Ulasan Jacques Brel Hostel

Overall, the stay was not too bad. If not for some inconveniences, I would have rated this hostel better. First, the nearest Metro exit was under renovation. As a result, I need to detour quite a fair bit to get into the Metro station. It is ok without luggage, but with luggage, it is much more challenging with cobblestone road. Second, this is the first hostel which I paid for twin room and was not provided with towel. While my app stated that the towel is included, the receptionist told me that I need to pay to rent the towel. A bit disappointed. Thankfully, I have my own beach towel.

Quite nice, the room is spacious and there are lots of facilities in the hostel.

Everything was cool...

The reception doesn't seem to be open 24 hours, but you can check in at the bar even if you arrive late at night. The beds in the dormitory don't have numbers, so you have to find an empty one yourself. The beds were fine. However, one of the luggage racks was broken and couldn't be pulled out, and the other was placed in a place where it couldn't be pulled out no matter what you did due to the structure of the room, so neither of us could use it. I asked the reception if we could change rooms, but they said it was full, so we used the luggage room in the basement on the first night. On the second day, only one person in the room checked out, so we put both of our luggage in one luggage rack. Be careful, as the structure of room 31 where I stayed means that one person can't use the luggage rack when the room is full!

The room is OK. It's nice to rent a clean and sanitary house at this price.

The front desk disappeared at 8pm and I had to wait in the lobby for an hour to check in. All other facilities are very good, there is luggage storage, the room and bathroom are clean and tidy, and it is a very comfortable stay.

The bar on the first floor is very lively, and I think it's perfect for party lovers. The rooms and bathrooms are relatively clean and comfortable. It's a shame that the shared kitchen only has one pot and no bowls or plates. The location is good, so it's easy to get to other spots.

I loved the company

The location is okay, there are no people in the block, and it feels safer than next to the subway station. It's less than half an hour's walk from the EU headquarters and the Manneken Pis. The staff are quite enthusiastic Facilities: There is no free secure package storage service. Packages can be stored in the basement room, but if you don't have a lock, it can only be stored with the door open, which is not safe. It costs 4 euros to buy a lock from him (I always think that hotel storage is The service should be free, but I am disappointed that this hotel does not have it). I could only wait until three o'clock to check in and take my bag to the room. Of course, there was no locked cabinet in the room😊 There are six beds, including two separate small beds. You can choose whatever you want when you arrive early. There are windows, sirens are constantly sounding, two toilets, and a bathroom. Because I stayed for two days, based on my observation, they provide bed sheets, etc., but the quilts are not changed, only the sheets are changed. If you cover yourself with a quilt directly, it is equivalent to covering yourself with a quilt that has been covered by a person. The overall experience is average. If you are not alone, you would not stay here.

I loved the Hostel, I found the environment super clean and comfortable. I intend to return!

Lots of student groups. There are no particular advantages or disadvantages.

I don’t recommend this hostel because of its lack of security. I stayed in a private room just for three people, which was what my two friends and I needed, and someone of the staff enter to the room and stole my professional camera. The hostel has ads where they state that all cleaning must be done by ourselves and if we requiere something in the room, we must ask at the reception. Therefore, we leave all of our properties in the room once we leave the hostel for the day. The day we were packing for check out we notice the camera was missing, we informed immediately to the receptionist but they just answered that because of the weekend they can’t look the video footage and there’s is no one like a manager to talked with. This happened the 26th of January 2025, we were asked to write an email to the hostel telling what happened but we haven’t received any response.

Arrived for check in and there was no front desk person in sight for at least 10 minutes. I should have known the rest of the stay would follow suit! The pictures of this place must be extremely old, because it looks much more run-down than this in person. The 4th floor foyer looked like it hadn't seen a mop anytime recently. It even had some weird pipes sticking out of the floor in the hall by the elevator. We had a private room on that floor. The window frame paint in our room was peeling and the furnishings have seen better days, but it's a hostel, so I wasn't too worried about any of this. However when I woke in the middle of the night itching to bed bug bites, that was too much for me. The front desk was supposed to reopen at 8am and at that time we were in the lobby waiting. However, by 8:30am still no front desk person had showed up so we packed our things and got another hotel. (Motel One, a few blocks over- super fabulous!) I sent a message to Jacques Brel through Booking dot com, and eventually he got back to me and said they would "look into it." A few days later he said other people had stayed in the room with no reported bites so they wouldn't refund all my unused nights, only the one night they were required to due to my refundable booking. (I feel so bad for those other people staying in that room that might not know they are taking bugs home!) I've backpacked all over Europe for years and have been bitten by bed bugs a few times- it happens. But I don't particularly enjoy being called a liar, or being lied to about the condition of a property I've paid to stay in. Not everyone reacts to their bites but no one wants to take them home - this property needs to be honest when a room has issues. And for full disclosure, this was the first place we stayed on our Belgium/Luxembourg trip so we didn't bring the bugs with us- they were definitely living at Jacques Brel!

Positives: The bed and bedding seemed clean. Decent enough location, 15 min walk from grand place and even quicker by metro. The other positive was checking out. Negatives: The hostel was very run down, smelly in certain areas, unclean, cold and felt like an abandoned construction site. My room was on the 3rd floor and there was no lift (which was no problem for someone able like myself). The stairway up felt very unsafe, dark and extremely run down. In the room, they obviously clean only the essentials, as the shower basin and the toilet were satisfactory clean, however all the skirting boards, shower curtain, and all other fixtures were filthy. The breakfast was satisfactory, enough to fill up to start the day. When arrived back one night I was hoping to have a hot drink, so asked for some hot water to use for my teabag, I was directed to the machine but was told no cups were available and I was supposed to supply my own. I'm glad I was only there a minimal amount of time just to sleep, but unfortunately I wouldn't return and wouldn't reccomend.