Ashton House Hostel, Manchester > Reviews (4)

Despite booking our room and the payment being taken from us weeks ago, when we arrived we found our room had been booked to another party and we couldn't have it! We were messed about for several hours where we had to roam Manchester in the cold waiting for the staff to try and sort out if we could stay in their hostel or be homeless for the night. Not good when you have people travelling to Manchester via plane and looking to book in to their room at midday.

Initially we were told we hadn't booked with them and hadn't made any payment however a quick visit to the bank produced a mini statement that clearly showed payment of over £100 being taken by Ashton House Hostel 9 days prior to us turning up to stay!!

When we got a room we were given a 6 person room for our party of 7. A mattress was put on the floor for person 7. This was worrying because it was in the middle of an already small room and it felt to us like it may be a fire risk but as we had nowhere else to go and they had our money we took it.

While we were provided with a room it's a worrying thought to think that someone else lost out. The manager of the place told us that he'd give us a room already booked for a group of girls because they hadn't yet checked in and we were there right now. It seems that if you don't check in asap you risk the chance of loosing your room to someone else!

The room was cold due to a hole in the window frame and cold air blasting in to the room constantly. It was also very noisy as the hole takes in sound from the main road! What was worse was that a lot of people go outside the building to smoke and again the whole in the window allows smoke to enter your room.

The room was dirty with old rubbish on the window ledge from previous users however this was a theme that continued as the whole hostel building was generally dirty and made you feel itchy because you didn't want to touch anything.

The toilets flooded water and were out of use on our floor. This left only 2 male toilets for all male guests and worse still the light in the toilet room only covers the urinals, if you need to sit on the loo then there's no light to see what you're doing and no window!

The showers were incredibly dirty and disgusting. Walking on the floor was slippy and was covered in what seemed to be grease and hair. The sinks had old cotton buds etc. in them and again felt disgusting.

Despite being advertised as features on the web, there is no free WiFi! We couldn't get a signal on any device. Towels are provided but you have to pay £1 for each one! There aren't double wardrobes in the room we used, or a mirror. As for mood lighting, again non-existent, we had a strip light on the ceiling as used in many offices and hospitals that was extremely bright and unrelaxing.

While using the building we became aware of other groups who had the same problem we initially had. They had booked rooms at the hostel only to find when they got there that they hadn't got a room! This appears to be a worrying coincidence at best and I'd advise caution as you could find yourself in a city without anywhere to stay at all.

One of our group while sitting on the settee in the communal area received several bites that looked to be flee bites although nobody else in our party suffered this.

We felt as a group that the place was dirty in most places and this really adversely affected our stay.

I have to say that I would never return to this place ever again! It's cheap and it's close to the city centre but in this case cheap isn't good. I would also advise others considering it to seriously think again.

While we had a good night in Manchester this hostel was the worst place we've ever stayed in our lives.