A&O Berlin Kolumbus

Basic, clean, staff friendly. Rooms lack smoke detectors. Lots of school trips, noisy at times. Long journey to the centre although easy to get to. Had to leave the room to use the bathroom which meant that it was used by the neighbours as well. 2 rooms had their own little hall. Rooms were cleaned daily on most days. Breakfast was OK, always food even if late, choice was limited. Not so easy to find a clean table during the peak breakfast period.

As a school trip (organised by a travel company) this hostel does NOT suit schools! What was more angering was the staff's awful attitude, they were utterly disgusting to my staff and students, for genuine concerns. Their room allocation leaves a lot to be desired and their attitude to us was despicable. Maybe a few of you on your own, or you as a single traveller it might just about suffice, but if you're a school group and your travel operator puts you here, DON'T DO IT!

- Lack of staffs reception is also incharge of the cafe - Breakfast is so - so for Euro 7 / pax - My room was on 8th floor but the lift only goes to 7th floor so I have to carry my bags to the 8th floor - Location are quite far from center of Berlin -There was a day when the only hot drinks available is tasteless coffee because the hot water machine is not working (2 days in fact during my stay)

This is the worst "hostel" I have ever stayed in. I even use the word hostel very loosely as it is really that awful. If I could award it 0/5 I would. We visited as a school trip that was organised by a company so was already prepaid. However, the staff haven't got a clue what they're doing and tried to charge us 2,000 euros. Staff were also very rude! One told us students could eat whenever they wanted at meal times and we didn't have to come down as a group, so students had time to shower or whatever for the evening excursions. Another member of staff on the same day turned our students away and told us we had to all come together at a set time, which did not suit our group. She was really really rude! Staff need training and/or personality transplants. The food itself was actually inedible. I'm an adult who isn't picky with food - so imagine what 15 year olds (some who have never been abroad before) who can be funny about food were like. The sheets were stained and we were expected to pay to use them. The staff were also rude about this when we went to change them. One member of staff took a sheet away to replace it and returned with exactly the same sheet with the same stains thinking we wouldn't notice. We were placed on a different floor to our students which made it hard to sort any issues out and patrol effectively to ensure good behaviour. Other school groups and older groups of friends on holidays were causing havoc and our students were blamed. Our students were in bed early after a 26 hour coach journey, and we checked on them regularly so we knew it wasn't them! There were quadruple rooms that had shared bathrooms. 4 of our girls were put in a shared room with a group of older boys from another party. When I went to reception to get them moved, the staff member shrugged at me. Eventually the students were moved, after much complaining on my part. It was very basic, which I expected, but the shower cubicle was really small and beds were horrible. The decor is disgusting - the whole place looks like somewhere you'd expect to stay in the 70s or 80s. Surely a fresh lick of neutral paint would be an easy way to make this place look less offensive? Bright walls in clashing colours everywhere and a rickety lift that only goes up to the 7th floor? No thanks. Even though this was only a base for 2 nights I absolutely hated it and so did the kids. If the excursions on the trip weren't so excellent, this would had ruined the whole trip. I would genuinely rather have slept on the coach - it is seriously that bad. I've stayed in other A&O hostels and this is the worst by a long chalk. They have a real cheek to even call this hell pit a "hostel/hotel" to my utter disbelief!!!!

I stayed in A&O Berlin Kolumbus Hostel on the 30th of July 2016. I came there around 12 midnight because i had a hard time looking for the hostel. If you coming from the airport it will just be a one stop but you will walk around 10 minutes going to the hostel. Luckily the hotel has a lighted sign at the top so you wont be lost (Also have a handy Offline GPS). The Hostel was fine but there is no aircon but the beds are nice and as long as your roomate is quite you can have a nice sleep. One more thing the elevator is only up until the 7th so if your room is in the 8th you need to walk basically.

The most incompetent people at front desk and not enough staff to make up for it. One person at the desk for check in and it took an hour to check in with only 2 people ahead of me and there were other staff members walking around but not helping. Then had to come downstairs to ask about the included wifi as there was no information in the room and was told (after waiting another 30 mins in line behind 1 person) that I just needed to use my email. I told him that there was no option for that on the log in and he told me I was wrong and to try again. After returning downstairs once again to ask how to log in again as it was still not an option to sign in with email I was told with no hint of apology "I remembered just after you left that we changed our whole system the other day". We were then issued with 2 day wifi passes when we were staying 5 and had to keep going downstairs and waiting in line for long periods to get access to the 'free' wifi. Also went down to the 24 hour bar/cafe at 11pm and waited 45 mins to simply order food as there were no other late night options around as it is quite far out of the city. Staff seemed to have absolutely no idea what was happening or how to deal with anything (even weren't sure of check out time when asked). Pretty sure our toilet was not cleaned once the entire time we were there, or very poorly done. Hostel was also filled with loud and abnoxious teens on a school trip who were very rude to the staff and very rude to other guests with teachers looking on doing nothing and staff serving them before everyone else who had already been waiting for a long time. Didn't get an apology for the awful service once during the entire stay. Only stay here if you are desperate and plan to have no interaction with staff. Very far out of town, nothing close to hostel to do and totally incompetent staff. 0/5 stars.

we not recommended this hotel, first they change name, they much like hostel no hotel. far way too city centre. problems check in they charge 2,94€ for payment via visa or debit card, terminal not working so only cash ! ATM around 800m from hotel site ! room not clean and not ready, no linen and duvet for 2 beds. they finally give to use around 10pm ! breakfast ok.

We were here in April with our high school (we were 63 people and we stayed for 5 days) our first impression was good (room was comfortable for 4 people) but when we were making the bed we found a stain of blood in our sheet, the receptionist gave us the same without the cover (but with another stain of pee) finally the receptionist gave us a "clean" sheet. The most important of all,THE HOTEL DIDN'T CLEAN ANY ROOM DURING OUR STAY, so we were living together with the dirt for 5 days. Staff was very unpleasant and annoying. The hotel was too far from the city centre.

My high school organised a trip to berlin and we would stay in this hotel. The first impression i had was normal i thought it was going to be good enough for our needs. One day passed and we noticed they didnt make the beds and they didnt even replace our towels!!! It was Horrible because we had to use the same towels all the week (and if you had ask for them you would waste your time) Actually when we arrived my friend found there were some spots on the sheets and she had to ask for clean sheets In the morning breakfast was not good as i thought but it was enough good for us. I would have prefered more types of food And there is only one toaster for all the visitors!!! Besides this hotel is TOO FAR from the centre and you have to take the tram and the undergound if you wanna go to Alexanderplatz (centre) A good thing is the wifi, which worked very well Finally the attention wasnt very good due to we almost were lied by a guy maybe of recepcionist and his atittude was disrespectful and childish. I wouldnt go here in another life..