"The hostel and I agreed to cancel an originally non-refundable booking because I got Covid. The hostel gave me a full refund. Hostelworld still decided to keep the booking fee for a service that never happened. This is a classic case of a company exploiting its customers and a greedy business practice.
"

"Refused to offer refund after paid extra to be able to cancel reservation. They also take a huge cut for themselves. Always book directly with the hostel."

"They ask you to pay a deposit. When you go to the hostel, you do not find your reservation, and when you return to them, they do not do anything and tell you the deposit is non-refundable.
True thieves....avoid doing business with them."

"While other organisations and individuals are working hard to help people during this Pandemic Hostel World are trying to steal people's money. Disgraceful, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

As a society we need to start holding companies accountable for their poor morals and stop using them. The hotel I booked refunded my money immediately and I will book with them again as a result. Hostel world thinks it can act in contravention of consumer protection law and keep my deposit, which highlights what a shady company they are.

Let's stop using the businesses that are trying to save themselves at the expense of normal people who are struggling right now, and lets support those companies that are doing the right thing and are trying help.
"

"I wish I could have read the reviews online before I booked too~ It's a scammer's website. When the transaction can't be proceeded by hostels, the hostel will cancel the registration but the platform would still charge people and cannot refund. Paid money but no service provided, That's whay this company did. I don't know why there are still people buying their shares in stock. Boycott it and make it shut down. DO NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYONE."

"My two recent experiences with HostelWorld.com tell me this is a worthless, fly-by-the-night company out to fleece end-customers and just make a quick buck.
(1) Experience with HostelWorld.com booking Backpackers Hostel in Santa Cruz, Bolivia:
I recently flew to Bolivia but was denied visa-on-arrival and had to return back. I asked HostelWorld to refund the moneys I had paid and ask the Hostel to do so. I have received wooden, lawyerly response five times now – none of them helpful in any way.
The hostel initially charged me, I left a review to that effect clearly stating the facts, hostel probably complained to HostelWorld so to protect their bread-butter clients, HostelWorld removed the review. When I complained about it, they said (1) since I didn’t stay, I can’t leave a review (meaning customer has no rights) but (2) the property can still charge (go HostelWorld and your clients, screw the customers!!). The charge by the Santa Cruz Backpackers is back on the credit card which I have disputed.

(2) Experience with HostelWorld.com booking Backpackers Hostel in Salta, Argentina:
To make a few quick bucks and to keep their clients, HostelWorld will list anyone who has four walls, floor, and a roof – the best example of this is Backpackers Suites and Bars, Salta, Argentina. So many people have left bad reviews stating the facts but no action has ever been taken by HostelWorld. The dorm bed given to me was so bad I had to upgrade paying four times more to a single room. Even in that room, there were so many issues that I emailed HostelWorld on Nov 11, 2018 (Request #2799939) asking for help but no one has ever responded to it. When I left the review stating the facts, HostelWorld emailed me saying:
“The information about each property on the website should be accurate and is uploaded by each property individually. All complaints are taken very seriously and recorded.
Thank you for your comments as it is through feedback from our customers that we can provide a higher standard of service”.

One can only wonder what higher standard of service HostelWorld provides, when they don’t even respond to the email complaint or try to fix anything? Only higher standard of service provided is to their clients (the properties) and their management, not to the paying guests.

Here’s what I plan to do: stop using HostelWorld and start using booking.com and Airbnb, file a complaint with the Mass department of Housing against HostelWorld for putting me in a situation that was dangerous and life-threatening, and dispute the charges with credit card.
I invite all fellow travelers to share their experiences here so we can drive such useless, worthless companies off-market.
"

"I use this site every time I need to find a hostel in a new city and I trust the ratings on their site, they give a lot of information about each one and so make the decision easier."

"They make zero effort to protect their customers.
===
A hotel/hostel operator on their website stole my credit card data and made a personal purchase with it. When I contacted Hostelworld about the issue, they said they stated that they saw no issue and would not do anything about the issue. This was despite me having concrete evidence of this occurring and the hotel operator being responsible for it.
"

"I was booking a hostel in Europe. Its description was clearly saying "You can check-in at any time" and "email us to arrange your late registration". I completed registration on Hostelworld.com and sent email to hostel to arrange my check-in time at 5pm. They replied within few hours that they only can check-in till 3pm?! Their description also said that their check-in starts at 1pm. LoL!
Basically, I requested cancellation within few hours and explained the reason - "incorrect hostel description". Hostelworld.com didn't return their registration fee.

Bad business practice - doing false advertisement (incorrect hostel description on their site) and failing to handle such typical customer support scenario.

Stay away!"

"I booked 2 beds with hostel world with flexible deposit, after I canceled the booking(3 month before the booking date) in their system I found out that this property is not refundable because it's special period, and the hint was written in a line on the booking page. Along with more text indicate that this property is refundable.
I think technically it's easy for them to distinguish between the ones can or cannot be canceled. When it's impossible to cancel, it make no sense to charge extra flexible deposit. It's obviously a fraud.
In the end, I got no positive customer support, they don't admit the insufficient of their system at all. I lost both the deposit and the fee for the booking.
I would never use hostelworld.com ever again. It's not trustworthy, it doesn't care about the customer at all."

"I had a terrible booking experience with a hostel on their site and afterwards with hostelworld's customer service. After booking a hostel, the hostel owner contacted me and basically wanted to change the terms and agreements that I had agreed to when I put down a deposit on hostelworld.com. I had a huge disagreement with the owner because that was unfair on me as a customer to have paid for a deposit and then to have the terms changed on me afterward and we mutually decided that it would be best if our reservation was canceled.

After contacting hostelworld.com's customer service, it was appalling to me that I received no support or concern from their representative Kitty Yao regarding the situation. In fact, it seemed that they were only concerned about keeping their deposit fee as she blamed me for apparently not being able to anticipate that a hostel owner would try to alter my payment arrangement after I had already paid and the representative said and I quote "you could read clearly on our terms and conditions, the booking deposit is non refundable. In your case, you decided to cancel these bookings after communicating with hostel owners and you are supposed to understand our regulations." I knew the booking deposit was non refundable when I made the booking, what I wasn't banking on however, was having the hostel owner try to change the payment terms and conditions AFTER I had already paid the deposit to hostelworld.com. I honestly expected a little more support and assistance from hostelworld.com regarding this unfortunate situation and I'm just really dismayed. This is the first time I tried to use their services and it will definitely be my last. I would never recommend a company that so blatantly neglects to protect or help their customers especially when they have such a negative experience to begin with. I'm sure their site is great for connecting individuals with hostels, but my experience was thoroughly horrible. I just hope if you book through their site, no problems arise because their customer service will not lift a finger to help you. "

"Avoid #Hostelworld.com!!! I decided to write you adding my experience because I want complain about fraudulent online hostel booking but I’m a tourist and I don’t know very well the best way to do it in USA.
I booked online a hostel in New York last July (I have the receipt you can read below) but when my plane arrived in NY (during the evening) I phoned to the hostel and they simply told me than there aren’t rooms! I didn’t find any other rooms that night (was a Saturday night in very high season period)except very expensive hotels so I decided to sleep in my car with my husband and my son but it was not a great experience and it could has been dangerous.
We were charged 20% ( 280 Euro) Booking Fee form HostelWorld ( ?#?Hostelworld?,?#?hostelbookers?, #Hostels.com,#bedandbreakfastworld.com, #backpackeronline.com, ?#?scout24? owned by Web Reservation International.
I hope you can help me and send this letter to competent organizations."

"Hostelworld does not offer protection against a hostel making changes to the terms of a booking after the booking is made. For example, I made a booking, where the hostel said in their "property information" that they provide Free breakfast and that Air-Con was included with all single and double room bookings.

After I made the booking the hostel changed the terms, so that Free Breakfast and Air-Con was not included with the booking. The hostel turned-off the aircon in the room and challenged me to pay. I contacted HostelWord by e-mail, they did not respond. So I used the Online chat feature. The support staff said, the hostel should provide free breakfast but then said because the hostel had not said they provide "free air-con" in the terms, I had to pay for the Air-con. Actually, the hostel said "Our double room and the single room has A/C.
Our dorm room is without A/C, but has a good fan." in the property information and they had not made any demand for Air-con payment before the terms had been changed. So hostelworld was clutching at straws here.

Hostelworld took over a week to respond to my original e-mail. Even when they replied, customer services relied on the terms of the hotel at the time when they replied to the e-mail, not the terms that was current at the time of the booking. "

"Just wonder if this company is out to cheat people .
Made 2 bookings and than the hotel increase their prices . So i canceled but Hostelword keeps the money. Emails get brushed away saying that was my problem.
Advise not to use this company !!!!!Hostelworld.com don't refund, but not this is the biggest problem.
They cheat with the ratings.
Look for example Budapest, hostels with dozens of 100%.
Irish police should investigate hostelworld.
I send them the proves, they dont care.
Closed hostels was rated every day with 100%.
I found out that their friends there . Corruption."