St Christopher's Inn London Bridge - The Village — Hotel in London

I've stayed at St. Christopher's London Bridge The Village once before, and it was a satisfactory stay. The location of the place is good, and the bathroom facilities are not only numerous, but they were in relatively good condition. I grew to like the use of the GOKI app they use instead of a keycard. The place's decent reviews were spot on for me.

My latest stay at the place was not the same however. I essentially paid full price to be harassed and targeted at the hostel. My time there was not value for money on this occasion.

I am not a traveller. I am tackling a lengthy housing issue, and so I need a lot of rest - for my mental health, at least.

It was almost impossible to relax at the premises. The guests who were with me for the duration of my latest stay refused to keep the noise down in the mornings and afternoons.

My bed was located in the middle of the hostel's larger dormitory, near the room's lockers. My fellow guests would have conversations near them. They would take phone calls near my bed.

After I showed resistance, they would purposely slam their locker doors, or they would turn the room's over head lights on. They would sit directly on the other side of my bed's privacy curtain, and innocently fiddle with their belongings for long periods of time. Sometimes, the guys would body slam into my bed frame in order to wake me up. Some guests casually left suitcases in front of my locker, and beer cans or trash by my bed. One evening, I came back to find that one guest had left his smelly trainers by my pillow as he slept soundly.

It takes a lot to move me. These people were pathetic, they would usually leave the room if I attempted to engage them about their behaviour.

I don't regret being firm with the behaviours around me. That said, I wasn't always the only one on the receiving end of abuses.

The overall level of respect between the guests during my stay at St. Christopher's London Bridge The Village was shockingly low, and I would suggest management find a way to do something about it. If I hadn't paid in full for the entire experience, I wouldn't be so aggrieved.

Believe it or not, the conduct of the hostel's mostly Spainish-speaking housekeeping staff was even worse.

I heard them insult me in Spanish, in my presence. They would routinely turn on my dorm room's overhead lights when entering to clean it. They delighted in causing this disruption to all the guests in my dorm room and creating obstacles. They would slam their vacuum cleaners against beds as guests were sleeping in them. They would speak loudly in their language as guests were resting, with absolutely no fear of consequences. When I put in my audio headphones to drown them out they would speak louder, or start spraying air freshener in the room to attention grab. Whenever they'd catch me going to the bathroom, they would find a way to loudly speak Spanish outside the door. Or they'd go into their workspace, and leave the door open and eye me as I return to the dorm room.

They would freely leave bags in the hostel's tight corridors. One night, one of the place's porters activated after I came back from outdoors. He waited until I entered the hostel toilets to refresh myself, and then as I left he started moving dirty linen in big bags. He threw the bags right at my feet as if I wasn't there. The housekeeping staff were unprofessional, completely obstinate - and kind of dark. They had zero respect.

I couldn't wait to check out of The Village on this occasion - that...

EDITED 08/23 This was our second time staying at the St. Christopher's Village. We returned as we had a great time in our previous stay. This time, however, we had some inconveniences. For starters, we booked a stay for 10 days in an ensuite 4-bed mix dorm and naturally, as we were staying for such a long period of time, expected to have a standard-size dorm as we received last time, and yet when we got to our room, we were shocked to discover a room so tiny that the distance between the bunked beds was as wide as two persons standing shoulder to shoulder. When we asked if there was any other room for us to change to, we were told that the hostel was fully booked. Also, on our previous stay, we had breakfast for the entire duration of our stay for only 5 pounds each when apparently now, it's 5 pounds each for a day. Moreover, last time we stayed at this hostel, we were given the option to either buy a lock or rent one for free and return it when checking out. For this same reason, we didn't bring any locks as we knew we could rent for free. As you can imagine by now from this review, that was not the case. Once we asked to rent a lock we were told they only sell and not rent. Overall, the hostel is great - great location, bar, activities and even the breakfast is fine, I just wished to have been properly guided as for the amenities offered so to not be so surprised and disappointed at arrival. 03/23 The hostel was great! A great location - super close to the tube stations as well as train station. Breakfast was good and included ham and cheese, a variety of cereals, bread, jam and chocolate, butter, tea and coffee and orange juice. The staff was really nice and helpful and the bar was great! I stayed in a 4 bed mix dorm - the room was really spacious and bed was really comfortable. Each bed has it own plug and USB input. The dorm has an AC unit and a locker under the bed that is so big that I’m quite positive you can store a big suitcase inside. 😅 Also, don’t worry if you don’t have a lock as you can rent/ buy one in the reception. The common bathroom was ok - spacious shower and overall rather clean as they clean it every morning. However, by the end of each day the toilet rooms really started to smell. There is a “chill room” on the 3rd floor but it is really really small so if you want to relax a bit you’ll have to go down to the bar. Overall, I really enjoyed my stay and already reserved my stay for my summer trip...

Good

Location is the biggest advantage of this place. It's quite close to London Bridge, within a walking distance so you can easily get to many attractions. WiFi worked quite well, no issues with connection or quality. There is a free tap water dispenser, easily available. There is also a food/drink vending machine available near reception, so you can get your late snacks quickly and continently.

Not so good

While I was aware of the idea behind "capsule" hotels, I still want to rate it based on the entire experience. The check-in process is a pain (they start to bug you about an app that you need to download, that is going to be sent out to your e-mail) Why, can't you just give me the code ? If you don't have a data plan, then you can connect to their WiFi network and go through another set of annoying registration process... Probably one of the worst check-in experience I've had.

The areas are relatively clean, although considering how many people use the shared areas, they are quite cluttered with all kind of stuff.

My capsule was on the second row, and unless you're quite athletic person it would be a bit of a challenge to get in and out of there. And if you manage to get there, you're going to see a huge layer of dust at the top of the capsule area, not the best sight to see.

Eventually I felt the capsule was quite small for me, and I am quite below an average height. There are USB and power sockets and control for the light and color. Nothing else.

The bed was good on a firm side, so quite comfortable for me. Unfortunately the curtain itself doesn't help with noise at all. And I couldn't really fault the hotel for all the people in the room making noise, that was expected, however having a Disco till midnight and beyond wasn't the best thing. Consider that room became quite HOT ! And that's in the middle of October. with windows open

There is also quite a lot of upselling going on, want to use a shower? but don't have your own towels ? That's 1 pound for you !

Breakfast is quite a let-down, I wouldn't call it a breakfast, in fact you have to pay extra and I wish I wouldn't pay 4 pounds for it, because it's basically make your own sandwich or pour some milk over cereal. Why not make a balanced meal that has some kind of protein? Ham strips and cheese was the only thing I could find. I couldn't even figure out how to make a tea, so that was quite...