I visited a bedbug-infested hostel and couldn't stay because of what I found

The £20-a-night hostel in the centre of Cardiff has a litany of one star reviews with one visitor finding rotting food under his bed and another saying it was the 'worst experience' they had ever had. It has now shut.

A central Cardiff hostel has been described by guests as "the worst I've ever been to", with reports of bags of rotting food under beds, frequent power cuts, a lack of running water and bedbugs.

The Mrs Potts Hostel in St Mary Street, which promised backpackers "that warm and fuzzy feeling they get at home", has now been forced to close by the fire service because of the lack of a reliable electricity supply. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service issued a prohibition notice forcing a shutdown of the building due to electricity supply issues. According to its Google listing the business is "permanently closed."

Numerous guests complained and left negative reviews with reviews on Booking.com describing the hostel as the “most uncomfortable night I have ever spent” and saying it was “rundown, dirty, and felt unsafe."

Booking.com has removed the hostel from its site pending further investigation and it is currently unavailable for guests to book. Mrs Potts Hostel is a separate business to Mrs Potts Chocolate House, also in St Mary Street.

I visited the hostel just days before it closed and after spending a few hours inside found that running water and electricity were not working in most of the building and a box of food was being stored under one of the beds. Never miss a Cardiff story by signing up to our daily newsletter here.

Others I spoke to also reported similar issues during recent stays at the hostel, which has not responded to requests for comment. Jordan Malthouse stayed a night at the hostel and said having visited number of hostels before he had never had a worse experience than at Mrs Potts Hostel.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be luxury – I’m paying for a hostel – but I’ve been to all these hostels around the world and it was the worst I’ve ever been to," he said.

The 25-year-old from Newcastle booked to stay on April 18 while on the way to a camping trip and after arriving claims he realised there was no power in most of the building.

“I checked in about 9pm. I went up, tried to plug my phone in, and there was emergency lighting only. At 10pm I went back down to say: 'I can’t charge my phone'.”

He claims he was able to charge his phone at reception – one of the few areas of the hostel with electricity – but had to use his phone flashlight to get around the building.

Alongside electricity issues Jordan also claims there was no running water in the building for part of his stay which further added to his negative experience.

“It was just absolutely horrendous to be honest with you. The bag of rotting food left under my bed was just vile,” he said.

Magda Koperska, who stayed at the hostel on April 25, claims issues with running water continued throughout her stay and was one of the reasons she ultimately cut her two-day visit short after just a day.

Arriving at the hostel the 41-year-old claims the electricity was not working and that there was no running water in either her bathroom or any of the other bathrooms that she tried using.

Upon arriving at 8pm she said she was unable to get inside the hostel as the access code she was given did not work when she entered it into the intercom at the front door.

“Luckily there was another guest leaving the hostel so I managed to get in through the door but the reception area was all dark. As it turned out, there was no electricity and there was nobody in reception," she said.

Having hoped to shower before attending an event that evening she said she was later told by the hostel that the water was working.

“Having seen that text that everything should be working I went into the bathroom to shower but there was no water. So this is the middle of the night – 3.30am. I hadn’t showered before the event – now I came back after an almost all night of dancing and I couldn’t do anything either.”

Raising this issue again in the morning she claims the receptionist she spoke to was “completely uninterested." Magda added: “I said there is no water and he sort of shrugged it off.”

Magda eventually resorted to upgrading her gym membership so she was able to shower elsewhere before eventually deciding to not stay a second night – a choice she said was also driven by a lack of heating inside.

“Even though it was April for some reason it was very cold at night so there was also no heating at all,” she claims. For Magda the overall experience “felt a bit like I was squatting somewhere” and she claims she saw “signs of mould and rotten bits on the wall” while there.

Having read a number of reviews of reported bedbugs at the hostel which had left some guests covered in bites, she said she has since felt “paranoid” that she has brought bedbugs home with her.

“I’ve cleaned my house top to toe several times and I’m scared bedbugs will appear from my luggage,” she said.

Both Magda and Jordan stayed at the hostel in April but issues with running water predate that.

Isabella Lane, 19, stayed at the hostel for three nights between February 15 and 18 and while she didn’t experience any issues with the electricity she claims the hostel had running water for only one and a half days while she was there.

“Before I went back to the hostel each night I would use the facilities wherever I was and then as soon as I woke up I would have to quickly get changed and then go out and find a café and do the same thing," she said.

Having chosen the place for its good location she said that based on the images available online the hostel “looked pretty nice” but had some idea of what to expect once inside based on online reviews.

“There was nothing else available and those that were were proper hotels that were quite expensive," she said.

A spokesperson for South Wales fire service said it attended the hostel on April 29 accompanied by environmental health officers. "During the visit it was identified that there was no electricity supply provided to the fire safety equipment within the premises, such as fire alarm, emergency lighting, etc," they added.

"A temporary electricity supply in the form of a portable generator had been in use. However, the fire service was informed that the power supply to the building would cease for several hours due to the generator running out of fuel. We were also informed by the environmental officer that the use of the generator would be prohibited by them due to noise pollution affecting the surrounding buildings. As a result of these findings, the fire service served a prohibition notice under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order on the premises."

A spokesman for Booking.com said: "At Booking.com all of our accommodation partners are responsible for the information and photos that they upload to our platform as part of their listing.

“In the rare instance that we are alerted to any misrepresentations or issues with a property we immediately investigate and in this case we have suspended the property pending further investigation.”

WalesOnline approached Mrs Potts Hostel for comment on several occasions and made efforts to speak with the business' director, Dr Issac Mitias, but we have yet to receive a response.