Balarm - Hostel and Bar

就在市中心，交通方便，性價比還可以

Un hostel lleno de suciedad, incómodo y ruidoso. Yo estuve 6 noches y en mi cama había chinches (toda la estadía con un picazón horrible), además tuve una reacción alérgica a las picaduras. Hice la queja y se desentendieron ("te hubieses quejado antes" (??)). El tratamiento médico me costó 50 € y haberme cagado la estadía en Palermo y mis posteriores días en Madrid no tiene precio. Manga de estafadores! Parece barato pero termina siendo carísimo entrar ahí. No lo hagan.

I was a little bit surprised to read the poor reviews here because I found this hostel to be generally around the same standard as most hostels I have stayed in. The staff were friendly though I was a little bit surprised that some of them didn't speak English, but it wasn't a problem at all in the end. The dorm room was clean, as were the toilets and showers. I would have appreciated having a lock on the dorm room: this was the first time I've ever experienced being in a hostel where the dorm room itself couldn't be locked (though there were lockers available for valuables). This is perhaps something to think about for the future, particularly for guests who have booked the female only dorm.

I had to stay here for almost two weeks for a study travel at the local University. Cleaning and location are good. They have, however, an infestation of bedbugs in the female dormitory which the owners are aware of. Unfortunately, the hostel's policy is just to be rude and blame guests in unfavourable google reviews. So I would only recommend this place if you want to experience a nightmare of disrespect and negligence. We found bedbugs in matresses, towels that were outside suitcases and my friends and me got several bites. I had several bites in the only night I did not used anti-insect spray on my body. The allergy was so bad I had to contact a local doctor online because I could not go out in the sun for long. This was duly reimbursed by the Hostel after much insistence that I was telling the truth, as they insisted that it was mosquito bites or that I had caused it myself. I thank the reimburse act, but the way they dealt with it was awful. Since they do not know the difference between a mosquito and a bedbug, the pictures are below. They simply ignore the problem acting with uneffective measures, such as steeming the beds and changing sheets. In a 1min google search, you can learn that bedbugs live inside matresses, so the bare minimum would be to change it or disinsectise the room, if they took their own business seriously. Never been so mistreated in a place I was paying to stay. I wish the hostel get better because it has great potential, but the owners need to know how to treat clients first.

I have never taken the time to leave a bad review before but this is the WORST HOSTEL EVER. I have stayed in over 15 hostels and have nothing bad to say about any other ones I have stayed in compared to this one. Staying with Balarm was a nightmare. When we showed up at 10 pm to check in we were told the all female dorm (the dorm we paid to stay in) was full and we would have to stay in the mixed dorm. The worker told us there were no men in our room so we were fine with it. The next morning, multiple men arrived in our room and when asking the front desk staff they said there was nothing they could do since it is a mixed dorm even though they lied and told us there were only girls that would be staying there. We then called the owner (he hung up multiple times and told us to text him) where he repeatedly told us there is nothing they can do and they could give us a refund for our second night if we want to leave (we booked this hostel 2 months in advance and didn’t have a backup plan as nothing like this has ever happened before). After texting the owner back and forth for around 15 minutes, he said his manager can deal with it and BLOCKED us. We decided to bite the bullet and stay in a hotel the second night we were supposed to stay in Balarm because we had such a miserable experience. After talking to a worker when getting our refund for the second night, we learned that this has happened before and it isn’t uncommon. If you are booking an all female dorm, STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE. This is seriously unbelievable and unacceptable and nobody should have to deal with this, especially knowing they do this purposefully. I wish I could give lower than a 1 star.