Bodo Hostel in Bishkek

My experience staying here was terrible, and I strongly do not recommend this hostel. The 8-bed female dorm had a constant foul smell like sewage. There were several long-term residents in the room, including one who worked for the hostel. The room was crowded and messy, with their luggage everywhere and no ventilation at all. The entire hostel only has two toilets, so you often have to wait in line. The toilets were dirty and had the same unpleasant sewage smell. The kitchen was also unhygienic.

What’s worse, on my second morning the hostel had a power outage. I left early in the morning and came back after 8 p.m., but the power was still out. The whole place was extremely hot, and none of the facilities could be used. I immediately asked to change hostels and requested a refund. The staff called the owner, but they refused, saying check-out time was 12 p.m. and that power would be back by 10 p.m. However, at 10 p.m. other buildings and streetlights nearby already had power again — only this hostel was still in the dark. I asked again for a refund because staying in a hostel with no power, no fan, no Wi-Fi, no kitchen, and no way to charge devices was completely unacceptable.

The owner finally showed up at 11 p.m. with an extremely rude attitude and gave me only two options: move to their other hostel for free (which was far away) or get a refund and find a new place by myself. I chose the refund, but by then it was already 11:30 p.m. I am a solo female traveler and there were no buses at that time. I asked the owner to drive me to another hostel, but he refused — totally irresponsible. I have never had such a terrible experience before. Luckily, I managed to walk safely to another hostel nearby that night.

I strongly advise everyone to think twice before staying here.

Stayed for 2 nights and moved as it's really just a boarding house for long term residents mainly from the Middle East. The hostel is newish but it seems to be fading fast and it's definitely not a place for backpackers. It's pretty central but the vibe just isn't there, and the staff, if you can't find them aren't that friendly. Maximum 1 night if you can't find anywhere else.

Location is good for the price I paid which was 3,835 for 7 nights via Agoda. The two stars is simple... I'll explain. Yes, the property is still very new which is good for a hostel, though this will demise rapidly. There were no mattress protectors, just a thin poorly fitted sheet, which will lead to hygiene issues and eventually infestation. They didn't have keys for almost all the lockers, for my room and the adjacent room. The staff were non-existent (though the receptionist is nice), a good portion of the time, so people who wanted to check-in would sometimes have to wait a while. At one point there were no staff until around 11am. The hostel is not so much a tourist hostel, but rather 70% long term residents, mainly Arabs and some locals. The owner who is Arabic randomly and aggressively accosted me in the street along with some other guests in the nearby area and said that we had left bottles by the trashcan outside and said if we want to do that "we can check-out the next day" (the trash bin was full both inside and out and they were neatly stacked). Aside from profiling me when actually some of those were from the previous day from other guests and most were not mine, we did in-fact clean up the trash left on the floor from the mainly long-term male Arab guests who seem to frequently make a mess and are generally loud and obnoxious. So the owners behaviour is just unbelievable? This is not a tourist hostel, there is no tourist information, and English isn't spoken by the staff, so if you're a tourist, choose elsewhere.