My "budget" hostel mattress gave me a backache for three straight days

Last month in Barcelona I booked this cheap hostel for 12 euros a night. Thought I was saving big until I woke up with my back in knots from a mattress that felt like it was filled with old concrete bags. After day two of hobbling around Park Guell I finally asked the front desk if they had a mattress topper or something. They pulled out this beat up foam pad from a closet that smelled like mildew but honestly it saved my trip. So my hack is always ask for extra padding or a topper before you just suffer through it. Has anyone else run into hostel beds that wrecked their back?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliot_taylor1mo ago

Honestly the "old concrete bags" line hit home because that's exactly what some of these places are working with. I'm curious though - after you asked for that topper and it worked, did you check the mattress itself for any springs or foam layers? Like did you lift the sheet and actually see what you were dealing with? I've had beds where the mattress was just a thin slab on plywood and even a topper couldn't fix the hard foundation underneath.

hayes.joel1mo ago

And yeah, I totally checked after that topper saved my back - turns out the mattress was basically a yoga mat with delusions of grandeur. I found maybe two sad springs hiding in there like they were ashamed of themselves. At that point I was just grateful my cheap foam layer did the heavy lifting because lord knows the bed itself wasn't pulling its weight.

the_wren16d ago

Dude that thin slab on plywood situation is the absolute worst. I feel like those hostels know exactly what they're doing by hiding it under a fitted sheet and hoping nobody lifts it up.