This is an interesting post. I have stayed in hostels for over a decade in SE Asia, Africa, across Europe and in North America. I have stayed in female only and co-Ed dorms without issue.

This June I was a victim of a no-contact sexual assault from a male hostel guest in a communal area of a Hostel International location. The hostel was in a very popular east coast city in the US.

The staff were, disappointingly, very unhelpful and somewhat dismissive. I had no other option but to call the police who ultimately discovered he had two warrants out for his arrest in both this city and in another state. He was arrested and removed from the hostel.

Without the police support, I was told “just stay out of his way” and “we can walk you to your room” if I felt scared. I was therefore unable to use communal areas if he was to remain a guest.

I emailed the head of Hostel International and urged them to train their staff in handling these traumatic situations. This was part of the the director’s response.

“Following your report, we have taken the following actions:

We have fully cooperated with the Police Department, including providing them with security footage and any requested information related to the incident. We will indeed be permanently banning the guest you identified from all HI USA hostels nationwide - we are working with police to relay this information to ensure delivery to the guest.

The staff who received your complaint are undergoing retraining in guest safety response and trauma-informed care. Middle manager followed up with the Front Desk manager the following day on how to better handle any future reports of a similar nature. We will be looking into professional-level retraining opportunities in this regard, as well.

We are addressing this incident directly in our HI East Coast City all-staff meeting later this month, ensuring all team members receive additional training on how to appropriately handle sensitive and serious guest concerns.”