St Christopher's Inns doesn't take cash payments (London)

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Sell out. That's one of the better ways to label the hostel franchise St Christopher's Inns. You know how laughable it is for Jennifer Lopez to claim she's still down-to-earth Jenny from the block? Switch the celebrity for a brick-and-mortar business and you get my drift.


I've stayed in St. Christopher's Inns in, both, Berlin and Paris and never incurred a problem buying a bed if there was vacancy. But such was not the case in London. Unlike most stupid young people I don't use credit cards. I pay for everything in cash and upfront because - guess what - much of the world commerce still does use hard currency.

this policy of London St. Christopher's Inns is not at all in the spirit of youth hostels

I walked over to The Village, one of the hostels on High Borough Street, to book a bed for the week and asked if they had a weekly special rate. They had but.... I found it very odd that the reception could not take my booking then and there; she gave me a card and informed me to call the booking office. I did. But the telephone rep wouldn't make a reservation unless I had a bank card of some sort. Really?! Wow, let's complicate life by making the simple complicated! What did hotels ever do before the invention of call centers and invisible money (credit)?

to turn away my business just because I was equipped to pay cash is amazing

This particular policy of London St. Christopher's Inns is very short-sighted and not at all in the spirit of  youth hostels. That the hostel would turn away my business just because I was equipped to pay cash is amazing -- and stupid.

Thankfully, London is a big, big city with plenty of other budget hotels who, unlike this corporate-minded establishment, gladly accept credit cards AND cash. In the meantime I'll write a complaint letter to the appropriate gov't bodies to see if this practice is even legal.