St Christopher's Village

This is the Worst Accomodation I ever stayed in. Deplorable service from the start. We were charged double the agreed booked rate. Given a tiny room, filthy cot, traffic noise and cold coming right through the ancient window which didn't close. To add further insult, the inept reception staff were painfully slow, with too many newbies left (alone) to mind the counter. Had to queue 15mins to pay £6 for a useless towell. Drunks and noise spilling into the hostel. I wouldn't feed their 'breakfast' to a dog. The owners should be locked up for providing such an unhealthy and shabby service and their property confiscated and redeveloped. Take my advice and book somewhere else.

This was booked at the last minute, and we booked the Shepherds Bush property. The day before, they rang and changed us to the London Bridge property, which wasn't really a problem, as I like the London Bridge area.

Check-in was dis-organised, and slow. When it is 11.30pm and you are tired, this wasn't really what I wanted. We eventually found our room, which was just a basic small room, with a bed, but after a night sleeping on the streets for the tennis at Wimbledon, an actual bed with a mattress was enough for a proper sleep.

The bar/club attached to the property was terrible, Considering we had slept on the street the previous night, and not showered properly since the previous morning, we felt like the cleanest people in there. The smell of sweat was overbearing.

We therefore headed down the street, into a few of the pubs/bars down the high street, which were great. Especially this little Italian basement bar, which was playing an interesting mix of Latin music, and cheesy classics. Everyone in there was having a good time, and we eventually headed to bed at around 3am.

This was my first experience of a hostel, and felt that as we paid very little for it, I can't be too negative. If you go into it expecting the worst, then you will feel it is valur for what you paid.

My boyfriend and I travelled Europe for well over a month staying in hostels the entire journey, and we both agree that this was the worst stop of the trip due to the utterly unsatisfactory conditions of this hostel. The only thing to recommend St. Christopher's Village is its location and, quite frankly, that just isn't enough. It became obvious to both of us within several hours time that the hostel's main service concern was it's bar/nightclub, Belushi's, and not its residents. The bar crowd spilled over into the hostel's main reception and internet area where crowds of drunken teenagers were crowded around computers for hours at a time. The staff at reception were hostile, unpleasant and utterly unhelpful. The cleaning staff entered our room at random hours while we were trying to sleep for no apparent reason. The rooftop "hot tub" that they advertised was really just a tiny, lukewarm bathtub exposed to the elements that no one would dare to get in. Another guest told us they had to "beg the receptionists" to turn on the sauna(also advertised). An utterly awful experience. We didn't sleep a wink due to the constant bar brawls occurring outside the bedroom window. We will never return and hope no one else does either.