week after because the bits on my legs got an infection. Just thank God I only booked it for 1 week and not longer, otherwise I would have lost even more money. Please do not stay at this place and save yourself and your family a lot of damage.

Although the neighborhood was not good, they could work and the hostel was good at first sight. However, the shower was broken and we had to wash with extremely hot water and there was something like bedbugs in the rooms so they bit me and room mates whole body. It was not like a bad option but the price did not meet the performance.

We stayed between october 29-31 and spent two nights.We had bites by bedbugs everywhere and also we took the risk of carrying them to our homes.The situation was too bad also towels were smelled horrible … Don’t stay if you really have to. Horrible Hotel

They have bed bugs all over the rooms, at first they wanted to give us the money back because they could not change the room ,I agreed with that and after someone from the staff told us they can remove us to another room and I explained them if the room has bedbugs too please do not put us there because we have to travel a lot of days and it’s gonna destroy everything. They said no it’s clean, and at the end we had a horrible night.

Fomos atacados por begbugs, fiquei inteira picada. Experiência horrível. E além disso, quando chegamos no hostel tinham entregado nosso quarto para outra pessoa e tivemos que esperar, mas isso foi resolvido rápido. O pior foram as picadas de bedbugs, que coçam muito.

There were bed bugs in 2 out of the 3 nights we spent there. The room smelled very bad. We couldn't take a bath because the water in the shower was locked to extremely hot, no matter the position of the faucet.

Stayed for 4 days. Would be better if there is fan in the room because we couldn't open wide all doors while sleeping. Need to keep door open at night for ventilation but it's very noisy outside. Got woken up at 4am bitten by bed bugs. I told them on the 3rd day and they offered to clean again the room and change the sheets but it didn't rid the bedbugs. Also our room door was also left open after they cleaned it.

Poor soundproofing. Towels at extra charge. Courtyard full of rubbish. A bit dodgy neighbourhood with druggies on the streets. And finally, bed bug bites for free...

Unfortunately the mattresses in the dorms are smaller than the bed frames, leaving unpleasant empty spaces. Also the lockers are quite impractical and not very clean. On our final night we discovered bed bugs in our room. Our roommates (who stayed a few nights longer) had to switch rooms (which was very very easy :). The cleaning staff were very eager to clean, but we found it to be invasive to clean when we were still getting ready in the room (doing make-up/changing/etc). I would stay here again, but these are things to be aware of!

There were bedbugs and in the first room I stayed in I couldn't sit up as the bed height was very small (I'm 5'2) the 2nd room had a sewer smell and there was no AC so it got very warm at night there was also no sink in the tea/coffee area so had to drain my noodles in the bathroom when i did complain about bedbugs although they did move me they didn't do anything about the bugs themselves I know bedbugs happen it's no ones fault and I wouldn't have minded but the fact they didn't do anything about the bugs is what made me icky I know it's a hostel I'm not expecting 5 star luxury but I would've liked to not be smelling sewage in my room and nothing being done about bedbugs i also didn't like the fact the mattress was so low it hurt getting out of the bed due to the metal bar the area is a bit dodgy which tbh didnt bother me as i grew up in the flats in dublin not the hostels fault but just to warn it can be a bit dodgy I paid 280 for 6 nights but honestly, I paid around the same price for hostels and capsule hotels in london and they didn't have any of these issues and were way more comfortable I doubt I'll be back ngl :/ also the shower was boiling couldn't get cold or luke-warm water from it

The bed had bed bugs (I took pics) and a the room window was faulty and couldn’t close while a party was being throw under the area surroundings. The staff was nice enough about it

They have bed bugs. There are more than dozens of bites on our body. The smell in the rooms awful. Beds are uncomfortable to sleep and every noise is a big bother. We couldn’t sleep at all at the nights.

The hostel is in a sketchy neighborhood where I didn't feel safe to walk at night. When I checked in, the front desk told me that I could not stay in the dorm due to my age. But nothing at their website or at booking.com said anything about the age limit. When I pointed this out, the front desk insisted that I could not check in due to my age. The only option was for me to stay in a private room instead. It was 9pm already, and this was my first trip to Brussels. I was exhausted flying to Brussels from another country. So I paid 220 euros more to stay at a private room, on top of 102 euros I already paid at the time of booking. The room was small with three single beds. It was very basic, just like a typical dorm room, instead of hotel room. The next morning, I woke up and noticed that I had some bumps on my arms and legs. I thought they were mosquito bites, but was puzzled as I did not hear mosquitos flying at night. Two days later, I checked out and flew home. My friend saw the bites on my arm and told me those were bed bug bites. I have been to 70+ countries and have never got bed bug bites. So I started googling bug bites and asked my physician friends. They told me indeed those were bug bites. I got at least 60 bites on my body. They were very itchy and uncomfortable. I also have to thoroughly clean everything to reduce the chance of bringing the bed bugs home. I informed the hostel right away, sending them photos of bites on my leg and arm, and asked for a refund. After three weeks of many email exchanges with the hostel, the hostel was only willing to refund the 102 euros, not the remaining 220 euros. I am writing this review, hoping that nobody else has to go through this. I would never stay at this hostel again.

I got bed bugs from staying at this place and the neighbourhood is sketchy. If you’re a female solo traveller, I would avoid this.

La habitación olía muy mal. Nos cambiaron de habitación y había bedbugs. Hasta la 3ra habitación estuvo más decente. Era muy inseguro el lugar.

They had bedbugs, and though they were helpful in the process, I still haven’t received a refund as promised.

Both members of the party that booked into the accommodation left when lots of bite marks all over their body. The doctor said marks were from bedbugs.

We got bedbugs during our stay. Apart from that, the room was not properly cleaned. There were stains and holes in the sheets, stains on the mirror in the bathroom from the guests before us, a toe nail (!!) in my friends bed and there was a weird smell coming from the drain. Apart from that were the mattresses awfully soft, which gave me backpain. At least the hostel staff was friendly after we noticed the bed bugs and located me in a different room (I had the most bites). There was no more empty beds, so my friends hat to stay in the room for another night, before we checked out the next morning. The Wifi was also really bad, I had to use my own data. The hostel did refund us 40% without any hestiation after we complained, which is (besides the location and the friendly staff), the only reason the hostel does not get a worse rating from my side. NEVER AGAIN.

It is dirty and full of bed bugs. This hostel should be closed for very deep cleaning

Bed Bugs!

This hostel has a serious bed bug infestation. We do NOT recommend you stay here.

Cleanliness is very low. It appears to be unsanitised. My friend had to change bed because she was bitten by bed bugs. The shower chased only boiling water for three days .The service is not so friendly. The quality is very poor.

Your room gave us bed bugs. It was not cleaned thoroughly. We tried to discuss with the front desk who said they would call us if they found bed bugs but never followed up.

A friend of mine put it rather poetically: «The odor of rotting eggs seeped into our skin as we slept, unaware of the bed bugs descending upon our bodies and our belongings». I would add that because of the above we avoided spending time in our room at all costs. On top of the smell and the bed bugs, the room was not clean, and we realized that the lighting was so poor to conceal the state of the room.

Got a double and a single bed instead of three single beds as reserved. A bit dirty, dirty matresses and most importantly we found a bed bug

We had a 🪳BEDBUG 🪳ON OUR BED. We saw them sadly on the last day… there are 100% more bedbugs if we saw just one. Maybe they should check the rooms and do some things to prevent it. I was so disgusted. My friend scratched herself the whole night and she wondered if there could be some because of the scratching, AND THEN WE SAW ONE!! The trip turned into a nightmare immediately.

There was a stench of sewage throughout the entire room, especially the bathroom. The room was definitely not cleaned before our stay, as the floor was still full of dust. Furthermore, both me and my partner got itchy red spots on our bodies as a result of sleeping in the beds (suspected bed bugs). On top of all this, when trying to plug in the charger for my phone, the socket short-circuited, frying my charger. Would not recommend to stay here even for the relatively low price.

Bed bugs

In the morning we found bed bugs in the room!

This establishment is simply a predatory theft operation! I got there at 11 PM, and was told that being over 40 years of age, my confirmed registration for "1 adult" was invalid and I could not stay in the dorm reserved. Pure age-discrimination that is illegal all over the world, and never encountered by this 73-year-old frequent traveler! Then, as I had no other place to go in a strange city, at night, far away from home, they "offered" me a private room (a bug-infested garret with an 18" wide mattress and bathroom facilities 6 floors away, for an additional ~$210 USD (200 Euros.) Pure blatant and predatory abuse and theft, as well as health risk (classic bed bug bite photos attached)! In summary, these folks should be prosecuted and closed down; noone should ever stay there. Simply disgusting!

Bed Bugs covered in bites.

¡¡CHINCHES de la cama (BEDBUGS)!! En mi colchón de la habitación 109 había chinches. Dormí una noche sin darme cuenta y a la segunda, me di cuenta, porque me quedé despierto con el móvil, de que había como cinco chinches caminando por la sábana. Maté alguna y tenían sangre de haberme picado. Afortunadamente la habitación era triple y pude compartir la cama más alejada, que parecía no estar infestada, pero no pude dormir en toda la noche del susto y el mal rato. La preocupación de si te las estás llevando a otro hotel o a casa no te la quita nadie. Busqué de inmediato las opiniones del hotel en Google y justo había una reseña del día anterior que aseguraba que había CHINCHES y justo. No he sido más feliz nunca al abandonar un hotel. Al informar por la mañana de que había chinches, la recepcionista nos aseguró de que era la primera vez que tenía noticias de ello. No me lo creo porque había varias opiniones sobre la presencia de CHINCHES informada al personal. Estoy seguro de que ese mismo día alojaron a clientes en la misma habitación 109. No puedo recomendar este hotel al menos en un tiempo hasta que el problema sea tan grave que tengan que fumigar. A parte de las chiches: las camas son colchonetas, el baño se inhunda y la televisión no funciona. El barrio es árabe chungo y huele a cannabis. Prefiero un hotel peor y algo más alejado que no tenga CHINCHES.

We payed 120€ for 1 night at a private room with private bathroom. The mattress had bed bugs and there were no sheets. I got bitten by them, and have my arms completely full of bites!!! Im attaching a picture.. Its just incredible. And later reading reviews I saw that there is other people like me… It was dirty and stinky, both the room and the toilet. The neighborhood is not safe, its dirty and far from the city centre. There was almost no lighting in the room and the wall lamps were having cables outside instead of light bulbs.. The lady at the reception was rude, and not helpful. There was no fan and no hairdryer even if it was stated in the room as a facility. There was not even a towel in the bathroom for hands and face!!! And when we got into the room the trash was not even clean.. we had the previous peoples crap there.. Its just insane how bad this place is.. i still don’t understand how it has a 7 as a rate!! Its by far the worst hostel i’ve ever been to.

I was room 203. The pillow was disgusting. I didn't see it immediately and woke up covered with bed bug bites on my face and body. I was desperate.

The room had bed bugs 🐛. It was also very noisy and doors slamming all the time. No bath mat lin the bathroom ..The pillows are too big.

There was a weird Smell in the Bathroom and also I saw bedbugs in the bed