This letter comes to us from one of our long time readers. If your headed to Edinburgh you may want to take heed of this warning against “Bus Station Backpackers Hostel”.
Hi Chris,
I wrote into your site about two years ago, asking what to pack for my own trip, which I’ve just finished. You were really helpful, and I was so proud of myself when I met people whose packs weighed 18kgs, while mine weighed about 8!
Anyway, I’m writing because I have some information that might be helpful for some of your readers.
I live in Edinburgh now (I’m from Australia) and when my husband and I arrived we had to stay in a hostel before we found somewhere to live. We did a quick search on Hostelbookers and found a place we wanted to stay, but according to hostelbookers they were full. I had my husband call the place and the owner said he had room for us.
Everything had been going so well until we got here. The hostel was called Bus Station Backpackers, and it was indescribably bad.
The place had no signage on the road. It is located in a basement, and has A4 laminated piece of paper on the door that tells you you’re in the right spot. If we hadn’t called the owner for detailed instructions we never would have found it.
You descend down some stairs and there is just crap everywhere. Random screens attempting to hide washing machines, and power tools sitting on stairs.
The common room was worse. Dirty dishes sitting in the sink, unwashed and washed linen sitting on the couch, and the coffee table was covered in mugs, money, magazines, food. They do offer free internet, but there is one computer. They do offer free breakfast, but you’d be taking your life into your own hands eating in that kitchen. I could almost see the salmonella.
As we were being shown to our room, my husband tripped on a power cable that was crossing the hallway. He investigated and found it was attached to a heater. In the bathroom. Sitting on a pile of towels. My husband pointed out how unsafe this was, and unplugged it. The owner plugged it back in. Apparently he had a leak under the shower and was using the heater to dry it before he used sealant.
When we were left in our room, I seriously started to think about how I could get out in a fire. If that’s not bad enough, I realised that because we were in a basement, there was no easy way out. The window in our room was barred. If there was a fire, we were looking at a Childers style scenario.
We went out for a few hours, fell in love with the city, and tried to convinve ourselves it was ok. It was just a place to sleep we told ourselves.
Except that that night we couldn’t sleep. I could feel every wire in the mattress. My bunk bed squeeked like crazy. There was a part of the ladder that was loose, and I had to be really careful not to hang onto that as I climbed in or out because I would have fallen.
Next to my husband’s bed there was an alcove just full of building rubbish. Paint cans, photo frames, old statues, you name it. My husband had trouble sleeping because of the paint fumes.
There was a girl who started to blow dry her hair outside our room at 12:30am!!! My husband yelled at her to shut up, and she did, but then started up again at 1am!! I know this isn’t the hostel’s fault, but c’mon, who does that?
Also, the bathrooms were the most unsanitary I have ever seen. Everything needed a good scrub, the bin was overflowing with rubbish, including ladies sanitary items, and there was no toilet paper. Awesome.
The next morning we got up, had breakfast in a cafe, went back to the hostel, paid the owner for the night, and even though we’d booked for five nights, and we left. We’re just glad he didn’t have our credit card details.
The owner, Steve, is a nice guy but all we saw him do while we were there is sit on his laptop. And fold a sheet. He was wearing the same clothes on the second day that he was wearing the first day. He’s obviously happy enough to take peoples money, but won’t lift a finger to make it a safe, sanitary, comfortable environment for his guests.
The reason I’d like you to tell your readers Chris, is because this is the only avenue I can find. He’s not on trip advisor, and we didn’t book through hostelbookers, so we can’t leave a comment through there. This guy had quite high ratings on the booking sites, which we couldn’t understand, until Steve told us he had to ring hostelworld and get a negative comment removed. He admitted to us that he does this on a regular basis!
Anyway, that’s my rant for the day. The whole experience was a really terrible introduction to the city, and if I see backpackers now who are headed in the direction of his hostel I will stop them in the street and tell them not to go there. I think it’s especially imprtant to warn people in the lead up to the festival. Because it’s not just about comfort, and value for money. This place is unsafe.
Thanks Chris, best of luck with the new site, it’s looking very fab!
Amanda.
