Potential, wasted
Trek Global has the potential to be a fantastic hostel, unfortunately it appears that either the manager/owners are intent on running the business into the ground.
I spent a long long time staying at Trek Global and it baffles me nearly day the decisions that are made by those in charge.
Before I get to the purely embarrassing policies that Trek Global enforces these days I will begin with some of the positives.
The reception staff are fantastic, always happy and helpful. Most of the kitchen areas are well sized and overall the cleanliness of the hostel is ok. The location is great and there is a good TV Lounge and nice smoking areas for those that wish to use them.
Despite this I find it extremely hard to recommend Trek to anyone.
The management have absolutely no respect for the long term stayers in the hostel. People who have spent months in the hostel (including the live in staff) are constantly forced to move rooms to accommodate customers/groups who are staying for one/two nights. The long terms are treated with no respect and as if they are second class citizens. The hostel seems to have a policy where they would rather force someone who has spent months in a room to change rooms rather than book newcomers into an identical empty room next door. There is no logic to their booking system whatsoever.
The hostel also chooses to use an internet provider called Surfspot, which charges $30 for 1gb of internet lasting over a week. The internet is slow and unreliable and requires you to log on at every possible opportunity. Compare this to Global Gossip which offers $12 for unlimited weekly internet there isn’t much competition.
In the last few months the Hostel also made a significant change to their alcohol/night time policy. When I first arrived at the hostel people were allowed to drink alcohol in the individual kitchens until 11:00pm and then after 11 they would be asked to move downstairs to the main kitchen/TV lounge area. These days the entire hostel is alcohol free past 11:00pm even on the weekends and you are treated like a criminal if you ask to sit and quietly talk in the kitchens past 11. They also physically turn off the kitchen appliances and televisions past 11 so those who work late or fancy some evening toast have to drag their food down to the main kitchen in order to cook. I completely understand the need to allow people to sleep but I can honestly say I was never kept awake by anyone sitting in the kitchens after 11 in the past.
In order to enforce these new rules the hostel has employed a security guard who would make an Auswitch guard look like a nursery supervisor. I cannot count the number of purely vile and evil looks and rude comments I have seen this person give out. They seem to forget that the hostel dwellers are paying customers and not inmates or naughty school children.
If you add the above to the ridiculous, lengthy and poorly carried out maintenance work done at the hostel, (for example turning one wet bathroom into a swamp like environment with the floor being constantly under half an inch of water) as well as staff constantly throwing out peoples food despite it being clearly labelled you begin to wonder what on earth goes through the minds of the decision makers.
Needless to say, if you want to stay in a hostel for more than couple of nights I would find somewhere else – Trek Global does nothing to warrant the loyalty of anyone staying there.