Now Reading
Six Travellers Reveal Their Weirdest And Worst Hostel Horror Stories

Six Travellers Reveal Their Weirdest And Worst Hostel Horror Stories

hostel horror stories

Hostels are great. They’re affordable, found in the heart of most cities around the globe and are an awesome way to make new, likeminded travel buddies. But when it comes to sharing a bedroom – and bathroom – with a bunch of strangers, it can get weird, y’all. There are some real hostel horror stories out there.

[related_articles]68866,68769,66542[/related_articles]

From bladder issues to crazy coincidences, we searched the wonderfully weird boards of Reddit to bring you the absolute worst and weirdest hostel stories, so you can learn from the misfortune of travellers (or at least have a little laugh at their expense).

#1 When you gotta go, you gotta go

“I was in Salzburg backpacking across Europe with a friend. Said friend and I got home after a night of drinking and the door to our room slammed and woke everyone up.

“It slammed so hard that the handle from the inside fell off. Little did we know, we were essentially stuck inside until someone on the other side of the door let us out.

“[My friend] had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night as one does after drinking about two litres of beer.

“He couldn’t get out so he started banging on the door and woke everyone up again – everyone except anyone that could let him out. Then, in his drunken state, decided to pee on the floor.

“I then yelled at him because everyone was awake and watching him pee. His response, ‘I have to pee!’

“Needless to say we left that hostel early.” – itsnevermillertime


#2 Reason number 3923 why you shouldn’t travel with kids

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by YHA Australia (@yhaaustralia) on

“I stayed in a hostel with a friend and the other occupants were a married couple and their two toddlers.

“One of the toddlers had the flu or something and kept getting up to throw up in the middle of the night in our en-suite bathroom. Yes, both me friend and I got sick as well after that.

“Now I only book hostels with age limits and no children policies.” – HappyGilmOHHMYGOD


#3 It’s a small world after all

“I was at a hostel in Italy. There were a bunch of ‘frat’ type people, and a woman in her 50s.

“I was chatting with her. She was from Holland, but had moved to Frankfurt, Germany. I was an American, and knew exactly one person in Frankfurt, my 10th grade English teacher who had moved abroad to teach.

“I told her it was Mr Neal. She stared at me. ‘Does he teach at the Internal School?’ she asked. Maybe, I didn’t really know.

‘Was his first name Robin?’ she asked.

“Turns out he was the grade head for her son’s class, and she had met him just a week or two ago.” – calantorntain


#4 Literally every traveller’s worst nightmare

“In a large, women-only room, a lady came back quite late at night and got into the top bunk.

“Shortly after, she wet the bed on the person in the lower bunk, who screamed and jumped up, turned on the light, then moved her stuff to another bed and went back to sleep, still covered in pee from a random stranger.” – brackishfaun


#5 Talk about a close call

“Recently a friend and I stayed in the Amazon jungle near Iquitos, Peru, on a camping trip. After five days out in the wild, I was ready for a nice warm shower and a good night sleep in a decent bed.

“The hostel was a set of floating buildings right on the river. We decided to go for dinner out in the city. It started to rain incredibly hard – I have never seen rain come down harder than this.

“We waited it out for a couple hours and enjoyed a few beers. Once it stopped we went back to find out that our hostel had dislodged from its anchor and floated out and pretty far down the river.

“The only remaining building was the reception office. I guess the hostel owner didn’t see us leave for dinner. They thought that we were in our rooms and called the police to go pick us up. When they didn’t find us in our room they started to search the river with spotlights and every boat they could spare.

“Needless to say, the police and hostel owner were relieved to see us walk up completely dry and alive.” – safetybreak


#6 It’s a no from us

“I stayed in a hostel in Brooklyn which didn’t have walls which went all the way to the ceiling, so you couldn’t see any of the other rooms, but could hear every single snore fart or sex noise going on.” – secret__tunnel

Hostel horror stories can be crazy, but staying in them can also a lot of fun – take it from this traveller. Not convinced? Check out these chic-as-hell hostel stays across Europe.

*Responses have been edited for style and clarity.

(Lead image: Forgetting Sarah Marshall / Universal)

Scroll To Top