Sam W.

I booked a one night stay through hostelworld for a trip to New Orleans. The hostel required payment before staying so I entered my usual credit card that has never had any issues being processed. After getting off my flight in the city that evening I received an email saying my booking had been cancelled as the payment could not be processed and that I should try again with a different card. After a couple of calls with the hostel, they said it was too late for them to make another booking with them for that night so I had to find someplace else to stay. Thankfully there was one other hostel nearby that still had availability for that night so I booked that through hostelworld. After arriving at that hostel they too said that they couldn't process payment on my card, so I paid in cash. I have no idea why that card was declined through hostelworld it has worked everywhere I've been before and after booking through them. But as it turns out when I checked my statement hostelworld were able to process payment through my credit card and were happy to take their booking fee for both reservations I made through the site! Even though both hostels were unable to receive payment from my card via hostelworld. I'm lucky I was able to get into the 2nd hostel or would have paid hostelworld booking fees for the luxury of sleeping on a park bench in the rain. It would have saved me a lot of hassle just to book directly with the original hostel in the first place. Save yourself some stress and $'s and don't ever book through this useless website.