Next Generation — Hotel in Riga

Update: The police caught the guy who stole the laptop and he was a guy staying in the same room as us.

The reason I am giving one star is because of the terrible experience I had here. My laptop got stolen from a locker inside the room. Sound unreal but this did happen.

Me and my friends booked 8 bed room in hostelworld but were assigned a 12 bed room. The room had 4, 3 level bunk beds and owner told us that they didn't give out top bunks but that wasn't true. We took lockers under the bed that were operated using pin keys. The only way lockers could be opened was with our code or the master code from the owner. There was another guy in our room who never went out of the room and was pretty much always there in the room. This guy also has a good view of all the lockers keypad from the bed he had taken. We had the hostel booked for two nights and the second day we went out at around 11 and only person left in the room was that guy. When we came back after midnight we found our laptops missing. Since the hotel staff were not available we waited till morning.

In the morning we were able to get hold of the owner and also contacted the Latvian police. Initially the owner tried to deny the theft fearing the blame might come to her or her staff. When we told her about the other guy in our room and our suspicion she became a bit supportive and verified that the person made reservations for another night but didn't come back. The police came and looked at the room and lockers and talked with the owner. They called us to the station later that day to take our statements. The police asked for CC tv footage but the hostel has no recordings. Also the owner provided details about the guy whom we had suspicion on but later during our statements at station we learned that they only had the name and were unaware that we had a number of the person and also the guy made payment using credit card. The phone was switched off and since the hostel does not even check ID while checking in.

Also the owner was not very helpful. Initially when I was trying to deal with the stress by joking with my friend the owner snapped at me saying its not funny. Also when we were trying to figure out what to do next in the lobby she coldly asked us to leave as it was time for new people to check in.

The place is decent and good location but lack of security was...

This is a really weird hostel. There is some really nice things but this is all massively undermined by the layout. I think it's very new as everything is really new and shiny. All the locks are controlled by numerical keypads although it means you have to remember or write down all the codes. It was really cheap which is nice and the staff were friendly when around. All the beds had a curtain, light and sockets. The main issue is the layout. I was in a 12 bed dorm which has triple bunks although they were freshest, nicest triple bunks I have seen. The main issue is there is no room to move. The gap separating the beds is so small if anyone is standing up you literally cannot pass them. It can't be wider than 2 foot. There is also these lockers on the bottom and again if they are open you have to step over them; however they are so thin they are practically 2 dimensional so no need to open them. I don't get the point of them as you can't fit anything. If it was a double bunk, not triple, it could have enough room for bags and be great; this would be really handy as there is no rooms for bags. The room was full the night I stayed so all the bags were in a small seating area. This is a 6-8 bed dorm masquerading as a 12 bed dorm. This is true of the common areas on both floors. There is actually a tremendous selection of teas but very few seats or places to sit and enjoy. There is also lockers and you are probably thinking, if you are crazy enough to read this far down, problem solved for bag storage but no that would make too much sense; you pay for locker using €1 or €2 coin and can only close the door once and once you reopen it will cost another €1/2. I believe they are there for those who have checked out and need 1 off bag storage. Finally the day I arrived the lady running it didn't seem to be around that much. There was 3 or 4 times when people were waiting around for decent amount of time; of course there is no reception as not enough room.

Fundamentally the main problem with here is it tries to fit too many people in too small a space. If there was less beds in the room and 1 less dorm that could be converted to a common area to hang out it would be a much...

I went with a group of 14 friends to stay here. We booked 2 of the dorms and were looking forward to staying. On arrival we were greeted by a woman who did not even work at the hostel. She told us to wait until the main receptionist arrived. There was a phone number on the desk which we phoned 3 times with no answer. After 15 minutes the lady said that we had to leave as we were taking up to much space. A couple of the group members stayed and 2 hours later the receptionist arrived. We were finally allowed to check in but found that the rooms were no were near clean and still had others bags within the rooms, who presumably had stayed the night before. The lady told us it would take an hour. We a then went into the city centre. A couple of the hours we arrived back to find that the room had been poorly cleaned with some bed beds being dirty and others bags still being there. After another 2 hours (when we found the receptionist) we were handed sheets and were expected go change the bed ourselves. Once we thought everything was sorted the receptionist said there was a payment issue. The hostel did not take the payment properly as they took the card details wrong. Then on Monday we were told that the receptionist had left (lucky her!!) A new person asked us again about the payment and became very aggressive. He even threatened to make us leave. He was rude and did not understand out point of view. Other than the hostel the trip was great but it did put a damper on the trip. STAY...