Guo Jie Lou Hostel

Comment by Bobo, Hong Kong

August 2007

The worst hostel i visited
The staff's attitude is not good. There are not towels and the hair dry machine. Also they say would provide hot water in twenty-four hours, but the water is not hot. The worst thing is the security in there is really really bad. There was a theft got into our room while we were sleeping. Why this would happen? It is because there was no frame or lock for the window. So the thief/thieves got into our room through the window of the toilet. It is very terrible. My friend's cash and two cameras were stolen. The total loss was about H.K.$9000. I will never go to this hostel. And who want to go there i want to say, be careful and check the window and door.
Respsonse from the Hostel: Thanks for Bobo's comment, which is definitely good for our further improvements in the future. Re his comments, we'd like to add some remarks to explain the reasons behind and avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding from other guests. 1. The accident re the security has never happened in our hostel in past 5 years from the hostel set up till now. As the owner of Guo Jie Lou Guesthouse, we also do not want to see this kind of thing happened, so we have been making some safety precautions in our hostel's daily work, such as: 1). Arrange gatekeeper in our hostel all through the daytime 2). Lock the gate during night 3). Install monitor ports outside the gate 4). Paste reminding tips inside hostel to let guests check their valuables to us for safekeeping As for Bobo's case, we called the police to investigate the spot at once. But till now, police have not solved the case because they found many doubtful points re the facticity, such as: 1). Bobo's room is on the second floor. There are no climbing brackets on the outside wall. And outside their room window, there is a 0.5m width eave made of tiles that are not firm with age. If the thief/thieves climbed the eave by ladder, they must make noise. But why other guests lived beside did not hear anything? 2). Bobo's room window of the toilet is only 30cm width, which is too narrow for an adult to get into easily without any noise. And Bobo claimed that they (4 persons lived in 2 rooms) did not turn off the light all through the night, and they put their packs beside their beds, so why the thief/thieves could crash into two rooms through such narrow window and seek out cash and cameras from their packs but nobody found? 3). We reviewed the monitor tape which recording what happened during the night outside the gate, nothing found. 4). Bobo claimed that they bought property insurance for their camera. But they could not explain why insurance agent would not like to compensate for the lost. There must be some illogical excuse to prove the lost. To summarize the police's analysis, we could not substantiate the facticity of Bobo's state. But as the owner of hostel, we do not want to oppugn a tourist's comments. We just like to speak out more different opinions here. It is also a lesson to us. Now we have installed a frame on the room window. We think it is necessary for guests and our safety. 2. Re the hot water for shower, I think it is a common sense that the electro water heater could not offer hot water 24 hours continually. After one finished shower, the next person should wait about half hour for heat up. 3. Re the towel and hair dryer, as most guests don't need this service, so we will offer upon request. Anyway, we will pay more attention on it in the future.

Lijiang (Old Town)