The perception of a travel blogger’s life is often built on glamorous illusions. Since I started an intense global journey back in 2017, I’ve had my fair share of high-end stays. From wildlife lodges in Ethiopia to beachfront hotels in Greece and luxury escapes in Bali, I won’t deny that upscale accommodation makes life easy. But hostels, with their built-in social aspect, serve up experiences no solo hotel room ever could. While mostly positive, some of the dormitory stays can also turn very strange. Since Pipeaway is turning eight, I prepared another unordinary listicle: eight of the most bizarre hostel experiences from my travels!
Cheap stays in hostels can turn into priceless one-of-a-kind anecdotes
From backpacking in Java to finding shelter in Tokyo art holes, I’ve learned that budget stays can be as extraordinary as 5-star resorts. Hostels aren’t just a cheap alternative, they are creative spaces where hospitality gets experimental. They connect travelers from every cultural background in the most direct way. You cannot experience that by brushing your shoulders at a breakfast buffet in some all-inclusive hotel.
The quick turnover of hostel guests means that at any given moment, you might be sharing a dorm with a variety of individuals: maybe a snorer of symphonic proportions, a nocturnal potato chip enthusiast, or someone who believes clothing is a suggestion. Equally, hostels can have drastically different standards too. Flexibility and tolerance are things hostel guests are constantly training in.
In the end, it comes down to that old idea that you get what you pay for. If you’re an adaptable person, some of these cheap stays can turn into priceless one-of-a-kind anecdotes, rather than just an entry in your stress journal.
Are you ready for another listicle of weirdness? Here are eight of my most bizarre hostel stays, starting with one where I was the one bringing the bizarre to the table!
TL;DR: Hostels are a budget traveler’s paradise - but also a breeding ground for bizarre experiences. From questionable hygiene habits and mysterious bathroom disasters to rodent encounters and unexpected fetishes, this listicle dives into the wildest, weirdest, and most unsettling moments of shared dorm life. If you think your hostel stay was bad, wait until you read these stories!
Top 8 bizarre hostel episodes
1. Sleep-talking episodes
Those who had the “privilege” (or misfortune?) to share a night with me, know that I occasionally moonlight as somnambulist. While my sleepwalking days aren’t as frequent anymore, sleep-talking still makes surprise guest appearances. Two of my most memorable night-scream episodes bookend my hostel experiences in Malaysia: the first in 2017, and the most recent in 2025.
Eight years ago, still somewhat jet-lagged after arriving from Europe, I booked a hostel on Penang Island. I snagged a lower bunk bed, my preferred choice even today, as I just hate climbing up and down whenever I need anything.
But the top bed was so low that sitting upright in the lower one was not an option. In the middle of the night, I must have sat up too fast and smashed my head against the upper bed. My half-asleep brain interpreted this differently: I was levitating, my head pressed against the ceiling!
Despite being stuck in this strange, weightless panic, the logical side of my brain was somewhat aware that I was in a hostel. I screamed: “Guys, help me!”
As soon as I heard myself (yelling loudly enough to startle even myself awake), I threw the blanket over my head in embarrassment and pretended to sleep.
Something similar happened in 2025, during my last hostel stay in Malaysia, now in Kuala Lumpur. I dreamed that I was trapped inside a pitch-dark cave, no flashlight, no phone. In sheer terror, I yelled: “Help!”
Again, that woke me up, but also others in the 4-bed room. An Indian bunkmate on the top bed flicked on the light and slid open his curtain, asking if I was fine. He thought I spotted a cockroach. “It was just a nightmare”, I was lucky to confirm.
I actually did have a somewhat nightmarish experience in Vietnam where I was left in the darkness when someone decided to turn off the cave lights earlier than scheduled. You can read about this experience in the article about the Hell Cave.
2. Snoring episode
While I can understand it can startle people, sleep-talking is luckily mostly a brief event. There is, however, one sleep disorder that can easily ruin an entire night of stand-byers – snoring.
Every fourth person in the world regularly snores, which means that the likelihood of encountering a human chainsaw in a hostel room is quite significant.
During my recent stay in one hostel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a hostel guest engaged in snoring so loudly that it essentially ruined everyone’s prospect of getting a good night’s sleep. Besides being noisy, his snoring was also chaotically creative, switching tempos and tones, and ensuring that you couldn’t even fall asleep by listening to a typical snoring monotony.
The roommates groaned, some sighed heavily, hoping passive aggression would work. It didn’t. No one dared to wake him up, because – sleep is sacred, right?
One girl hit her breaking point. She took her sheets and frustration outside, fleeing to the hostel’s common areas for the night.
Snoring is definitely a common occurrence in world hostels. If you don’t have earplugs, your politeness will not protect you from the noise.
Honestly, I think snorers should do the honorable thing and book private rooms. Or better yet, hostels could also consider separating dorms not based on gender, but on whether you snore or not. Some Seoul jjimjilbangs, for instance, have snorer-only dorms. Maybe that strategy should be implemented in other places where more people try to get sleep.
You can experience strangeness when you stay at people’s homes too. Read these extraordinary Couchsurfing stories!
3. Stinky episode
People have different habits when it comes to personal hygiene. While my hostel experience says that the strong and unpleasant smell of hostel visitors is mostly never unbearable, simply because hostels come with free showers, it can still happen that someone simply rejects showing compassion towards other guests’ noses.
When I entered a dorm in one hostel in Panglao, the Philippines, I noticed a small electronic device in the corner. Thinking it was an apparatus against mosquitos, I braced for sleepless nights of buzzing near my ears.
Later, I noticed an unpleasant odor spreading in the room. It was coming from a capsule next to mine. One of the ten roommates seemingly boycotted personal hygiene.
I understand not everyone’s situation in life can provide access to running water and soap (for instance, homeless people). But this was someone who could clearly afford to travel, and filth came down to a lifestyle choice.
It took me two days to admit defeat and report it to reception. I had a hard time verbalizing it, but they already knew it.
First, they tried opening the doors to vent it all out. They turned off the AC, hoping that the tropical heat would press him to use the showers. Then they installed an air freshener, a device I had mistaken for a mosquito repellent.
Nothing worked. Even when they confronted him directly and gifted him some shower amenities, he refused to get anywhere close to water. He remained in his capsule, glued to his phone, blissfully ignorant of the olfactory apocalypse he was causing.
In Pipeaway’s earlier anniversary listicles, you could read about the most WTF moments, and the dangers of traveling!
4. Peeing episode
I love sleeping to the sound of rain. The monotonous raindrops hitting the window, and even the sound of thunder and downpour in the street, are nature’s white noise. But not all liquid soundtracks have the same lulling effect.
In Budapest, Hungary, I once woke up in the middle of the night. Unusual sounds were coming from my top bunk bed neighbor (Remember, the bottom bed is a blessing! Or is it?).
Without seeing what was going on, I could vividly interpret it: this hostel guest was peeing in a bottle. Then you could hear him drinking from a bottle (I imagined – the same one). And then he would pee again, and drink again. The process was circular.
At 3 am, your brain struggles to process pee-based horror. I tried to convince myself I was imagining it. After all, you cannot just peek behind the privacy curtain to check. At least nothing was leaking, so I buried my face in the pillow, trying to escape the noise.
Morning arrived, and I could hear my nervous bunkmate repetitively brushing his bed (the sound I interpreted as cleaning the mattress). Fetishist confirmed.
I can respect everyone’s kink, as long as it comes with the consent of all involved parties. This was someone’s personal experience with sound effects that don’t let others sleep. Maybe he was getting off by the prospect of being caught in the act?
While I felt embarrassed to speak concretely about my concerns to the hostel staff, they were kind enough to transfer me to another room. At checkout, I did spill the beans about my experience, and the staff looked shook. Apparently, he was a regular, always coming for one night only. They may have banned him from future visits. What a bizarre hostel hobby!
5. Pooping episodes
Some hostel memories are better flushed from memory. Easier said than done.
In another Budapest hostel, I had an experience where disgust was more concrete than just imagining the geysers of pee bubbling behind someone’s curtain.
One morning, I entered the bathroom, and – I shit you not – there were actual pieces of poop scattered around. I could not imagine how that even happened, but someone’s intestines seemed to have had a truly rough night. Or was it some avant-garde protest statement?
Whatever it was, my need to use the toilet instantly vanished. I was just happy to return to the room and postponed answering nature’s call for another time, probably another place too.
Another constipation-inducing event struck recently on Koh Lipe Island, Thailand. Someone ignored the golden rule of not flushing toilet paper and clogged the entire system. Instead of confessing their crime, they buried the evidence under even more layers of paper. Who was the master hiding the masterpiece from?
Hostel dorms are perfect for anonymous escapes, which is exactly what this culprit did, leaving others to discover and report their fecal fiasco.
Whether it’s a Jackson Pollock-style bathroom surprise or a toilet paper burial ritual, pooping episodes are among the wildest bizarre hostel experiences one could possibly dream of. In nightmares, of course.
6. Insect episode
Bedbugs are not uncommon in hostels. Fortunately, I’ve never had a personal run-in with these unpleasant roommates. So my experiences with them were only indirect.
In one hotel I stayed in Split, Croatia, a guest woke up with a swollen eye, which was bad enough for everyone to evacuate.
But that’s not what I’d call a bizarre hostel experience. It might be I survived bedbug attacks mainly because – I didn’t sleep in my bed at all?
One overzealous Asian guest decided to burn a mosquito coil – indoors! He placed it under the bed, hoping to have a good sleep. When we figured out what was happening, it was already too late. The room became an unbearable toxic gas chamber. Even opening windows couldn’t clear it up.
There was no night receptionist at this hostel, so all I could do was wait for the morning in the common area. I suppose that technically saved me from bedbugs, but I wouldn’t exactly send the guy a thank-you note.
Besides insect-related adventures, this hostel stayed in my memory for having the worst shower system imaginable. You had to press the button, and then the water would run for literally one (1!) second, as if we were on a really stingy beach. If you didn’t have octopus arms, it was impossible to wash yourself properly – one hand holding the shower head, the other one pressing the button. Did I need to find a shower buddy in order to rub the shampoo out of my hair in one second?
7. Rodent episodes
In Malaysia, I had close encounters with fauna larger than bugs. Rodents of various sizes have been using the same premises as hostel guests.
When I was coming back from the bathroom one night in Penang, tiptoeing on squeaking hallway floors to not wake up anyone, I startled a local mouse running around.
Frightened, the little fellow ran through the hallway and, like a contortionist, squeezed through the opening beneath the door, escaping right into the dorm room where I was staying.
As it was night, I didn’t want to turn on the lights, but I was also glad that the hostel was quite full, so I was given a usually dreaded top bunk bed. The next day a bottom bunk bed freed up, and the receptionist who knew my preference offered to move me down, but I gratefully declined.
On Langkawi island, further north towards Thailand, I had a dorm all to myself. I love it when it happens that I get what is technically a single room for a fraction of the price.
But as I woke up to prepare breakfast, I noticed a rat casually strolling behind the glassed-off area. Technically it was outside of the breakfast room, but it was not inaccessible if the furry guest wanted to pay a visit.
Once in a while, I love having no hostel roommates. But if I must have them, I prefer they have only two legs.
Speaking of rats, I once couch-surfed in a house in Indonesia where I had a similar midnight face-to-face encounter with a rodent. But that’s another story you can read in my collection of Couchsurfing (not only) horror experiences.
8. Hygiene episodes
Last but not least bizarre hostel experiences I’ll mention here are all about encounters with hostel staff. I understand hostels need to make their operations economical, but I don’t approve of it being done at the expense of hygiene.
These are just some instances when I learned that my and hostel’s cleanliness standards do not match:
In Phuket, Thailand, I checked in only to find my bed covered in fresh stains, hair, and crumbs. Housekeeping graciously agreed to change the sheets. They took them off, laughed, and put them back on. As if I wouldn’t check. I ended up changing it all by myself, uncovering even more yellow stains under the sheets. The fake change insulted my intelligence, and anyway, doesn’t it take the same amount of energy as doing it for real?
I noticed a similar approach to cleanliness in one hostel in Luang Prabang, Laos. When there would be a guest change, the staff would put the new sheet, but the duvet cover remained. They’d just generously spray some nice scent over it, to make it seem fresh. So while you were sleeping on a clean sheet, you were covering yourself with the same duvet as probably dozens of guests before you.
In one hostel in Postojna, Slovenia, I noticed all three bathroom soap dispensers were empty. When I told the receptionist, she shrugged: Housekeeping comes tomorrow. I volunteered to refill the dispensers myself, as I didn’t want to wait 24 hours to wash my hands, but apparently, that was against the protocol.
One hostel in Ayutthaya, Thailand, had an included breakfast. As I arrived at the place by night train, it was way too early to check-in. But this gave me enough time to see how this nice-looking breakfast was being prepared. A receptionist/housekeeper was meticulously placing a variety of small food items on display plates, touching every single piece with her bare hands. In addition, she was coughing non-stop. Instead of taking a sick day, she was serving germs on cakes. I gratefully skipped those meals.
There are many other examples of tragic hygiene standards in hostels. I’ve seen everything from filthy toilet seats and dust-thick staircases with footprints included to balls of hair screaming to be removed from moldy showers and garbage lying on the floor for days.
As hostels are not someone’s personal space, but an actual hospitality business, this approach to cleanliness is not just bizarre. It is downright unacceptable.
Bizarre hostel experiences – Conclusion
Hostels are more than just budget accommodations. They can also be social experiments with questionable hygiene, unexpected wildlife, and the occasional performance art involving bodily functions.
Hostels aren’t just places to sleep. They’re where stories happen
From peeing bottle enthusiasts to phantom poopers and bed-changing scams, my bizarre hostel experiences have ranged from mildly amusing to outright traumatic.
And yet, here I am, still booking dorm beds, still rolling the dice on whether my bunkmate is a snorer or a secret rodent summoner.
Because at the end of the day, hostels aren’t just places to sleep. They’re where stories happen – the kind you’ll be laughing about for years.
If nothing else, they teach you resilience and adaptability.
Would I trade these hostel experiences for a sanitized, drama-free hotel room, with nobody around to affect my sense of peace? Maybe. Sometimes I do. But that’s less exciting to write about on the occasion of a blog anniversary.
Do you have your own bizarre hostel experiences?
Share them in the comments and pin this article for later!
