Join Inn

I must strongly advise that anyone thinking of going to Beijing, should stay well clear of Join Inn and its ignorant owner John.

I booked a room here through hostelworld (who have been very good in the issue) 3 months ago and at the last minute had my reservation cancelled. Conveniently they decided to refurbish at the last minute, even though they had already received my deposit.

After emailing the owner John several times whilst in Beijing, asking how we could get our money back, he chose to ignore me. When he finally promised to reimburse the money, we had already left the city (this was 10 days later).

Emails were exchanged with Join Inn and Hostelworld and whenever the email was three way, there were promises of payment, then private emails would be sent to me refusing. After 3 months John told me that i must first pay a $10 bank fee if i want to receive my money back, even though it was his fault that he made the cancellation! He has been rude, obstructive and thoroughly unhelpful throughout.

Hostelworld have kindly offered to refund the money, even though they are not obliged to. They call it a good will gesture, something that this horrible man John would never have heard of.

Please stay clear of Join Inn when visiting Beijing, there are a host of other wonderful hostels including Qian Men and Leo Hostel, both of which were excellent.