Name: Lanka Hostel Colombo
Address: 4/93A 5th Lane Thalakotuwa Gardens,5th Lane, Colombo, Colombo, Colombo, 00600, Sri Lanka
Rating: 9

Smoking areas

Garden

General

Laundry

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Breakfast

Common kitchen

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet access

Internet

Parking

Outdoor pool

Pool and beach

Location

At the hostel

Bandaranaike International Airport

Bentota River Airport

Lanka Hostel Colombo

Colombo

One of the more affordable places to stay in Colombo. Great place to start or finish your trip. Incredibly friendly and helpful staff. Has a kitchen, was clean and there is hot water for a shower.  Photos are misleading as they are out of date. Nice open lounge for socializing. 

No mosquito nets. We slept with the windows open for the fresh air and were terrorized by mosquitoes. 20-30 buzzing around in the morning. We informed the manager who was very receptive and said he would invest in some.

Very friendly, bit rundown

LHC management are cheaters. i booked their room for 11 nights and they charged my USD 70 dollars via paypal however when i reached there they said they are overbooked and Shanaka Madiyalla never returned my money. I am making a police complaint against them. Please be careful

Cheaters

The room was shared but for one night there was no problem. The owner was very friendly and helpful. Clean rooms with ventilator. Easy bedding and towels. Right breakfast. A 10-minute walk from the bus stop that takes you to the center.

A good option.

We have booked a deluxe doubleroom with private bath.When we arrived we got a 6-bed dorm with 3 bunk beds (they told us that we got it for outselves) and no private bathroom. When we complained we got a 7-bed dorm with a doublebed, a singlebed and two bunkbeds and a private bathroom. BUT it was SO SO dirth. In the bathroom there was a dead cockroach being eaten by a bunch of ants and the bathroom was not been cleaned. Again we went down to the reception, and the guy in the reception called his manager who complained that the people having the room we had made a reservation for had extended their stay..... The pool was a joke - it was just a tub like we have in the garden at home.
Of course we cancelled the reservation immideadly

SO dirty

this place was definitely the worst choice I made to end our blissful Sri Lankan vacation with!! The reviews on the online booking website were quite misleading and so were the onsite photographs that had been put up by the location. 
The so-called pool, which was just an inflated tub, was "under repair" and thereafter as well the refilled water was very dirty that I am sure anybody could have ended up with a skin infection!! The Manager, Upali, was hardly ever present and would leave the operations to a houseboy called Dinu/ Dhamu who barely understood what we spoke and could barely communicate in English. It was terrible. 
The deluxe family room window which promised a pool facing/ city facing view, in reality showed the back lane of the adjacent house!! Hardly something interesting to see!! The place gave all bogus promises and were only interested in when the payment would be made. We were there for 2 nights (thankfully only 2) and from day 1 itself we were being asked repeatedly for payments as if we would take all our luggage (of 4 people) and sneak out of the premises!! Or was this treatment only for Indians, I really don't know!! Upali got after us to pay only "big dollar notes" as small notes required him to pay more commission at the money changer!! What a bag of crap!!
The room was spacious for 4 people and that was the only positive highlight of the place.  But the iron beds were so rickety and shifty and uncomfortable to sleep in. there was not a single sided table on which a glass/ tea cup could be kept!! We had to repeatedly ask for toiletries/ duvets/ towels. The towels were dirty and stained and we used our own hand towels which we were carrying. The shower cubicle was so small that an average height person of 5'7" would be hitting his hands against the cubicle doors repeatedly. There were cockroaches making an appearance repeatedly in the bathroom and lizard in the bedroom. Certainly not the company we were looking for!!
The kitchen didnot look hygienic and ants could be seen all over the place. The coffee made by the houseboy was horrible and I started making our own tea/ coffee with the satchets/ tea bags we were carrying along. There is no tea/ coffee maker in the room as mentioned on the booking website and for every deficiency I would point out to the houseboy, he would say "MADAM THIS IS ONLY HOSTEL NOT HOTEL", as if that was a justification for everything wrong with the place. 
When I went for our first breakfast there and asked for omlettes, I was told that only fried egg and bread, nothing else was available!! I was shocked and told him that we wanted omlettes. The Manager hearing me sent the houseboy to fetch onions and I also realised that the loaf of bread lying there was spoilt and had fungus!! Uplai seemed to be shocked that I had unearthed the same and was possibly hoping that we would have consumed it!!! 
The spacious main hall had some seating space but the upholstery was dirty, stained and greasy. 
The lane in which this accommodation was located, was dark after sunset with no street lights. Returning from our dinner 1 night around 9.45 pm, was a bit disconcerting in the dark. 
I guess this place is fine for only backpackers who are not really fussy about the accommodation/ cleanliness/facilities. Definitely not for couples with kids. The money that I spent here was equivalent to a beautiful boutique hotel we had stayed in while at Kandy and what a contrasting experience!!

totally avoidable....very badly maintained

The bathroom was disgusting when we had taken the most expensive room! The owner was not at all conciliatory when we had to leave urgently the same evening he paid us full pot while we didn't sleep there (fortunately, by the way), the smell was unsustainable.

Negative - to be avoided

As soon as I arrived at Lanka Hostel, the owner was there to help carry my bag and then provide me with a fresh welcome drink. Despite the fact that I dropped and broke the glass and cut my foot, he was amazing and was like a little doctor!!!! He epitomised Sri Lankan kindness. And the rooms were more than comfortable and well priced for such a great location! 

Friendliest staff I’ve ever experienced!!

Nicest staff I met in Sri Lanka. Very accommodating, with lots of useful advice on where to go and how to avoid rip-offs. The manager though will try to rip you off so check your bill twice and do your conversion! This doesn't reflect poorly on the rest of the staff or the lovely place. In general, highly recommended for your stay in colombo 

Very friendly staff 

The best thing about this place is the host. Nice sweet, friendly people! It is located in the city center and easily accessible by bus and local transport. It is a little old fashioned and laid back, which is nice. It was more like staying in someone's home!

Old fashioned and nice!

In my backpack trip (February - March 2017) to Sri Lanka, during my stay in Colombo, my criticism of the accommodation in LANKA HOSTELS COLOMBO is as follows: With a general rating of NOTABLE, therefore, I recommend it. Very recommended! Best, your people! Your manager, San, and his employees, your facilities, excellent wifi in common areas, some limited outdoor... Good laundry service although tainted my clothes, one is reclaimed, the other has stayed there, very bad this aspect.. in general, clean, organized, modern. Even the swimming pool has! The room has a very good bathroom, clean individual shelves, locker, electricity, although no light, air conditioning and ventilation!

Lanka Hostel Colombo

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