Bad hostel experience - looking for advice and stories
Hi all!
I just had my first bad hostel experience at a capsule hostel in Montreal. When I first arrived, my sleeping pod was clear but the locker that paired with my pod already had someone else's bags in it. I asked the front desk and they gave me another locker number, so I had two key cards - one for my locker, and one for my sleeping pod.
The next day I went out and about town, came back in the evening around 9:00, and found that all of the stuff in my locker was gone. I don't know exactly what happened, but I think whoever got the sleeping pod associated with my locker number must have dumped my bags on the floor and put their own bags in the locker instead. There were a couple of rough-looking guys in some pods down the corridor, who were harassing and trying to talk to women walking by, myself included, who mostly ignored them, but it was unfortunately the only way in and out of this part of the hostel.
So, I go to talk to the front desk attendant (a woman), who thankfully was INCREDIBLY helpful in helping me check the lost and found box, but no luck. We walk back through the corridor, and low and behold, the creepy guys have my bag and other belongings in their sleeping pods. Thankfully I had already described everything missing to the attendant, and she helped me get almost everything back, except for a few shirts. One of the guys was literally wearing my sneakers and she made him take them off and give them back to me. I felt fairly calm throughout this process, as it's not the first time I've been robbed (previous house robbery, lost almost everything), and generally when there's a crisis I'm in control while it's happening but have an emotional reaction a day or two after the event when I feel safe.
After about 5 minutes of hearing them shouting down the corridor, and one of the guys (who stole the shoes) disappearing outside, I decided I didn't want to stay there anymore, got a refund from the front desk lady who was very understanding (I'm still waiting for the refund to hit my card), and went to stay with some colleagues in a different part of the city. One of the guys actually apologized for me on my way out and said he didn't know it was my stuff, but at that point the ship had sailed.
Now I'm still staying with some friends, but still feeling pretty shaken up and discomforted. Oddly, I just feel really jumbled and sad about the whole thing, since Montreal is a beautiful city and I was having such a great time up until that point. I feel more disturbed that somebody just dumped my stuff out of my assigned locker than I am irritated with the guys who ended up with it. Ultimately there wasn't any casualty except for a couple shirts which I can replace while traveling and the stress of going through everything. I'm posting here to try to get some perspective from other female travelers:
Do you have any advice on how to come to terms with what happened? I still feel a bit shaken, but I have one and a half weeks left of my trip, and I want to make the most of it. Also - do ya'll have any advice on hostel safety? Usually I consider myself safety-oriented and next time I will be sure to verify that my locker is secure, but I've found you can't be 100% alert of all possible problems all the time and would appreciate any advice in that regard from more seasoned travelers.
What's your worst or most uncomfortable hostel/hotel/travel story? Have you ever had this experience while traveling before? How have you dealt with it?