Central Hostel BG - Bergamo, Italy

Comment by Scammed Guest, Norway

September 2009

Clean hostel with scammers
The hostel is clean, you can reach the hostel by bus from Porta Nuevo near Stazione (train station). When you check in, the front-desk guy, an Italian with very short hairs, takes € 5 deposit for the key and you shall get it back when you return the key at check-out. I had paid with a € 5 note. However, when I checked out, the front-desk guy showed me a plastic bag with lots of coins and that this would be my deposit that I would have given him and that he just gives me back the money. I didn't know what the purpose of it was. However, when I counted all the many coins, I noticed that there were three Euros and one 500 Lira coin which looks like a € 2 coin. I pointed him to that coin and I asked him to give me a € 2 coin. However, he refused and said it would have been the money that I would have given him as deposit. This was not true! In my country we don't have Italian Lira, it was his scam, a typical Italian scam. As I had to catch up my flight, I could not spend any more time with him and so I had to leave the hotel with this bad impression. The hostel has two male front-desk clerks of Italian heritage, both answer questions, but with a big indifference as if it would be annoying for them. I did not have a good feeling of security there. I could not leave my valuable goods in the room because there are no lockers and the front-desk clerk likes to check the rooms of people who he dislikes. After that scam I can guess why he entered the room with a suspicious behavior. Because of these two guys I cannot recommend this hostel. It needs to be checked by an authority overseeing hostels.