If you haven't feared for your life in a shit hostel, have you even go on holiday?
Unless you're a Rich Kid of Instagram, you'll probably stay in a hostel at some point in your life.
And that's not bad thing, because hostelling is a great way to find your limits - like, just how many cockroaches you can be around, or how long you can listen to strangers having sex before you melt from awkwardness.
Obviously some hostels are pretty nice, and those in the industry are trying to shake their dodgy reputation.
Particularly Hostel World, who recently enlisted the help of diva superstar Mariah Carey to create a pretty amazing tongue-in-cheek ad with the aim of showing us that hostels aren’t gross...
But unlike Mariah (who despite this ad has clearly never spent a night in a hostel), we know the truth about just how grim and downright weird hostels can be.
In fact, we reckon everyone's got a horrible hostel story and they're always hilarious, so we reached out to you guys and were not disappointed....
Corrine Homer
"I asked for female dorm, got all male dorm with creepy 'do you want a cuddle' guy in bunk below. Another time a threesome was happening in bunk right opposite me. I don't know which was worse to be honest".
Siam Goorwich
"So this happened to a friend who was staying in a youth hostel on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. She was in a shared room with one other person – an older woman. One night, she woke up in the middle of the night and looked over to see the old woman masturbating. Good times!"
Lauren Smeets
"While travelling in Australia I once stayed somewhere that can only be described as a jumble sale spread across an entire room accompanied by the aroma of sweaty bodies. Very much a ‘spot your ankles and feet’ situation created by three extremely excited 20-year-old girls. The room was shrouded in darkness, the walls were grey and there was only one small window. I left three days later with a chest infection from the mold infested air conditioner and a serious case of bed bug rash. Ouch!"
Toby Ward
"My friends and I were staying at a hostel in Prague and on the first night got pretty drunk. One of my mates got particularly wrecked and in the middle of the night I woke up to him pissing in my suitcase thinking he was in the toilet. I had to wear the same pair of shorts and t-shirts all weekend, in sub-zero temperatures."
Laura Pearson
"Booked a cheap hostel on Koh Phangan, Thailand, for a Full Moon party. My mates and I go the most basic hut (bed, toilet, fan, nothing else) because 'we're gonna be out partying 24/7!', I promptly got food poisoning and didn't leave it for four days"
Rob Petherick
"Some friends and I stayed in a hostel in Dublin for my 19th birthday. One night we came back around 2am to a trail of blood leading from the steps outside the hostel and to the bathroom. We peered in and found the security guard laying over the sink with his head split open. Blood on the walls, in the shower, across the sinks and mirrors, fucking everywhere. We managed to get the ambulance crew out and it turns out he hadn't been assaulted or anything but had got really drunk and fallen over then tried to clean himself up and had passed out. Was good to see we were in such safe hands."
Reuben Nash
"Went to Budapest with some friends several years ago, and stayed in a massive shared dorm with loads of backpackers/ tourists that we had never met. We went out one night and got back absolutely caned and went to bed. I woke first the following morning, to see a pair of girls looking at my friend from the other side of the room in fear/ disbelief. He was having a nightmare and was rolling around under his duvet making really strange sounds . While I debated whether or not to wake him, he turned quite vigorously, and flung off the thin duvet to reveal his penis and testicles (while asleep I must add). I had to cover him up, then wake him and bring him clothes. He wasn't proud."
Rachel Armitage
"Where to begin? I'm not sure what's worse - walking in on girl, crouched by the shared fridge, eating my expensive & clearly labelled yoghurt WITH HER HANDS? Or a guy surprising his girlfriend after three months apart and them having noisy reunion sex in bunk above?"
Lloyd Scott
"I was staying in a youth hostel in Australia and shared a room with a self confessed crack addict for 2 weeks. Really enjoyed his morning routine - 2 bottles of wine at 7am before work and his evening consisted of smoking crack out the window."
Do you have a weird, wonderful or totally gross hostel story? Let us know over on Facebook or Twitter!
