St Christopher's Inn Gare Du Nord - Hostel

It's fair from sites but not too far from stations. We read a lot of reviews before booking (our rooms door worked fine). They do offer towels, chargers, padlocks to purchase. I wish at least the padlocks were rented since we only needed it for the stay. The walls were gross, not gonna lie. The bathrooms were fine. The room smells like 12 people are sleeping in there, which there are but investing in air freshener would be a game changer. Staff was wicked friendly. Their breakfast isn't bad for the price but you might as well just check out a local bakery.

St. Christopher’s Gare du Nord boasts an excellent breakfast of croissants, pastry, vegetables, deli meats, cereals, juice, coffee both drip and from an espresso machine with a choice of milks. I understand this changes seasonally, but it was ravishing all laid out and pleasing to the eye. They are a very popular party hostel and see a great deal of business each day. The attached Belushi’s has a garage door-sized entrance open to the street, and is packed with people, nightly. There are several floors, one with a lovely terrace view down into the glass ceiling of the bar. Rooms are clean and bunks offer personal shelf and generous outlet space. I did arrive a day late to my booking after a breakdown, and, having called several times in the preceding 24 hours to try to notify staff of this, I had to proceed as I’d already paid for a stay of several days with no refunds. I was, indeed, greeted at check-in with the fact that I had been marked as a no-show and my bed had been resold to someone else. When I explained to the staff at the front desk that I had made several attempts to reach them, they told me they are often too busy to answer the phone, and suggested I send a message online next time. They told me the only way I could stay was if I paid for a room upgrade; it was this or cut my losses and find somewhere else to stay for the rest of my time in the city— with no refund, of course. There were people behind me in line and I knew from the way my place had been sold to someone else without contact that I was not a priority, so I gave up and paid the man for the upgrade. I am quite fond of St. Christopher’s Inn as a chain, and I think Camille is an excellent and efficient manager wherever she goes; I want to believe this was something that happened because of a couple of bad operational decisions, but it was not right. I work in hostels and as a great proponent of the practice I stay in countless hostels over the course of a season, though I seldom take the time to write a review. I know that things work best when beds are filled, but even the popular hostels need to maintain something of the human spirit to be found in our community. There is an expectation of attitude, a trust that travelers put in our hands as operators and as constituents of the hostel habitat, and I hope St. Christopher’s will be a welcoming ambassador of that spirit in the future.