Hostel Anchorage — Hotel in Kobe

Earlier, I stayed 1 night at Kobe Sannomiya hostel and while the staff was friendly, I was looking for a hostel that wasn't older. Most of all, I was looking for a hostel that was extremely clean, which is the most important thing to me. I knew I had to try out another hostel while in Kobe, but I wasn't so sure about Hostel Anchorage because it had 0 reviews and no photos on TripAdvisor. Luckily, I decided to dig deeper and found reviews and photos at booking.com. I was convinced this hostel met my criteria so I gave them a call then walked over.||||At the reception, Kazu, the owner, asked me if I was the caller then greeted me and said I spoke English really fast lol. While he said he couldn't keep up, I thought he understood and spoke English pretty well. I had a great conversation with Kazu-san and found out he was a former backpacker himself. Knowing that fact, I'm not surprised that the entire hostel was designed to be comfortable for backpackers. ||||For example, the top bunk bed ladders have flat, wide steps so it doesn't hurt to climb up. There's also plenty of room inside your capsule with your own locker right next to you. I also had enough space on the side to stick my carry-on bag and backpack inside my capsule. ||||Next, the bathroom area was really clean. The showers and toilets were immaculate, which is a huge plus in my book. I thought the freshly-painted lilac, royal blue, and white walls were a nice touch. After a hot shower, I had a good night's sleep...in fact, too good because I woke up close to check-out time. Kazu-san was nice enough to let me take my time as he was cleaning even though I was supposed to be outta there.||||Kazu-san's place is exemplary for what a comfortable stay should be like in a hostel. It's only 2 months old too. It's really new.||||Finally, you're only a 6 minute walk from Meriken Park, Port of Kobe Tower, and Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial. 10 minutes for Harborland. Also, I highly recommend you visit the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation museum ("Kobe Earthquake Museum") in the east...

I’ll start with the positives. The staff here were really helpful and friendly. The guy on the desk helped me with information on a travelpass to get to Himeji and in general was really nice.||The location is good (don’t bother eating in china town though - the street food isn’t good at all). ||The beds are fairly large - there’s a lot of space in the capsule and it’s private from the other bunks. There’s a locker inside as well as a light, and space next to the bed for a rucksack and things.||The temperature was good for me. It didn’t get too hot and there were some fans to stop it getting stuffy.||The cons. The bed was very thin and not hugely comfortable. The pillow was hard.||The other guests were very inconsiderate. I’m sick of staying in mixed dorms - I’m trying to keep an open mind but without fail, the men are extremely inconsiderate. The women are usually very quiet and will move quietly if they’re coming in late. On my last night, a guy came in at 2am and stomped around, did some unpacking, kept opening and closing his curtain (which is on a runner that made noise), kept coming in and out of the dormitory, using the hair dryer... the list goes on. Between 2-2.30am in the morning!!! It’s so inconsiderate.||It’s sad to end the review on a negative and honestly the hostel can’t help it as they understandably can’t really have someone on the desk all night to enforce their ‘quiet’ rule. But I wanted to be honest and my final night...

My room was small but clean, and the staff was very helpful. I’d definitely stay here again!

EDIT: I was in a rush when I wrote this review and meant to elaborate, but it slipped my mind until now, which is quite embarrassing to me because this place deserves so much more praise than just that one sentence.

I arrived at Hostel Anchorage having just came down with a (fortunately non-contagious) stomach bug some point along my 3-stop flight, so I was absolutely miserable when I checked in. I bring this up because it made Kazu-san's kindness, patience, and understanding mean the absolute world to me. He gave me a quiet, clean, comfortable place to rest while I recovered, and was generally a huge comfort when I was sick and very far from home. Once I was better, I also came to appreciate the spotlessness of his hostel (it felt like he was constantly cleaning), and its excellent location right beside a wonderful shopping center that I could explore as I got my strength back. In short, Hostel Anchorage is an absolute gem, and if you are going to be in Kobe for any length of time I seriously cannot...