A&O Hostel City West

When I was living in Germany I went to Berlin in April of 2003 as a middle point between Prague and where I lived. A&O does get points because they gave me a bed that day without any prior reservation. However, the room was right next to Zoo Bahnhof, I woke up about three times because of the Nachtzug arriving from various places accross Europe and Germany, and of course the Berlin-Warsaw express at 3 a.m. Was convenient because my train departed at 9:30 so I could wake up at around 9, throw on some clothes, drop of my key, and board the train. The common area looked pretty happening but got pretty loud. Almost made the wrong turn into Sex World, thinking it was the hostel, don't be fooled -- you have to walk up a set of stairs to get there. I am returning to Berlin this summer but plan on staying at another hostel. A&O would be ok for a day or if you got off a late train and needed a place to crash.

This place is an absolute disaster. We were kicked out of our room because they had found bedbugs and they lied to us about it. They wouldn't let us get our bags till 8 p.m. that evening because they were fumigating. The manager and a few of the staff were rude and unhelpful when we tried to confront them about it and we had to fight to even get free laundry tokens. The showers were revolting and there were big groups of school kids running around and singing terrible karaoke. Also, it was 100 degrees (Celsius) in there! In terms of staying in Berlin, its probably better to stay on the east side as it is a bit more happening and most of the historical sites are there.

The hostel was and is and will be awful. If you are interested in partying, this is the place for you. BUT if you're interested in ANYTHING different than drinking or shouting and a lot of noise, then stay somewhere else!

LOUD!!! This was the worst hostel I ever stayed at. Teenagers were running up and down the corridors all night, slamming doors, making noise. The beds weren't clean, the staff wasn't too friendly. I guess this hostel was just set up to make profit.

I and my children (daughter, 13; son, 15) pulled into Zoo from Amsterdam on June 23, 2004. I had thought I had reserved at the Wannsee Youth Hostel, but when I called them, they had no record. So, I queued up at DB information when I overheard a couple behind me talking in English, so I asked them for suggestions (Travelers are ALWAYS the best source of reliable information!), and they heartily recommended the A&O, just across the street. You can bet I got out of line and went there, muy pronto. After waiting a bit, we were initially told they could not accommodate us, but then rented us a 6-bed room, which was perfect for us, albeit twice as much. I didn't care; the three of us were able to stay together in the heart of the former West Berlin, it was perfect! This A&O was a godsend! I can't speak highly enough of this A&O — it is satisfying that we had such a good experience, which was multiplied exponentially with breakfast, Internet access, and Chris of the New Berlin guides. I look forward to returning — Berlin is such a fantastic place, and the A&O is part of it!

Don't bother with this sh*tty hostel. We made an online booking with them, clearly stating that we wouldn't arrive until 11 p.m. When we arrived they had closed down the front desk for a while to do a shift change (what the ??). The receptionist even yelled at one poor girl who didn't see the sign and was waiting to be served. So we had a drink at the bar first and the girl working there was just as rude. When we got to the front desk the receptionist told us they'd given our room away because we didn't arrive by 6 p.m. We showed her our reservation confirmation that showed an arrival time of 11 p.m. and she admitted the room shouldn't have been given away but said that it was not her fault because she was not the one who gave it away. Even better, they were fully booked so there was nothing she could do for us. By now it was midnight, we were exhausted from travel and in a foreign city — I don't imagine they get much repeat business or word of mouth recommendations with "service" like that. Definitely stay somewhere else!

This place is similar to the Picadilly Backpackers hostel in London. It has a great location, but not so great facilities. Location: It's a 30-second walk from the main train station. That can't be beat. The common area is huge and has PCs available. There are plenty of couch-type chairs, a pool table, and even a piano if you want to show off your skills. Staff: Most of the staff were friendly. Many are going to school at the same time, and are open to talk about Berlin and some of the more "underground" spots to check out. Rooms: They are not good at all. My bed had this huge hole in it. Apparently some lard ass slept in it last and dented the frame. Horrible. Atmosphere: There is definitely a party atmosphere. When I was here, it seemed like all the high schools of Denmark were staying here. I felt like I was in high school again. Most of the students were well behaved, and I had some nice chats with a few of them, but it sort of took away from the place a bit. Breakfast: You have to pay extra for breakfast, but the food itself was good. Overall: It's not a bad place to stay at if need be, but if you read of a better place, you should consider staying there instead.

This hostel is very centrally located, but it is really big with a huge array of people. I think it would have been better for a night or so, but not for more than that. If you want information on Berlin and activities within the city, this place has excellent resources. Other than that, the sheets we had to buy were dirty and I slept with my hood and shoes on. It's definitely not that clean of a place. I think that there are better places in Berlin than this. Just go here and hang out, but don't sleep here.

Well, I enjoyed it! It is a huge place, the biggest hostel I've ever stayed at. The staff were helpful, though they are but a very few people trying to do everything. We had a problem with a roommate, and they switched us to a better place but with the same price. And on the last day we were in the cheapest room and we met a lot of nice guys. We have no complaints. Though the rooms were not that safe and clean, it was okay! The breakfast is too expensive, but you don't have to have it.

Where do I begin? First of all there is only 1 person working reception at all times no matter if there are 2 people or 50 people waiting. Then along with all the shower doors being clear (I mean really, why bother), apparently it is acceptable to the hostel staff to leave vomit in the sink for at least 4 days (it still wasn't cleaned out when we left). Also, after my friend and I came back one day we got into our room to find all of our stuff gone--I mean everything. So we went downstairs, waited in the horribly long line and asked what happened to our stuff. They told us that we were changing rooms. We asked if anyone was going to inform us that we were and they said they must have told us (I promise you they did not). So they took all our stuff from our room--whether opened or unopened--and dumped it into garbage bags; that was really nice to sift through. Also, there must be a black market for used hostellers towels because mine went missing. Our roommates said that all of this was par for the course at this hostel as they had stayed there in previous years (why they kept coming back I have no idea). The location is OK as long as you want to get on the train a lot--I would recommend staying in the east, that is where everything is at. The bar is nice but is usually full of drunk 15 year-olds. There has to be a better place to stay in Berlin than this.

This hostel is awesome! It was big as hell, and very well located! It's a really good place to meet other travelers and that's the most important thing! There are two bars included and the other one is some kind of terrace, so cool! I stayed here for two nights and both of them were partying and more partying. I had so much fun that I didn't even see the city! Try this hostel!

A big modern hostel which seem to be after profit more than anything else. Across the road from the station and just outside, a Chinese lady sells good noodles. That's the good thing about this hostel, because I spent about 45 mins in a que of 3 people. There were loads of staff sitting around doing sod all, watching the one lady do everything!! No laundry facilities either!!!

We had several very frustrating problems with the A & O Zoo Hostel in Berlin, Germany. To start, we found out that we had to do a bank transfer to place our reservation. We had to make a down payment of about $175. I had to e-mail them several times before they e-mailed me back to confirm that they received my bank transfer. In the e-mail, they told me that I did not transfer enough money. I sent a few e-mails asking about the problem until they finally responded stating that A & O also charged about $30 for the bank transfer, which they did not tell me before I sent the bank transfer. This caused us to lose about $55 dollars just to reserve our hostel room because my bank in the USA and A & O charged for the bank transfer. Then, about a month after our reservation I received an e-mail stating that our reservation was cancelled. We never asked for our reservation to be cancelled, so I e-mailed the manager several times and I got no response. I e-mailed other employees and still got no response. So, about a week before our trip we called them in Germany to find out that our reservation was cancelled with no explanation. So, we had to reserve our room again. When we got to the hostel around midnight we had to stand in a long line for about 30 minutes before we could check in. Almost every time you wanted to ask someone at the front desk a question you had to stand in line for a long time. They need more receptionists. When we finally checked in, we were told that we had to pay the entire payment for our three-night stay on our credit card because they had no record of our bank transfer. I showed them the e-mail that confirmed our bank transfer and I was told that anyone could have written the e-mail; therefore, it was unacceptable and I had to pay the entire amount right then if we wanted our room. I asked to speak with the manager who received our bank transfer and I was told that we could not until two days later on Monday morning after 9 a.m. (We were leaving that morning at 10 a.m. to go back to the USA.) So, we finally got it straightened out five minutes before we had to leave for the airport. They gave me our down payment in euros!!! I asked them to credit my credit card and I was told that they could not. I was extremely angry because that meant we had to take the money home to change to USA dollars, which meant we lost about $30 because of the exchange and commission charge. We had planned all of our trip to not have to exchange money after visiting various countries because of the loss each time money is exchanged. However, the incompetent people at the hostel could not credit our credit card and said that our only option was getting our down payment in cash, which should have been taken off the total room bill in the first place! In addition, we reserved our room to make it to the Love Parade, so we were required to stay at the hostel for three nights and pay higher rates. Even though the Love Parade was cancelled, they still required us to pay the higher Love Parade rates! This was quite a scam! Because of all of the problems reserving our room, checking in, getting our questions answered, and poor customer service, I definitely recommend finding a different hostel.

Do not stay here. This place was so sketchy! The beds were disgusting. The pillows they give you barely have any stuffing, and the blankets are gross. I felt like I needed to wash everything I owned after spending the night here. After an eight-week trip through Europe, this is absolutely the WORST hostel I've stayed at. And don't forget the paper-thin walls and the noise. The place is too large for the staff to take care of. And yes, all of the lockers were broken.

I had a lot of fun here but I can see some problems. If you're one of the unfortunate people to get a room near the patio area of the bar, then you'll hate this place. Otherwise, it's a party. It's really close to a great beer garden in the park, which has really cheap beer. My big complaint was that EVERY shower door was clear.