a&o Salzburg Hauptbahnhof — Hotel in Salzburg

Honestly….. awful.

I want to start off by saying the facilities/rooms are very fresh, clean, secure and welcoming. This review is not about cleanliness / safety. That’s about the best I can say about this hostel.

When I checked in - I was told my room number, given a key and a bed #. I go to my room, there is someone sleeping in my bed. The check in agent (very nice guy, the first night) said to just take any bed. I go back to the room… there is someone sleeping in every single one except the space in the double bed next to another man. I told him, I’m sorry but there’s no way I’m sleeping directly (pretty much in the same bed) as a stranger. He told me that maybe I could move the bed out. This wasn’t an easy or quiet task at 11pm at night with everyone sleeping in a dark room so I was like??? No. Basically I was then told there’s nothing they could do and that I could get a refund if I wanted. Uhhhh where am I going to stay then? He ended up moving something around and putting me In an empty room on floor 2. The next day, I was awoken by a man I presume was from housekeeping yelling at me to get out. I wasn’t due to check out for 2 more nights so thought I could sleep in. I was then moved to another dorm room. Hassle. Whatever, it’s a hostel I get it. But there are about 20 other things I could say about this hostel.

For one, no air conditioning in the room, Very hot and humid as it’s summer. They also keep the common area HEATED… in this weather… it’s so hot I couldn’t even stand it.

The staff, apart from that one guy were rude, uncaring, impersonal and acted like anytime you spoke to them they were annoyed. One guy quite literally shouted at me when I asked him something about the area, he said in an exasperated voice “I don’t even work here!!!!! I’m from Munich!!!!” Like ok….. and when I asked him about laundry he basically talked to me like an idiot and said “it’s in the other building.” I asked oh ok so not far? He goes “I JUST SAID IN THE OTHER BUILDING.” Such a rude guy.

All the hallways and rooms smell like cigarettes.

Not the fault of the hostel, BUT Nobody at the hostel was willing to socialize or chat. Everyone kept to themselves. When I tried to strike any conversation with any other guests, everyone seemed taken aback, annoyed, or just generally pissy. Never had this happen anywhere else. Perhaps everyone else is having a bad experience here too? I only met one nice British guy one time.

There is absolutely NOTHING to do in the area. Just near the train station. barely any shops, restaurants attractions… not as advertised. It’s said to be “in the heart of salzburg” ok no all there is is demolished buildings and a McDonald’s. Nothing to do. Not close to the old town or any cultural centre. Awful area.

Screaming kids everywhere…. I don’t know why there’s so many families with kids here but this hostel is not a young backpackers vibe at all… more like families renting dorm rooms for the month and tired tour groups.

They give you sheets and you have to put it on / make the bed yourself. I’m told this is normal in German / eastern hostels but I’ve been to many and never had that be the case.

I met another guest (British guy) who also said someone was sleeping in his bed. This hostel really seems to be a free for all as far as beds/availability. he also joked and laughed at the fact that he encountered group s*x in his dorm room late at night. Sure that’s kinda funny, we had a chuckle about it. But also yikes lol. Hostel life I guess.

FLIES F**KING EVERYWHERE. could not sit in the common area without 3-5 flies landing on my legs, arms, neck, just about every 10 seconds. It truly became the bane of my existence. I get it is summer but I’ve just been in many hotter locations and never encountered THIS MANY flies annoying the absolute hell out of me for hours on end. There’s seems to be an actual pest problem here.

Anyway, I would never stay here again and honestly feel like I want a refund for all that went wrong. But I digress.

Good points: Clean...

It was fine-ish. Book a different hostel if you're able.

Firstly, the location is excellent for the train station, - as you'd expect - being 5 minutes' walk from the station, if that. And it's about a half hour walk (or just over) into the main part of the city. Reception is 24 hours and the 'bar' is the reception selling drinks 24 hours and you can sit in the large area round reception that has tables and chairs.

I stayed in for 5 nights in a 6 bed mixed dorm. It wasn't amazing. The standard of cleanliness was a bit poor. Dirt and big bits of rubbish under the beds (I dropped something and had the misfortune to look on the floor! On reflection, I decided not to venture anywhere near underneath the bed and abandoned what I had dropped!). The lockers in the room are the sort you have to provide your own lock for (and you won't fit a 'backpacking sort of size' backpack in it), and the lockers in my room were all a bit broken. One had a missing handle and all of the catches to attach your lock to were a bit broken, but still were able to be secured. There were three windows in the room, but only one opened as the other two had broken mechanisms. This made the room incredibly hot and stuffy, and unpleasant to sleep in.

There was one toilet and a sink behind one door adjoining the dorm, and a separate shower and a sink behind another door, also adjoining the dorm. Unfortunately, the bath mat provided in the shower room was rarely changed and subsequently was always a bit grimy; like you didn't really want to touch it too much! (I tried not to look too close, or think about it too much...) The sink in the shower room in my dorm was mainly blocked, so the water was incredibly slow draining. This meant when you used it it would just fill up with dirty water and so the sink always had a film of filthy scum in the bowl with toothpaste, hair and general dirt round it that you couldn't rinse out.

I did use the hostel kitchen on a few occasions to make myself a packed lunch on some days. On the plus side it was kept clean and tidy, with things washed and put away well. Unfortunately, for such a large hostel I was shocked at how poor the actual kitchen facilities were! It was easily the smallest room in the hostel, with a small two-ring plug-in electric hob. It was behind a door that always had to be kept shut (your key card is required to access the kitchen), with extremely poor ventilation. There was a small fan in the room, but it was always hot and you most likely are going to come out of the kitchen smelling of cooking, - whether you have been cooking or not! This meant I ended up avoiding using the kitchen, as I didn't enjoy getting smelly first thing in the morning!

Given that Salzburg doesn't have a large choice of hostels, A&O is definitely fine. It does its job. It was cheap accommodation in a good location. Salzburg itself is a lovely city with lots of history and a great atmosphere, and it sits in some beautiful scenery. I enjoyed Salzburg very much! If I went back, I would avoid booking A&O here again if I had a choice, as I was definitely relieved to be leaving the room when I checked out! If I visited again and was staying in a hostel, I would try one of the limited alternatives in Salzburg. I wouldn't say definitely avoid A&O, I'd just say try to book somewhere...

This was the worst hostel experience I've ever had. When I arrived at Salzburg I decided to extend my stay for a couple of days. I checked in and paid for my original stay because the staff told me they were fully booked for the extension dates. I was told to check back again and later in the day they had a spot available. I wasn't prepared to book the room, so they put my reservation on hold and gave me a reference number. They told me to simply give the receptionist the reference number and they could pull up the reservation I put on hold. I ended up canceling my future travel plans to stay in Salzburg once I was told there was a room available at A&O Salzburg. During the night, I told the receptionist named Leah/Leila that I wanted to book the reservation that was put on hold and she told me she couldn't find it. It was mainly a communication problem. The receptionist was extremely rude and blamed me for the miscommunication. She couldn't pull it up because the hostel uses the same reference numbers and I needed to give her the dates. The staff who gave me the reference number neglected to give me these instructions. She yelled at me and told me it was common sense, but logically these reference numbers should be unique identifiers and shouldn't be the same. She threatened to not book my stay at the hostel and she complained about how stressful the job could be. Although I understand it was a stressful situation, she handled it very poorly. If you're working in hospitality, you should understand the situation and be able to help the customer not add on to the stress. I ended up booking the hostel to extend my stay and went back to my room. I realized that I didn't have sheets or a towel, so I returned to the reception desk. I asked to rent the sheets/towel and she responded that you have to rent them because this isn't a hotel. I proceeded and mentioned that someone took my original bed and the only bed available was a mattress placed directly next to a male. The male was laying on both mattresses, so I didn't have a bed to sleep on. She responded by saying that it was a hostel and she couldn't do anything about it. The worst part about this entire experience was that she didn't even offer to help me or offer alternative assistance and there were no apologies. Every default response was, "There's nothing I can do for you" which was inappropriate and insufficient. Although I understand being a receptionist at a hostel can be stressful, it doesn't mean you have any right to provide poor customer service because it's basically your job.

There isn't much of a friendly environment in this hostel. Throughout my stay I felt very discriminated against because the staff members would glare at me for being an individual of color. I noticed a lot of inconsistencies throughout the hostel. In terms of luggage, if it doesn't fit or there's no more capacity they put it in a luggage room. Otherwise, you have to pay for it which doesn't make much sense.

This was such an upsetting customer experience and it wasn't worth what I paid for, so I will be disputing this charge on my card. I would be very hesitant to recommend...