THIS HOSTEL IS ABSOLUTELY AWFUL
Honesty, I would not even give this hostel one star. From the very moment we booked our reservation we had trouble. Originally we booked our trip for five days and then decided to extend our stay to six days so I emailed the hostel and was emailed back saying that they would forward the email to someone else to take care of it. My email was never answered. I emailed again a few days later and it went again, unanswered so we decided to make a separate reservation.
A few days later I noticed a 26 dollar charge on my credit card from the hostel that concerned me because I was only supposed to pay less than a dollar as a "down payment" so I called the hostel. When they finally answered, I was greeted with nothing but sass and when I asked to speak with the manager because I was told to send another email (which I was sure would go unanswered) the reply was "He doesn't want to talk to you." .........? The MANAGER didn't wish to talk to me? Should have been a red flag right there.
Upon arrival there was no apology about the random charge on my credit card, they said "Sometimes stuff happens" and credited it to my payment. We had booked a 6 bedroom mixed dorm and they showed us to a 12 bed female dorm...obviously not what we had reserved OR wanted. They also didn't care. There was a rule about no outside alcohol in the hostel and about five minutes after we got to our room, while I was changing clothes, a male employee opened our door without knocking, using a key card. He proceeded to tell us he would let us sneak in with alcohol meanwhile ignoring the fact that I was not wearing a shirt. He continued to make conversation with us, asking us where we were from, how long we were staying, all the while I was STILL not wearing a shirt.
The next morning we had to check out and check back in because of their negligence in extending our reservation. This meant taking all of our belongings out of the room, bringing them to the lobby, and then leaving them there for extended period of time because they didn't have a room ready for us. I also requested not to stay in a certain room because there were some guys staying there we weren't comfortable rooming with. After requesting this the manager responded with, "Listen pretty girl, just because you're good looking doesn't mean you always get what you want." Baffled by this response I restated that I did not want to be put in that certain room and thanked him for understanding.
Over the next few days, the men who worked there walked in and out of our room carelessly without knocking, many times as we were changing or about to get in the shower. There was one employee in particular who I felt especially violated by. He made many lewd comments to the guests staying there along the lines of and including, "I want to tear that ass up." This same employee later described to us how he shows people where the best places to have sex in public areas at the hostel are without being caught on camera. One night the manager, Herold, was beyond drunk in the lobby. He was rolling around on the floor like an idiot, telling us that we were his favorite girls and grabbing us on the thigh.. a little too high for comfort.
The dorms sucked because although you may pay for a 6 bed dorm, its a big room with basically a cardboard door stuck in the middle or a 12 bed dorm. The best part is all 12 people share one shower and there is no communal bathroom. The beds are rusty and will stain your clothes. The "amazing rooftop" they talk about leaves a lot to be desired. The amount of times I heard about people having sex in the hot tub on the the rooftop, was too high to count. The amount times I saw someone cleaning that same hot tub was nonexistent.
Also, in the short time I was there, there was a 4,000 dollar watch stolen, an iPad, several wallets, etc. Luckily for us we flew under the radar but unfortunately this was a huge problem. At least once a day there was a new report. Its suspicious to me that all the employees have key cards to every single room and go in and out without permission or even the knowledge of them being there. I feel like the two must go hand and hand but maybe that's just me.
There were some good things about this hostel. The location was great and the people staying there were also great! Antonio, one of the employees, was an awesome asset. Unfortunately, these things are so minuet that I would totally recommend staying a block down at Miami International Hostel. It has almost the same location and is apparently 30x better! read more