Zostel Kochi (Ernakulam)

Well, well, well, what can I say about Zostel? Possibly one of the worst hostels I've ever had the displeasure of staying in. To put it in perspective, I've been travelling for many years and stayed in hundreds of hostels all over the world. In the interest of maintaining a balanced review, I will concede that we had a very warm welcome from the staff. The manager was very informative and gave us some really helpful advice on activities to do in and around Kerala. However, we were not impressed with the rest of the experience. I'm not a particularly light sleeper, but didn't manage to get a wink of sleep because other guests were coming & going throughout the entire night. This normally isn't an issue, but unfortunately these guests had zero respect for anyone else in the room. They were taking phone calls at 6am, listening to music loudly and clicking their fingers (amongst other very strange noises!) They were also leaving the doors wide open, letting in all the heat and mosquitos from outside. The communal areas were surrounded by random people sleeping... Which I've never seen before at a backpackers hostel. The social scene was dead as a dodo, and the local Premier Inn probably has more of a vibe. Don't come here if you're an international backpacker, they seem to cater more for locals. They don't seem to enforce the most basic policies that most other hostels do. On top of that, we politely gave the manager some constructive feedback about his hostel and received no apology. He seemed to get really defensive. We left after one night and he has so far refused to give us a refund for the other night we booked. Total waste of time and ruined our first day in Kerala. Avoid, avoid, avoid!