BUG review
This brilliant hostel has excellent common areas that include vault-style Internet and TV rooms, a brand new kitchen and a great basement bar with a piano and drinks at off-licence prices. Although the carpets are a bit grotty, most of the hostel has been recently renovated and the dorms are nice with good sturdy bunk beds. It is a friendly hostel with a great social atmosphere.
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Price Dorm bed £14 Twin room £36 Prices are in British pounds and are inclusive of all taxes.
Credit cards American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard, Visa
Best avoided unless you like to binge-drink and party all night 12 June 2011
Pros:
Central location
Cons:
Grotty, noisy, drunks & junkies (near St Paul's)
cristian44
saw things this way
Maintenance
(1)
Cleanliness
(2)
Facilities
(2)
Atmosphere
(2)
(Review ID: 14598)
I stayed in that hostel 1 week in 2006 (while holidaying in the UK), 3 months in 2007 (starting a new life in the UK) and 1 week recently (bad timing when moving flats).
The hostel is located on a narrow street, right in the city centre, in an area full of bars, karaoke clubs etc. There are 2 discos/karaoke things right on the opposite side of the street, 20 yards from your windows (which are 'vintage' and don't close well, due to the building being listed or something). Therefore, getting some sleep before 2am on a weekday, and 4am on Thursday to Saturday nights is near impossible. Add to this the fact that many of the hostel's long term residents work in those bars etc. and come back from work between midnight and 4am
There is hot water in the showers but there aren't enough of those (or loos) for everybody. The kitchen is also way too small, especially as some people (Australian and Spanish mostly) like to cook in groups. The best time to use the kitchen is after 9pm. There is CCTV in the kitchen, but some people manage to steal stuff. Milk and olive oil seem to be favorite items!
There is also CCTV in several places in the building, including in the staircase leading to the dorm. So don't use it as a 'bedroom': 2 people did this back in 2007, and the hostel staff had loads of fun replaying the tape over and over again! At 1 point, a Spanish girl and a French girl used to bring men back to their women-only dorm after finishing their bar-tending shifts (including guys who were not staying at the hostel but that they had just met). The French girl even brought back 2 men once, I don't know whether they took turns or whether they did a threesome.
There isn't CCTV in the dorms, and there aren't even locks to the doors, so there are quite a lot of thefts. I lost a jacket and during my 3 months in 2007, at least 2 residents had their passport + wallet stolen. If that happens to you, get your details registered at the CIFAS, to avoid being a victim of identity theft in the future.
Some residents tend to drink a lot, so vomit in the lounge is a fairly common occurrence. The same goes for the street outside: you also have to be careful not to step into a pool of urine in the morning.
In 2007, the hostel had to be evacuated around 5am/6am one morning, because the fire alarm had gone off: one of the residents had gone drunk so badly that she collapsed while taking a shower, the water inundated the shower-room, seeped through the ceiling, and damaged some electric cables. The electricity was switched off in parts of the hostel for several days afterwards, and the ceiling and carpets looked even more grotty than before!
There is a bar in the basement, which is also a smoking area. People there (including the hostel staff) did not just smoke tobacco, but also cannabis (St Paul's is only a couple of streets away) and many a time I heard someone in the kitchen saying that they had just bought drugs and were going to spend the rest of the day going on a trip.
The hostel staff varied from friendly to downright hostile. 1 lady didn't like it when you paid cash or when you paid by debit card, and I don't have a credit card!
The 'guests' which are the most welcome in the hostel are people who work in catering/bars/construction; people on 'gap years' (you hear them calling their parents in Germany, claiming they have a job but it does not pay well enough so can they please wire them some money); people on benefits (mostly single men who complain that their former partner got council housing because of the children but they're not eligible to a council housing flat themselves etc.). I've known a couple of call center workers who lived there for several months while waiting to land a permanent job, and of course the usual fundraisers etc. If you live there while looking for work, the address is actually going to make your CV look bad, so better move to a houseshare if you want to get a good job. Living there also makes it more difficult to open a bank account.
There is a pretty decent wifi connection in the lounge, but it's really noisy there and there isn't any privacy.
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3 people found this review helpful
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Anonymous
perth
a bit manky but ok 24 January 2004
Pros:
n/a
Cons:
n/a
Anonymous
saw things this way
Maintenance
(3)
Cleanliness
(3)
Facilities
(3)
Atmosphere
(3)
(Review ID: 8413)
stayed here in May 2003 for a few weeks. I wasn't particularly impressed with the place, but it had most of the things you need. The bedrooms tend to be themed, unfortunately I'd been put in the 'coupley' dorm, where young stupid kids liked to paw each other day & night and generally acted sulky if you spent more than five minutes in there. The bathrooms were about 60% functional (hot water good, hygiene bad), toilets ok but not enough, kitchen pretty dodgy. My main gripe with the kitchen arrangement was that many residents used several baskets each, thereby leaving new arrivals to buy food that they had to store in their rooms as there was nowhere else for it. Always a fight for the fridge - if you're planning on staying a few weeks, make sure you 'dominate' some kitchen space...The staff were pretty nonchalant about most things, wouldn't call them overly friendly but they were mostly civil, and the location is fantastic (except for the bit about being on top of several nightclubs that played crap music all weekend). Would recommend it as a cheaper option than the YHA on the waterfront.
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16 people found this review helpful
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Anonymous
Canada
Nice residents but horrible staff at overpriced hostel 1 June 2003
Pros:
n/a
Cons:
n/a
Anonymous
saw things this way
Maintenance
(2)
Cleanliness
(2)
Facilities
(2)
Atmosphere
(2)
(Review ID: 8414)
I stayed at this hostel in March for a couple of days. Though, the long term residents are great people, the hostel itself and the staff are horrible. The hostel is in the process of being finished, is grungy and dirty. The outside noise is amplified by the dodgy windows that are in each room. The staff, with the exceptions of Gareth and Ant, have no concept of customer service to say the least. At £13 a night the hostel is highly overpriced for the lack of quality that you receive. I would not recommend this hostel to anyone.
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16 people found this review helpful
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Graham
Liverpool
Good hostel with a great atmosphere 9 November 2002
Pros:
n/a
Cons:
n/a
Graham
saw things this way
Maintenance
(4)
Cleanliness
(4)
Facilities
(4)
Atmosphere
(4)
(Review ID: 8415)
I only stayed one night here while passing through Bristol and was impressed by the atmosphere. There was a good mix of backpackers, and long-termers working around Bristol. The night I stayed was a scary video night, and when I returned from exploring the bars of Bristol the lounge had been turned into a TV room. I made it in just in time to see The Exorcist!This place reminded me of the many student houses I have had the pleasure (?) of knowing over the years - by that I mean that everyone is welcome. Having said that, one of the long-term residents commented to me on the lack of cleanliness in the 'compact' kitchen area (reminds me of student days again!).I would definitely stay here again next time I am in Bristol.
There is hot water in the showers but there aren't enough of those (or loos) for everybody. The kitchen is also way too small, especially as some people (Australian and Spanish mostly) like to cook in groups. The best time to use the kitchen is after 9pm. There is CCTV in the kitchen, but some people manage to steal stuff. Milk and olive oil seem to be favorite items!
There is also CCTV in several places in the building, including in the staircase leading to the dorm. So don't use it as a 'bedroom': 2 people did this back in 2007, and the hostel staff had loads of fun replaying the tape over and over again! At 1 point, a Spanish girl and a French girl used to bring men back to their women-only dorm after finishing their bar-tending shifts (including guys who were not staying at the hostel but that they had just met). The French girl even brought back 2 men once, I don't know whether they took turns or whether they did a threesome.
There isn't CCTV in the dorms, and there aren't even locks to the doors, so there are quite a lot of thefts. I lost a jacket and during my 3 months in 2007, at least 2 residents had their passport + wallet stolen. If that happens to you, get your details registered at the CIFAS, to avoid being a victim of identity theft in the future.
Some residents tend to drink a lot, so vomit in the lounge is a fairly common occurrence. The same goes for the street outside: you also have to be careful not to step into a pool of urine in the morning.
In 2007, the hostel had to be evacuated around 5am/6am one morning, because the fire alarm had gone off: one of the residents had gone drunk so badly that she collapsed while taking a shower, the water inundated the shower-room, seeped through the ceiling, and damaged some electric cables. The electricity was switched off in parts of the hostel for several days afterwards, and the ceiling and carpets looked even more grotty than before!
There is a bar in the basement, which is also a smoking area. People there (including the hostel staff) did not just smoke tobacco, but also cannabis (St Paul's is only a couple of streets away) and many a time I heard someone in the kitchen saying that they had just bought drugs and were going to spend the rest of the day going on a trip.
The hostel staff varied from friendly to downright hostile. 1 lady didn't like it when you paid cash or when you paid by debit card, and I don't have a credit card!
The 'guests' which are the most welcome in the hostel are people who work in catering/bars/construction; people on 'gap years' (you hear them calling their parents in Germany, claiming they have a job but it does not pay well enough so can they please wire them some money); people on benefits (mostly single men who complain that their former partner got council housing because of the children but they're not eligible to a council housing flat themselves etc.). I've known a couple of call center workers who lived there for several months while waiting to land a permanent job, and of course the usual fundraisers etc. If you live there while looking for work, the address is actually going to make your CV look bad, so better move to a houseshare if you want to get a good job. Living there also makes it more difficult to open a bank account.
There is a pretty decent wifi connection in the lounge, but it's really noisy there and there isn't any privacy.
