The People Hostel - Lille

Super impressed with the comfy rooms and the tranquility. Cleanliness of washrooms is also done regularly. Truly worth the stay!

Great hostel. Extremely rude staff

I stayed in room 304. Upon arrival, we heard a continuous and rather unpleasant noise. We went to tell the receptionist, who informed us that it was normal: "It's the noise from the extractor hood, but don't worry, the kitchen closes at 10 pm." Since the noise never stopped (we didn't sleep a wink all night), we went back to complain to reception the next morning. The receptionist (a different one from the previous day) came to hear the noise in our room, told us she didn't know what it was, and that she would look into it. When we returned in the afternoon, she happily announced: "I've found it, it's the ventilation system!" So apparently, the ventilation system on the 3rd floor has a problem, and everyone knows about it. We then asked what to do: could we change rooms? Receive compensation? Apparently, the hotel was full, so changing rooms was impossible. We were then advised to request compensation by email. I wrote that same day. I followed up every two days for a week. It's been a month, and I still haven't received a response. It's one thing for the hotel to refuse to reimburse me for two sleepless nights. It's quite another for them to ignore my emails. Judging from other reviews, this seems like a well-established modus operandi: they put people on-site who have no expertise and can't make any decisions. They're instructed to "act as if they care about the problem" while taking no concrete action. They redirect complaints by email. No one reads the emails. Thus, the company continues to rake in money off the backs of dissatisfied customers (a comment about the same noise was posted about a month before my arrival; the problem is known, so there's a deliberate choice not to fix it). Beneath its "cool" hostel image lies a large, unsophisticated operation that is clearly understaffed to cut costs (on a Saturday morning, a single young woman has to manage check-outs, problems, questions, breakfast, and washing up...), doesn't fix issues to save money, and doesn't train its staff to save money. So yes, it's still cheap, but read the negative reviews before booking, because you have a fifty-fifty chance of having a bad stay.