Prague housing estate residents fight noise and chaos from high-rise hostel

Residents of a housing estate in Malešice, Prague 10, are demanding relief from the noise and disorder caused by a 25-story hostel that accommodates over 1,000 tourists. Despite repeated complaints, petitions, and police calls, locals say the disturbances persist.

The hostel, operated by international chain A&O Hostels since 2017, occupies a former dormitory. Its budget-friendly rates attract school groups, sports teams, and young travelers, but residents in surrounding buildings say the influx has brought unmanageable disruption.

"You can't live here. There's unrest from the morning—shouting, kids, people everywhere. You can’t even hear the TV with the windows open," said Lea Bachronyová, a local resident, in a recent Czech investigative podcast episode hosted by Seznam Zprávy.

Residents have launched a petition addressed to city district officials, asking for concrete measures to restore peace. “After five years of calls to the police and complaints to officials, people are giving up,” complained David Šlechtický, a housing association chairman and the petition’s initiator.

While residents have approached health and municipal authorities, they’ve been told that the law does not classify noise from accommodation facilities as a sanctionable offense. This legal gap limits any enforcement action. Once guests leave the hostel property, the property is no longer held responsible for their behavior.

Even when police are called, results are often fleeting. Officers arrive to find the situation defused, only for the disturbances to resume shortly after. Vandalism is another concern: locals report broken benches and even adults misusing children’s playground equipment.

Hostel manager Mircea Lechaicu says the establishment is trying to mitigate the situation. “We’ve put up multilingual signs urging respectful behavior, and maintain constant security inside the building,” he said.

This problem is indicative of a wider theme affecting Prague more generally and other European nations—overtourism. The Czech capital has enforced several pieces of legislation: banning organized pub crawls, designating a nighttime no-go zone for regular vehicles, and pushing for more regulation of short-term holiday rentals are all recent examples.

On the continent, Venice has expanded its entry fee for day-trippers, Barcelona has vowed to revoke 10,000 short‑term rental licences by 2028, and Amsterdam recently extended its ban on new Airbnbs in central districts.