Boxpackers Langkawi (behind Casa Fina) — Hotel in Langkawi Island

I cannot comment on the dorms here, but I can on the service and private room.||Don't stay here.||Having booked for 3 nights, we arrived to find the place pretty rough & ready. Fair enough.|However, no-one was there to check us in despite us having called a few minutes before arriving. When he eventually came, 'June' offered no apology and seemed to view us as an inconvenience. Whatever. Let it go and enjoy the stay.|When we settled in for the night, any kind of rest would be impossible. The rooms are listed as soundproof but the walls are thin as is the door, letting in all sound from the corridor and common areas. The windows are just slats, not solid panes, so all sound from outside comes in - including June playing basketball outside late into the night. There are no proper curtains, just thin souvenir flags taped up or tied to window bars and don't stop any light from coming in.|To recap, light floods in and you can hear everything from all round. Not good.|Also, the bedhead was filthy AND mouldy so we had to clean it ourselves before we even wanted to lie down.||Needless to say, we decided to move on after the first awful night. June refused to refund us for the other nights we had booked (on the phone - of course he wasn't there), so I told the cleaner that I would take the key back to them on the last day we had paid for and we moved on to other accommodation.||By the time we arrived at the next place, I had a message from June demanding I return the key and threatening me that he would call the police. I politely explained that I had paid for the next few days and would return the key if he refunded me the extra days. Alternatively, I suggested that he could contact me if he re-sold the room and I would bring the key right back. He agreed.||He then tried to list us as no-shows on booking.com to avoid his fees - I corrected this.|He did re-sell the room for the last day and I returned the key as promised. He then marked our whole booking as 'cancelled by owner', meaning I then couldn't review it on booking.com!||Langkawi is a gorgeous place, and we had a lovely time there, but don't stay at Boxpackers. The reason the reviews on booking.com are high is that he cancels the booking of anyone who might give low reviews - and there is MUCH nicer accommodation, cheaper within a few minutes...

I never leave negative reviews for places, but don’t want travellers to have the same experience we did! I’ve never experienced customer service so bad.

As soon as we arrived at the hostel, we had a bad feeling about it. The hostel is behind a car park, no one was there to greet us, there were no other guests around, and the doors are just wide open - it didn’t feel very secure.

Our room stank of cigarette smoke, and didn’t have curtains - just bits of fabric hung on the windows that weren’t weighted down, so they might as well have not been there.

But the worst thing about this place is their management. We decided to leave and stay somewhere else due to the smell and feeling unsafe, so messaged asking for a refund. The management said that was fine, and to come back the next day after 2pm (I’ve since read in other reviews that the manager sleeps in until then…). We arrived at 4pm, and spoke to a member of staff who said we had to wait for the manager. We waited 15 mins and he didn’t emerge from his room, despite staff calling his phone and knocking on the door. So we left - a huge waste of our time. As soon as we’d left, I got a message from the manager saying “sorry, I was just having a nap”. Seriously. At 4 in the afternoon. He was clearly hiding to avoid giving us our money back (or maybe he was really asleep? I’m not sure which is worse!).

We had some back and forth on messages, where he said we’d have to come back to the hostel AGAIN to get a refund, or he could come and meet us in Langkawi, by which point we were already out for the evening (and leaving the next morning). I asked why he couldn’t transfer the refund to my bank account, and he said his bank doesn’t allow international transfers, which is absurd. So they’ve kept the money for our full stay, despite us only being there for all of 10 minutes.

There are plenty of much nicer places to stay in Langkawi. I wish we hadn’t been drawn in by the low price, as we ended up paying for 2 accommodations! Some people seem to have a good time here, but I wouldn’t...

You can make up your own mind, but we booked this for 3 nights and ended up leaving after 1.||We stayed in a private double room, so the dorms may be different, or the following might not be a problem for you. One of these things wouldn't have been a big deal, but altogether made for a crappy experience.||When we arrived no one was around to meet us, even though the taxi driver had called to ask for directions when we were en route. When June appeared there was no apology. ||The headboard was dusty and covered in mould that we had to baby wipe off before we could get into bed. It was disgusting.||The windows are plastic slats not solid plastic or glass, and there's no mosquito/bug mesh, so its super easy for them to get in.||Due to this & thin walls, unlike advertised, the rooms are NOT soundproof- this is a total lie.||The 'curtains' are cheap souvenir flags which keep no light out, and one was just tied to the window bars so didn't covered the whole window.||There are lights outside, so even at night it's not dark.||June, who runs this hostel, was playing basketball outside at 10.45pm. The relentless bouncing sound was pretty annoying outside our room. He did stop when I went to ask him to, but then sent quite a defensive text saying it was only 10.45pm.||After not sleeping and deciding to leave we pointed these things out and asked for a refund, it was an outright no. Eventually a compromise was reached, and we were refunded one night when he was able to fill the room.||This was too bright, too noisy, and too dirty for us. We just...