HostelWorld
Complaint 322400 Details

I booked 3 nights at a hostel and cancelled the first. The hostel refunded my money but HostelWorld refused to refund the deposit for that night. I understood that the nonrefundable nature of the deposit applied if the entire reservation was cancelled, but that if one night was cancelled the deposit would apply to the other nights. Wrong. HostelWorld is completely separate from the hostels themselves. The "deposit" goes straight to them and they refuse to refund it for any reason. Beware. In my case it was only $5, but on principle this policy is wrong and could start to add up if, for example, a traveller is cancelling 4 of 5 nights ($20). I find it bizarre that HostelWorld would rather get bad reviews like this instead of refunding $5.