Auberge de Jeunesse BVJ PARIS / OPÉRA-MONTMARTRE — Hotel in Paris

First time I've ever given a hostel a negative review, which feels sad because there truly is some lovely reception and kitchen staff working there. However the way the hostel was run overall was bizzare and resulted in an uncomfortable stay.

The hostel has a system where each room (not each guest, each room) has one key - you're informed that if you're the last in the room you need to lock up and bring the key to the front desk. The room basically stays completely unlocked if someone's ever in there sleeping etc. Or if someone ever forgets to lock it (since it's a metal lock and key not a card system) the room and everyone's belongings are at risk. This system felt super unsafe and relying on a large group of strangers to all manage it perfectly (I booked a 10-bed dorm but there was 18 beds in the one I was given, which usually wouldn't bother me at all but it made the whole 1-key thing worse).

Waiting to get into your room while someone took the 1 key to the shower or people peering into your beds checking who's in the room is stuff that was weird but fine. The real lowlight was another guest's entire bag being stolen (he woke up everyone in the room at night in a panic which I don't blame him for) - in the morning he said there was just no traces or clues as to who could have taken it when. With 18 beds you don't know everyone right away, and when someone walks in (to the unlocked room) you sort of just assume they're staying there - unsafe system.

The hostel claims they don't give everyone their own key (like every other hostel in Europe does) for 'environmental reasons' - however with the showers set on a permanent boiling temperature I'd be confident there'd be more energy costs wasted heating the water that much. Some other guests in my room were joking about how long they were able to stand under the water!

There are lockers but they're not in the room like in most hostels - they're in a seperate area of the hostel and the hostel charges you to use them, even if you have your own lock and key. Whilst the fee is small, the principle of charging guests for a service most hostels offer for free when the rooms are so unsafe feels money-grabbing. And you're not going to store your clothes bag there the whole time so a situation like the stolen bag in my room is always a risk.

The WiFi is unbelievably slow - it can manage a slow google search but for streaming the Olympics or even making a WhatsApp call I would walk to the McDonald's WiFi a few blocks away and stand outside. At one point I saw some other guests from the hostel doing the same thing!

It's such a shame because the building itself is beautiful and has so much potential, however the interior design is cold and uninviting, with chairs to sit at but no areas designed to relax. It was the least social hostel I've stayed at in Europe (was there on a weekend!) The beds in the basic dorms are triple-bunks with paper-thin pillows, rooms are hot and sweaty, there's no guest kitchen or even microwave to heat food, the hostel is cash-only and there's no laundry service (which is all fine but for the price you're paying there's easily better value hostels in Paris, listed below!)

This is my fourth hostel I've stayed in Paris (three during the Olympics wanting to see new areas) and would recommend any of these far more (all either cheaper or comparable in price to this). St. Christopher's Gare du Nord (great location) Auberge de Jeunesse HI Yves Robert (aircon and really nice rooms) Generator Paris (like BVJ you have to pay for locking up your belongings and like BVJ it's a bit dirty but social vibe + safety way better)

Honestly I wouldn't usually bother with a long negative review but if you look at the other negative reviews for this hostel, the owner of the hostel consistently replies with a weird copy-paste speel about the hostel, then gets confrontational or personal towards the guest (have a read there's some funny ones!). Management that actually took criticism on board could actually make an awesome hostel here, there's so much wasted...

Do not give this hostel any of your credit card information, as they do not take credit cards and only cash. Therefore, there is no reason to reserve a bed by credit card. When I arrived, they made me walk to an ATM to give them cash. Then, a few days after leaving, they had charged my bank account $108.

The booking was originally from the 30th of December to the 2nd of January. We later decided to change our stay and cancel the first night through email. This email was sent on the 21st of December and we had time to cancel till the 26th of December at 23:59. Later we decided to cancel the last night and called the hostel itself to cancel our booking for this day, also before the 26th of December. We stayed at BVJ OPÉRA-MONTMARTRE from the 31st to the 1st of January due to changing the booking.

The hostel never replied to our emails. And were very unfriendly when trying to call them over the phone. On the Hostelworld website, it says that you are temporarily unable to change bookings through hostelworld, and that you must contact the hostel directly. Since they didn't reply to our email and didn't change the dates to the ones we wanted, even though we contacted them before the actual date we were supposed to cancel to get our free cancelation, we were unable to. We then chose to cancel our booking altogether through Hostelworld on the 29th to not have to pay the full price for all the nights. They never mentioned the fact that I would have to pay all nights that were booked at the reception when I went to pay. Instead they charged my card which they said they were unable to do. It’s all sketchy and I don’t recommend trusting them with any personal information. Because they came at me sideways like that, my bank charged me an extra $35 because they had charged an account that did not have money in it at the time.

We tried calling them, they acted oblivious and said we were lying, even putting us on a long hold and pretending to be a new receptionist answering the phone. It’s truly childish.

Look at how they unprofessionally respond to reviews with terrible quality of language, emojis, and all the rave about their free breakfast. They accuse all negative reviews of lies.

Your “Sweet breakfast 🇫🇷🧁🍬🍨🎂🥖” is not enough for someone to receive this kind of treatment. We are students and cannot afford to tolerate your money scams.

The rooms are not at all secure, I left none of my items in there because anyone can go into any room and there are no lockers. The bed smelled of mold and I now have a throat infection. The reception staff is rude. Great location! I feel more safe in the area alone at night than I do leaving my information with these men.

Edit to their response: date.

Yes, I have chosen hostelworld. The downpayment charged by Hostelworld goes to you as shown in the receipt you gave me, and by the obvious fact that you collected money from my card. Again, the online seller’s policy says to contact the hostel directly for any changes to the reservation. I sent my email almost a WEEK BEFORE the deadline and there was no reply. I call and they said to deal with it through hostelworld. Hostelworld told me to cancel and rebook since there was no response from you. There was no concern about being charged a fee since I followed protocol and you apparently didn’t have access to my...

My friend and I booked a stay here for 3 nights this past week and were utterly shocked at how it went.

We showed up early and kept our bags in a room in the basement, which was unlocked. No one seemed to be around so we risked it. When we came back that evening to check in, they asked us to pay in cash and explained we got the last 2 beds.

Firstly, there were no working locks on the rooms. There was one key that the front desk kept, and otherwise everything was just open. There was no place to store our things inside the rooms, so people had strewn things in every usable corner. There was also one outlet for a room of 11 people We paid roughly $46.55 (€40) for the beds, but one of which was a pull out trussle bed The showers were abysmally filthy, with dirt and grime in every corner, to the point that I decided not to shower that evening

But more importantly, after checking in and getting settled, we met some other travelers in the lobby area — one of which who had bites on his arm and showed us a video he'd taken a few minutes prior of bedbugs crawling out from his mattress and all over his bed.

The man at the front desk refused to offer a refund, and refused to even call his boss. He said there was nothing he could do, and instructed the kids to either stay up in the lobby all night or go back to sleep in the bug-infested bed until morning.

Considering bedbugs travel, we certainly weren't going to risk getting them by staying in our room, and neither were the boys who had complained. We slept in their cafeteria on the benches.

The next day, when we said we needed to cancel our next 2 nights so as not to get bed bugs, they refused to refund us. They said they put the sheets in the dryer, that was it.

When we asked to speak to the manager, we were given a generic email address and a phone number that was disconnected. The person on duty admitted he had the cell phone of his boss but refused to bother him with it, and didn't have the authority to help us. The only thing we could do was email a seemingly fictitious boss, whose number was fake, and hope he emailed back.

We did email that morning. Got no response. At this point we were still paying for a bed, but not daring to stay there and staying somewhere clean instead. Only after threatening to write reviews like this one did we get a response — which said bedbugs don't travel from room to room and that there was no reason to refund us, so they wouldn't.

They did, however, cancel our booking, so they could put someone else in the bed but still keep our money.

We still have not received a refund, and surely never will. There's no way to contact management, and I'm skeptical there even is management to contact.

Please, please stay away from this place. Not only is it still infected with bedbugs, there is no management, and they took our money but canceled the booking so that they wouldn't have to give us...