Stonehenge Hostel - YHA Affliated

We booked the complete YH for a self-catering family gathering of about 35 people for 2 nights. Despite advertising it as self catering for upto 70 people, the cooking & dining facilities were not suitable for a self-catering group our size, let alone 70. Numerous calls back and forth were had when we realised the photos shown of the large eating area were of the cafe, not the YH and that the ovens were small ones. We brought our own equip, including roasting pans thankfully as we would not have been able to cook for 35 with the equip provided. A number of other issues including staff regularly walking through the main room with no hellos or acknowledgements of disturbing privacy, & also included going into the kitchen taking items which had been brought by the group. There was no dishwasher which we would have expected for large group bookings. Also the kitchen was very small and therefore having people in and out to make hot drinks when cooking was not good: we were told off for moving the kettle to a communal area, particularly as it blew the wrongly wired plugs. A number of the group commented on how rude the warden was (reading other reviews I don't feel so bad saying this now), thankfully the manager made up for this and was very helpful. The accommodation was clean and the space was lovely for mingling. It was good to have the play area etc next door for young children.

I/we stay in many hostels. I know hostels offer value-only accommodation, our expectations are modest. This hostel has a poor state of upkeep and exceptionally poor customer service. Yesterday (and for sure I could have expressed myself more constructively) I went to the staffer (Will) on reception and explained that I would be leaving a bad review: Because our en-suite shower was tepid, the bathroom mirror light and shaving point did not work, broken toilet seat, no where aside from beds to unpack our vanity bags, no bin and all of the installed reading lights neither wired nor working. The uninterested staffer shrugged their shoulders, said “I don’t care” and advised that I could use a communal shower. After taking a moment, I countered that as the member of staff he should care, we’d booked en-suite expecting the en-suite to be as advertised, and that he could be offering solutions to the raised problems - for example calling a plumber for the tepid shower, calling an electrician for the faulty shaving-mirror/vanity-light, offering a bin, repairing broken toilet seat etc. The staffer’s response was a further shrug and his unhelpful comment of “I don’t like the hostel anyway”. The following morning all of the sockets were faulty in the kitchen meaning no kettle, microwave or toaster availability for breakfast. No staffer, a notice advised to phone a mobile if any problems: I did, explaining the problems. All I was advised is that neither a staffer nor manager would be onsite for at least 20 minutes. I and another guest tried to find circuit boards to check ‘breaker switches’: The other guest found the kitchen one, reset the switch and the kitchen sockets power was restored. Bedding was clean, unpleasant eating area. I doubt I’ll be rebooking this hostel, which is a shame because its setting and location are nice: My advice would be to spend a bit more money and avoid the disappointment of staying in the hostel.

nice rooms, staff were great as able to change a room as my girlfriend was having problems with her legs hurting. Shower and toilets clean. Plenty of plug sockets in our room. Happy with our stay.Thanks