Hostel Memphis — Hotel in Memphis

Do not waste your time with the Hostel Memphis.

They take advantage of the fact that they are the only hostel in the area and use it as an excuse to leech money from young, poor travelers that are in a foreign place. Instead of being helpful or understanding, which you would expect from a HOSTEL, the staff only care about getting your $28 per person.

My friends and I were passing through Memphis late one night on our way back from a month-long backpacking trip. Hostel Memphis was our only option financially. We planned to do what we had done this entire trip at other hostels: couples would share beds to cut down on costs and take much-needed showers. After driving straight through from Arizona, we arrived just before 11:00 PM. Three of the five of us entered to pay for our beds, while two of the group went to purchase supplies.

After paying, we learned several of their policies that they DO NOT list on their website: --No one can share a bed --You must present an ID.

For many, this may present no issue, but for college students nearing the end of a long trip, not being able to split the cost of a bed was a huge strain. The three of us were checked in and our bill had to be split between two cards as none of us had the funds to absorb the total $80. The rest of our party returned, this is when we learned our friend had lost her ID. The staff was completely unsympathetic to our situation. It was past 11:00 PM. We were exhausted and unshowered. We were in an unfamiliar and dangerous place. They refused to make an exception to allow our friend to stay the night without an ID.

This essentially meant they were turning our entire party away, as we could not send an 18-year-old girl out into the Memphis night alone. Apparently, the Hostel Memphis staff is fine with this idea. We were forced to find other accommodations.

We asked for a refund because we had not used any facilities and spent no more than 15 minutes total in their building. Despite the very unfortunate situation, they told us this request had to go through upper management and we were not guaranteed to be reimbursed. After multiple attempts to contact their bookkeeper, Nikki, and explain our situation, one card was ultimately refunded and the other (mine) was promised to be refunded. After waiting weeks for this refund, I contacted Nikki once more and was THEN told that the refund inexplicably would not be completed.

I'm exhausted dealing with this establishment. They make things intentionally hard and have no sympathy for someone in my situation. They're charging me for a service I did not receive. If $40 is make or break for a business, they really should not be in business.

If you're forced to stay here, be sure to check for urine stained sheets and fleas as other reviewers have...

(3.5 stars) Having stayed at this hostel several times, I recommend it, but not without some major misgivings.

Pros: Excellent midtown location. Walkable to coffee/restaurants, etc… Large (and free) parking lot. Free wifi. Lots of information about getting around the city. Decent value.

Cons: Room setup, lack of attention to detail, the only game in town.

Speaking ONLY about the specific room where I stayed, it would be helpful if they would list the dimensions of the private rooms on the website. The “new” private room is very small. Listed as sleeping up to three, honestly, two adults and a child will have a difficult time turning around in the room. It’s a bunk bed finagled in a retrofitted room that was looks like it was originally meant to be something else. The room isn’t big enough for a desk or a chair. (There are chairs/couches throughout the hostel.) But even at 6’4, I could live with all of that, IF the room was better equipped, and there was more attention to detail. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

There are no hooks to hang anything, no shelves, a tiny table barely big enough to support anything other than towels, no waste basket, and no reading light. In this room, there’s one additional outlet, but it’s near the AC on the opposite side of where you sleep. The keyless entry to the room is a nice feature, but the door feels so flimsy that if someone really wanted to get into the room, with an average amount of pushing against the door, they could. The AC works well, but it’s not flush against the bottom window sill and there is gap where you can see light come in. If you’re not used to window AC you may find it too loud even on the lowest setting - this is due to the size of the room. One of the two branches on the floor lamp was missing a bulb.

Given the number of people, the bathrooms are reasonably clean - they are not spotless. With so many different guests, I was surprised they have common hand towels in every bathroom. They do have a shelf of clean towels which can be used. A sign on one of the bathroom doors says the toilet clogs easily. The bathrooms/showers are either oddly shaped, feel somewhat constricted, or just okay, depending on which one you use. The third bathroom/shower had track lighting, of which one bulb was out, and the vent fan dangled from the ceiling. I did not use the kitchen facilities during my stay.

I say all this as constructively as possible in hopes that with some reasonable improvements, I could recommend the hostel without these misgivings. I know this isn’t a hotel, however, I have stayed in common sleeping areas in OTHER hostels, paid LESS and...

PENNY & HEDWIG!!! PENNY & HEDWIG!!!|These two amazing humans, Penny and her daughter Hedwig, and the quite yet friendly and helpful Jeffrey make Hostel Memphis the most especial place to stay in Memphis. They provide everything you need including great conversation and personal space depending on what you want. They gave us breakfast, advice on where to go in the city and a feeling of a safe place and comfortability. ||If you are worried about security you needn’t there’s is a building key pad code, a second different building key pad code and a third room key pad code. They have group and private bedrooms, we stayed in a private bedroom and Penny was chill about removing the chair from the bedroom for more space for our luggage (we had 4 duffel bags and 6 backpacks, plus a dog bed). There’s three full baths and a 1/2 bath which were always clean and the towels were always stocked. There was a huge kitchen, dining room and two living rooms. Outside in the parking lot they have a farmers market once a week. ||We didn’t do research on the Hostel’s location, but it turns out it was in this cool indi area with awesome local restaurants, bars, live music venues, bookstores, etc. Definitely recommend checking out DKDC and Railgarten for live music and drinks. Also, this vintage bookstore Burke’s Books, all three within walking distance. And you can’t miss out on Nerd Alert, this amazing store that sells vintage and new toys, gags, gifts and best of all has a vintage arcade in the back room with about 20 arcade machines and an original Nintendo. With unlimited plays for $10 per person. (This is a 3min drive). Beale Street and the Downtown area is about 15min away driving. ||We really hope you choose this accommodation over a generic hotel. It’s crazy to think that you could ever be disappointed by staying here. This place is awesome, the people are awesome and as Penny says: “EVERYTHING’S GREAT!”||Much...