My recent experience of the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) Oxford Street hostel was disappointing: a tatty, pricey room, miserable all-round ambience and a general feeling that this was about as bad as it could get.

However, since then it has been brought to The Times’s attention by the (rather upset) YHA folk that there is a new breed of hostel with a smarter, brighter feel.

With this in mind, I secretly checked in to the YHA London St Pancras, which has recently been refurbished and is opposite the British Library on Euston Road, a minute’s walk from St Pancras station.

I was staying in a “shared single sex dorm” for £21.95. This was a Mystery Guest record: I have never stayed anywhere cheaper.

What a turn-up for the books. This was completely different to the Oxford Street hostel, with a bright café-restaurant with stripy chairs, cool spotlights, funky music playing on a stereo, stylish black and white shots of iconic London scenes, internet terminals and a cheerful staff in smart uniforms — one of whom presented me with a door key as though I were staying in a five-star pad on Park Lane.

Feeling a little bamboozled by all this YHA razzmatazz, I took a lift to the second floor, where I entered a reasonably sized, clean room with two bunks. I was on a top bunk and appeared to be sharing the room with two other people, if the pair of rucksacks by the neat blond-wood wardrobe and writing desk was anything to go by.

Other evidence of my missing bunk mates was a packet of mints resting on a shelf in the wardrobe and a copy of a travel book about Italy.

In reception, I had bought a padlock (£3) to lock my own backpack in the wardrobe. After tucking away my bag I went down to the café. Amid lots of young folk tapping on laptops, I ate an acceptable chilli con carne and drank a reasonable glass of merlot, thinking that youth hostels seem to have come a long way of late (at least this one had).

Then I went next door for a drink in the cavernous Euston Flyer pub, where a barman said that the hostel was much better than before — “It used to be a dive”.

After a stroll I returned to my dorm to find my mysterious fellow guests asleep in the dark — I never did meet them as they were fast asleep when I left in the morning. I brushed my teeth as quietly as I could in the little shower room and climbed into my bunk.

Despite traffic noise, I slept pretty well. For 20 quid it was very good value indeed (it certainly knocked the socks off YHA Oxford Street).

Do you agree with the Guest? Suggest hotels or get in touch: mysteryguest@thetimes.co.uk

Need to know

YHA London St Pancras (0845 3719344, yha.org.uk), 79-81 Euston Road, London NW1 2QE. Mystery Guest paid £21.95 for a shared dorm.

Room: 6.5 out of 10

Service: 7

Food: 6.5

Value: 9

Score: 7.25

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