It's always good to read up!

Maggie and I picked up a leaflet from STA last Thursday showing accomodation fares. We were delighted to see a hostel in Prague going for just SGD25 per night! We're cool with hostels and dorms after surviving Gilligans and its bedbugs in Cairns.


So, I googled 'Hostel Vesta Prague'. The first hit I got said this:

"The Vesta Hostel is located in the very centre of Prague in the Art Nouveau building of the Wilson Railway Statation - on the fifth floor of the Southern Tower. The Wenceslas Square is a five - minutes walk from there, and the underground station is directly in the Wilson Railway Station building (metro line "C"). The hostel has a capacity of 60 beds. Each bedroom has two to six beds with a shared bathroom and two doublerooms with private shower and toilet. There is a 24-hour service at reception. The hostel provides refreshments, breakfast, and a safe is available for valuable items."

Not bad at all! Good location!


Then, I decide to google "Hostel Vesta Prague reviews". This is what I got:

"Hostel Vesta is situated in a very good spot for easy quick access to Wenceslas Square. However, it is right on top of an area referred to by the locals as "Sherwood Forest" due to the amount of crime there. The only real way to access the square safely is via an underpass that was filled with drunks and drug addicts every time we went through it. The hostel itself is clean and cheap (the cheapest in Prague I think) and the dorms were nice and roomy, but the staff, although not rude, are totally uninterested in providing any kind of service. We were forced to carry around all our cash and passports on the first night, as they were unable/unwilling to open the safe for us to store them. I would not recommend this hostel to groups of women, large or small. I would recommend it to groups of blokes/stag parties looking for a cheap place to sleep and nothing else. Don't leave anything vaguely valuable in the dorms."

"Very unfriendly staff, unpleasant area, and not safe for women. They have very basic facilities, and no electricity. "


Scary!!! There are loads more of scary comments like people shooting up at the underpass etc.
To be fair, there were a very small number of good comments, which makes me wonder if they are talking about the same hotel. +shudders+