Hostel Alma Cafe Express - Dover

AWFUL STAY !!! We paid extra 15 pound for the hairdryer! We were accused of breaking it although we never used it! Host was very rude and he refused to give us our luggage back if we don't pay the money. The worst ever experience I had in a hotel/hostel! He was shouting, he was very rude and abusive! We were literally shocked and couldn't stop shaking for minutes! Never stay here! The room was in very poor condition too. The sheets and duvet were so bad quality that I felt like sleeping in a plastic bag and sweat all night! At the end I had to use my jacket instead of duvet. The windows were not closing properly and the cars never stopped passing on the busy road in front of the building. These kept us awake all night. The pressure was too bad and had to spend ages in the shower. Eating area was badly damp and smelled disgusting. Do not think about staying here!

They tried to rip us off! They made us pay for £15 for the broken hairdryer we didn’t touch. They said that they would keep our luggage and then refused to give them back until we made the payment. Other than that, the conditions were appalling to say the least. The whole building smelled damp, the shower didn’t have hot water and the staff were very rude. They gave us the ‘quiet’ room which was by the busiest road in Dover. The duvets were made of cheap synthetic materials and the towels were like sandpaper. Please do not stay here no matter how tight your budget is.

I 'll try to be objective as much as I can in this review. We booked a double room for 1 night and arrived for check in at 21:58. The reception: The man that welcomed us not only that was rude but also scary and potentially drunk. In the booking it says the room is for 'single occupancy ' which we didn 't read assuming a double bed is for two. He demanded £2.5 for an additional person to stay in the room. As I went across the road to get cash the time went past 22:00, he started to get irritated saying that checkin time had passed. When I brought the 2.5 which he demanded around 5-7 times in 2 minutes he went outside to check the cash so that we don 't trick him. As the reception was not lit it felt like a scene from The Shining. The room: The room was small, but fairly clean and had an en suite bathroom as well as a TV (not working). The shower water was cold and pressure was low. All that was acceptable as we went in with low expectations for the price we paid. However the fact that the window wasn 't closing properly and the hostel is near a busy road made it hard to sleep. So we had to put two of the pillows in the window. I would agree with a previous review that in winter could be impossible to sleep in that room. Based on the initial greeting from the guy we were so freaked out that we used a small table to block the door just in case. Overall if you 're looking for a thrilling experience, top notch horror movie hotel welcoming and enjoy a joyful wake up from the seagulls at 5am, this is the hostel for you. It wasn 't for us though. Note: If they replaced the reception guy for somebody with manners and good customer service and make some adjustments in terms of windows, water pressure and temperature the hostel would be actually acceptable for the price.

Booked for 2 nights but will only be staying 1. Reasons: (I'll be as positive as I can) On arrival as you walk into the cafe, there is an overwhelming smell of damp. Tried to ignore that, was given the codes for the room/ main door and the lady showed us how it worked on the main door outside which was nice. The room appeared clean at first however, it is not great or even good in my humble opinion. Its only fair that I tell you why and you can decide for yourself: 1. There are hairs and specks of whatever all over the room. 2. Damp patches and Water stains on the ceiling and walls. 3. Mould growing all over the bathroom (you can even see it coming from behind the mirror in there). 4. Mould is also around the window which is covered in condensation even though it was left open all night, and it doesn't close properly anyway, so can be quite noisy too. 5. The TV only works on one channel and you are not given any Wi Fi codes. 6. The parking is on the street parking, so there are restrictions. 7. There was a small bug crawling on the bed possibly a bed bug, but I'm not sure about that! If you have any kind of breathing difficulties like asthma I would suggest that you don't stay as even though I don't normally, I could feel it in my chest, and it was hard to sleep I only got 3 hours. Cheap but not cheerful for me. Good if that's what you are looking for.

We booked in on a working stay . The place is definitely not a 3 star. The bedding was dirty with loads of hair still in them. We didn't even put our bags down, walked out , lost our booking money and booked somewhere else. God only knows what the food is like there.