Khaosan Tokyo Smile

Comment by Elana, USA

November 2009

Poorly managed, not very clean, tried to rip me off
I had many problems with this hostel and could not recommend it to anyone. First, the person at reception could not give me directions to the hostel to save her life. She told me to find the police station at the subway exit and that they would give me a map. Well the police had no map and had to pull out a street atlas to figure out where the place was. Wtf? How hard is it to give simple directions like "exit the subway at gate x, turn right, cross the bridge, go for y lights, then turn right again and walk a few blocks." I tried to get the reception person to do this and she refused. Second, they had trouble finding my reservation and then tried to overcharge me for the room. I booked the room online at a price of 4600yen, with a deposit up front, leaving a remaining balance of 4150yen. The guy tried to charge me 5000yen, and when I told him no, he made me pull up my email to prove the price of the room. Third, they gave me keys to a room with no mattresses, just bed frames, and when I told them this, they said oops we were cleaning that floor, here's a key to a room on another floor. Fourth, the rooms weren't exactly clean -- not dirty dirty, but there were stains on the mattresses, one of the sheets they gave me had gum stuck all over it, and there were weird stains on the walls. Plus the amenities were very blah -- the free Wi-Fi and computer access was slower than a dial-up modem. It took forever just for my email to load. They don't encrypt their signal so I bet everybody in the neighborhood just connects to their network. And finally, the kicker, this hostel is part of a chain, and the company double booked me at two of their hostels simultaneously. So I get home to find an email from the other hostel (which I never booked) saying they're going to charge me credit card the full 4600yen for a no-show. Now I have to go through the hassle of getting in contact with them to release the hold on my account before it goes through.

Tokyo (Sumida-ku)