My worst experience was in the YHA, Keswick, about 3 or 4 years ago. I was walking the Cumbria Way from Carlisle and felt unwell so booked in to get a good sleep. I entered the small room, 3 x 2 story bunks. I could see that the bottom bunks were taken, clothes and equipment were lying on them. About 5.00pm I climbed up on the top of one of them and fell asleep. Sometime later, it was now dark, I was hazily aware that people had quietly come into the room and there was a bit of shuffling around.
Suddenly a hand grabbed my ankle, I woke instantly and qall I could her was a man shouting in the gloom "He's taken my bed, I'm going to 'effin' kill him!" He then switched on the light, he was white, bald, middle-aged, slim had a northern accent and was about my height, 5' 5'. He then started RANTING "I'm going to 'F' kill him" over and over again. Looking back, I know that my career work in the mental health field helped me a lot. I didn't panic, I tried to grab the initiative. I knew he had some kind of aggressive/mental health issue, that was obvious so I shouted above him "don't worry mate, you can have your bed, I'll come down and get in the other one!"
It didn't work, he refused, turned the light off and I heard him climb to the top of one of the other bunk beds, by now muttering "I'm going to kill him" and making lots of noise shuffling about and getting undressed in the dark. I remember thinking this is not going to end! My work had given me a 'feel' for these things!
I then heard him jump down and he switched the light on again, now he was just in his Y underwear and he started RANTING again the same threat and physically shaking! With that, I shouted, "I'm leaving the room, I'm coming down and I'm out of here!" Luckily I hadn't unpacked my rucksack, my boots and coat were on the rucksack top.
I jumped down grabbed everything in one go and at that moment I could see that the lower bunks had bodies in them, but they were under their duvets. I moved straight for the door and the bloke, still shouting, picked up a full bottle of wine from the floor (Lambrusco, I'll never forget, horrible stuff!) and he took a swing at me. It was in that movement, when he turned to pick up the bottle and the second that it took to swing it, that saved me. I ducked, he missed, the bottle hit the bunk, it didn't smash, I'd opened the door and was gone!
I went downstairs to complain, I could still hear him shouting, one staff was on desk duty was scared (it by now was after 11.00pm) and didn't know what to do, I wasn't feeling brave either. He just gave me keys to another room on the second floor. We hesitated at the bottom of the stairs and listened, it was now quite. I suggested he should leave it, not worth getting into a confrontation in the middle of the night, he agreed, he was in a worse state than me! I went to my new room, it was empty, so I just locked the door and went to bed.
At dawn, I woke and thought, right, I'm now going to seek my assailant out on my terms. I went downstairs to the restaurant area, saw the chef, the incident had already been reported to him. He said was I looking for a middle-aged, white bloke, I nodded and was told that he had already been down and had left about 15 minutes before. And basically, that was it!