In this first‑person narrative, the speaker recounts being locked out of a hostel in Stow‑on‑the‑Wold, England, after attending a wedding. Arriving around 2 AM, the door code no longer works, and there are no emergency contacts or notifications. After knocking on a nearby groomsmen’s door, the speaker sleeps on a couch. The next morning, hostel staff explain the code is changed twice a week and only a tiny post‑it on the back of the door notes the new code. The speaker criticizes the lack of communication and advises travelers to proactively ask hostels about code‑change frequency and notification methods to avoid similar lockouts. The video concludes with a practical tip: always confirm code policies, especially for multi‑night stays.
Chapters
I got locked out of my hostel at 2 AM, and here's the story because I don't want it to happen to you. I went to my friend's wedding a few years back. It was in Stow-in-the-Wold, England. Now that place may sound familiar if you're a big nerd. There's a door on this church that supposedly inspired Tolkien. I stay in a hostel while I'm there because I'm 25 and cheap and everybody else is at hotels. The night before, I actually get invited to where the groomsmen are staying with their girlfriends, and they have me over for wine and we have a great night. So stay there the first night, no problems at the hostel. So I'm getting ready for the wedding and I go hang out in the lobby for a bit and just like hanging out on my phone until it's ready time. Then I leave, go to the wedding, have a great time, have a blast, come home about 2 AM with part of the groomsmen party because we're like a couple houses down from each other. I get to the door for the hostel and I punch in the code and red light. Punch in the code, red light. And I'm like, I had a fair bit to drink at this wedding, but like, I think I should be able to handle some set of numbers. But I'm trying, punching the number, red light. Punch the number, red light. I'm like, okay, maybe I should check my email. No email. Check my phone for voicemails. No voicemails. Text messages, nothing. Check around the door for an emergency number. No emergency number. I'm like, okay, what do I do? Do I sleep outside in my dress and heels at night in England? And yeah, it was June, but it's still freaking cold, especially in a dress. Again, a couple doors down was where the groomsmen were staying with their girlfriends. So I go knock on the door. It's like probably like 2:30 at this point, so I'm hoping anybody's still awake and not just like passed out drunk. And luckily somebody answers, and I tell them what happened, and they let me sleep on the couch. And of course I get in the one room with the one dude who doesn't have a girlfriend. He was kind of obnoxious, but that's a separate story. I just told him to go to sleep, Chad, okay? Go to sleep. And I was so angry at this time. It's funny now. The next morning I wake up and I go to the hostel being like, I'm gonna have words with somebody. So I get there and the lady's like, oh yeah, we changed the code twice a week. And I'm like, well, why did Nobody tell me that when I checked in. And she's like, well, it's on the back of the door. So I go to the back of the door and it's about the size of a small Post-it, you know, like the little mini ones, not even like the big ones, the little mini ones. And I'm like, how many people are reading the back of the door as they're leaving the building? A. And B, like, there's like 3 people in this hostel, you can't bother to tell people? And she was like, oh, that'd be too much work. So luckily this hostel is no longer around, so you don't have to worry about this. But if there is some kind of code on the front of the door, it's not a key card or something like that, it's just a manual code, do ask your hostel if you are staying even for more than a night, because I was only there for like 2 or 3 nights and this happened. Ask them like, hey, do you change the code? And if so, how often? Because I don't want you getting locked out. Thank God I knew people, because else, yeah, it would have been me and I don't know, um, a park bench.
