Julia M.
Yelp
My friend and I had an unacceptable and terrifying experience while staying at the Flying Pig Downtown. At 3:30 in the morning, a couple noisily stumbled into the standard 18-person mixed room we were staying in (room #1), turning on all the lights and shouting at each other loudly, waking the rest of the room. The guy, (who was very drunk), began yelling and incessantly demanding that the woman he was with come be with him immediately. She told him to quiet down but he quickly became angry, and began to actually chase her around the room, trying to grab her against her will. The woman was scared and uncomfortable (as were all of us who were staying in the room, who had been asleep until this disruptive and scary event). She attempted to get away from him, and he ended up purposefully grabbing her and slamming her fingers into the door as she tried running down the hall, pushing and shoving her into the wall. She started screaming and crying, and took her items and tried to escape, again to no avail, because once again, he grabbed her against her will and pushed her back into the room. I waited until this violent and abusive person turned around so I could safely run past him and report what was happening to the man working at the front desk upstairs. I was terrified (several women in the room were whispering to each other, panicked and shocked, wondering what to do), and ran as quickly as possible, as this situation was not only extremely disruptive and unsettling, but was quickly becoming more dangerous.
The man on duty at the front desk that night seemed to take my panicked complaint seriously at first. He went down to address the problem, and I felt a small sense of relief that the situation would be properly handled by staff, as all of this was clearly against hostel policy for multiple reasons, in addition to the fact that this guest was a threat to others. However, I was quickly disappointed and proven wrong: not only was the abuser allowed to stay in the hostel (!!!), but he was given absolutely no kind of punishment, and no reparations to other guests affected by the incident were made. The abusive person was merely asked to get to bed and to calm down, while I was asked not to call the police if any further situation occurred, but to let the hostel know instead, because the hostel "really didn't want to get the police involved."
The man on duty who I had reported the situation to quickly went back to smoking and playing pool as if nothing had happened, while my friend and I sat in the reception area, shaking and unsettled, wondering what to do since it would be impossible to go back to sleep/would be very uncomfortable to be in the same room as this violent man (who was, by the way, still awake and pacing around the room until after 5 in the morning).
It seemed that no sense of customer service or concern existed by Flying Pig staff, and there was no sensitivity to the fact that there was a man in our room who had just become extremely violent and abusive. Staff ultimately shrugged off this very serious issue, and my friend and I were forced to go without more than 2 hours of sleep that night. I asked another staff member (also a male), why this person was allowed to stay in the hostel after such horrific behavior, also suggesting that my friend and I should not be charged for our stay as we couldn't even make use of the room we had paid for. The matter was once again shrugged off by staff, and I was told that we needed to get back to bed and that things "just didn't work that way" despite the fact that his behavior was in clear violation of hostel policy.
I have since written to management and demanded a refund, since that request was scoffed at by employees while I was there. Fortunately, the manager said she will refund us, but I still feel other travelers should be warned about this place. The employee at Flying Pig Downtown put others at risk by allowing a violent person to stay in the hostel, just because he did not care to take the time to handle things properly.