I recently stayed at the Oasis Hostel in Seville.
While I was there, my boyfriend was woken up at 3am by someone who said the bed he was in (and paid for) was hers. Obviously, there had been a double booking (in fact there were double bookings every night we were
there). However, during this mix up, the manager had gone into his 'safe' (which is allocated to the bed) and taken out a number of his personal items (which we did not notice until the following day). My boyfriend went to ask for them back and the manager said he had
lost them - but hoped they would turn up. Unfortunately, they did not and to be honest the staff did not really take the matter very seriously; they did not seem to understand why we might be offended that the manager had gone into our ‘safe’. Also, instead of replacing or refunding the cost of his UK electric shaver for example, they suggested they buy him a significantly cheaper Spanish (i.e. incompatible) version. Finally, the manager said he
would return the cost of the items once we could
'prove' how much they cost - after we had left to go home, which left me slightly nervous. This happened over a month ago, and we have just received payment for the items ‘lost’. Not entirely satisfactory to be honest. Thought it was worth sharing…
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
Search Been there
My sincere apologies. I know that it is too late for you now, but I just want you to know that the manager has been changed.
If you ever get back to Sevilla I would like to invite you and your boyfriend to our new hostel in Sevilla's city centre. It is a lot nicer with even a pool on the terrace. So I hope you take our apologies and you come visiting us and find out we are not that bad after all. We are really sorry this happened to you and we have made sure that this is not going to happen again.
0ur best regards, the new Oasis Backpackers' Hostel team from Sevilla.