Hostal Lis II - Seville, Spain

Comment by Julia

October 2005

I visited Seville in Sept. 2005 and stayed for two nights at the Hostel Lis II. I booked on hostalbookers.com but read reviews after I had booked that were all terrible! I expected the worst but did not find dried blood on sheets or hair all over sheets or rusty appliances, as mentioned by some other reviewers. But it's definitely a terrible place. At first glance it seems ok because there is beautiful tile work all over the hostel. Also the location is the only other plus — it's central and close to the bus station and all the sites, shopping, the beautiful canal and everything. Rooms are kind of on the small side, which is ok but dirty. There was hair all over the floor and on the second night there was a huge dead cockroach outside our room door on the ground floor. The receptionist sat smoking two feet away and never bothered to remove the cockroach. I spent 27 euros per person for a double with a shared bath. The bedroom was tolerable but the shower was gross — I wore flip-flops but didn't want to touch anything. The staff doesn't speak English or any language but Spanish and were very unhelpful. They refused to acknowledge the 10% deposit I had paid on the Internet with my credit card while booking and charged me whole amount in full again, despite viewing a copy of the reservation online. (I brought a paper copy.) Also they charge 3% fee for credit card payment — I did not find that anywhere else that I stayed. There was mold all over ceilings and walls and nothing had been painted in decades. Some of the light bulbs were never replaced and were not working and some lamps — they don't even bother putting in bulbs. Really, it's the worst place I have ever stayed at in all of my travels (to Britain, Italy, India, Mexico and I stayed in hostels in most places). And during my stay in Spain I traveled 2 weeks and stayed at 6 different hostels in Madrid and Andalucia, and this was the most disgusting. I would NEVER EVER stay there again and do not recommend it to anyone. Seville is a very expensive city, but there are tons of accommodation options. For the same price you could easily find something in the same area/location with better service and much cleaner.