Spring Hostel

Don't stay here! The hostel itself is average at best, but i would advise not to stay there as the owner/reception is the biggest chowderhead have ever met. After already getting permission from another receptionist to have a bike in a private room, he told me i couldn't, and when i argued, (after having paid for a month in advance ) he called me names and told me to get the **** out. Same situation with the pool, it is closed all year but winter, when i asked about the status he said, go swim in the sea. I told him i wanted to go the pool, so he told me it was going through maintenance for a week. A week later, i asked, he told me again, to **** off, and that he would kill me for asking. I simply said, you should put it on the site that it is open only in the summer. He claimed it was, but of course, it still isn't changed. When i told him i double checked the site, he again called me names and threatened me, it is then when i went to the police to let them know he had threatened me. It is not worth it to stay there, the stress you get just from hearing him shout at others, and knock as loud as an elephant at 9 a.m. on all the doors, would make it annoying even if it were free. it is horrible, this place, avoid it.

When I stayed there in March of '06, I had no problems. Rooms were reletively clean and the rates were more than reasonable!

I will never return to this hostile hostel and I believe the management purposely acts rudely in order to discourage 'ordinary' people from staying here. I believe they are doing something illegal or they have a deal with UNDOF personnel and other foreign agency workers stationed in Israel to keep the hostel exclusively for them, so they discourage ordinary travellers. I had arranged for Embassy workers in the past to stay at Spring and they thought it was fine, so I thought it would be ok. (I'm a local worker in a foreign Embassy in Israel, but I'm American and arrived with my Israeli family members.) The managers yelled at us, concocted all kinds of supposed complaints that other dwellers had lodged against us. I noticed that others were treated the same way. Only the UNDOF personnel were treated nicely and allowed to swim (topless) in the pool, while we (five females) were told the pool was closed. Don't go here. I only hope this atrocity is removed from our holy land as soon as possible.

I arrived at the hostel intending to stay for 2 nights in January 2006. The man at reception showed me the dorm room, which was a mixed dorm with one male staying there that night. I didn't feel comfortable with this since I'm female, and asked if they had a female dorm. The man became quite rude and started shouting at me that I could take it or leave it because that's all there was. The place was actually completely empty since it was off season, and he could've easily opened another room for me. So I didn't end up staying here because I couldn't handle the rudeness of the reception.

DISGRACE! - I had booked to stay 2 nights here during the new year period. I had arrived to eilat and simply called the place to find directions from the bus station. A man answered the phone and instantly starting swearing and insulting me before I even had a chance to finish my question. This got to a point when i simply hung up and told my girlfriend we would not be staying there. She thought it must be some mistake and tried calling herself. Within a few seconds she hung up the phone, now agreeing with me. We found somewhere else to stay, and a few hours later i got a call from the same guy, telling me I was rude and that he thinks i should cancel... i obviously did, and they still tried to charge me for the 1st night which I am currently disputing with my c/c insurance. I later found out that this was the Boss who spoke to me in this way! I think they over booked and just wanted to oust us before we even arrived.

This hostel did not live up to what is shown here on the site. They do not offer free breakfast in spite of the fact that it says they do both here on the site and on the big sign on the roof of the hostel itself. The bathroom is set up European-style, meaning there is nothing blocking water from shower from going everywhere with the occupants being responsible for getting all the water down the drain with a squeegee mop. My friend and I were shoved into a very cramped room with 2 beds and a bunk bed. For the life of me, I have no idea how they could get four in there. They called it a "private" room and charged us about $35 US per night and we had to pay in advance so that when we decided to leave a day early, there was no way to get a refund. The mattresses on the beds are extremely thin and when I considered adding a second one to the bed to help my aching back, the dust and other stuff under the second mattress made me change my mind. Also, it took 3 pillows to feel like one normal one. The late afternoon and evening desk people were ok but the one in the morning was rude to the point of telling me I could not stay in the lobby in the morning because they were cleaning for a group that was coming. I would strongly urge people not to go to this hostel.

The receptionists are sketchy. I would even say that one of them was rude and outright stupid. I called for reservation on August 7 for two days in October. The first guy there was quite willing to do the booking but he was quite hesitant to do it on his own. He asked me to call again next day. When I called the next day, he confirmed my reservation and took my credit card number, charged me and was about to hang up. I was surprised and wanted the confirmation number of the transaction and a confirmation e-mail that would serve as evidence that the booking is for the specific dates I required. This is quite a standard everywhere. He did not want to give it to me, assuring me everything is really, really ok. When I insisted he was evasive and constantly talked to somebody who evidently was with him in the office and had the decisive say. All of a sudden this other guy took the phone, told me that they are booked out and sorry, go somewhere else. I reminded him they charged me two minutes ago, and that all I wanted is a simple confirmation. To quote him, he answered: "Your credit card is in the garbage" and hung up on me. I called back and wanted to talk to the manager. The phone was answered by the same abrasive guy, and when I politely asked for the manager, he told me he was the manager and again hung up on me. Is there a way I can bring this shameful behavior to his superior's attention? It is hard to believe that such a primitive, ill-mannered person is in charge of this lovely place in Eilat.

I stayed in Eilat from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2. The Spring Hostel is very clean. It was like a little motel or hotel. Some of the managers I found here were nice but the Russian-Israeli ones were very sketchy. Try to negotiate a price with them if you stay longer than two days; they can work out a deal. They did that for me, which I thought was great. The hostel is near all the main places to eat. However it is really hot. You should take a quick cab to the beach area, but if you walk it doesn't take that long to get there. At night it's nice to walk. The clubs in Eilat are great. The nightlife at Levy's and Platinum is exciting — they are cool places to check out.