There is a special kind of travel purgatory that begins when your accommodation kicks you out at 10am and your train, bus or flight doesn’t leave until late that evening.
This means you’ve technically got another day to explore a city, except you’re now carrying 15kg of worldly possessions on your back including all of your valuables. Museums won’t always let you in with it and walking five miles in summer heat suddenly don’t seem so appealing. And of course, spending six hours guarding your backpack in a café while you nurse a single coffee isn’t much of a final day.
Traditionally, we’ve dealt with this by sweet-talking hostel receptionists, using train station lockers or simply carrying the damn thing around. But now luggage storage apps have created another, and much better, option. Services such as Bounce, Stasher and Radical Storage let you book temporary luggage storage in hotels, shops and other businesses across cities around the world at a fair price.
We’ve spent years travelling in and out of cities and regularly find ourselves with these awkward gaps between checkout and departure. So, rather than simply asking which company has the biggest network, we’re looking at what actually matters when you’re standing in Barcelona with a backpack and six hours to kill.
In this post we will compare location, opening hours, price, security and how easily you can get your bag back when it’s time to leave.
Bounce vs Stasher vs Radical Storage: Quick Comparison
- Bounce: Best for sheer choice. Its network currently claims more than 32,000 storage locations across 4,000+ cities.
- Stasher: A particularly strong option in major European cities, with 9,200+ storage locations worldwide and an advertised guarantee of up to £10,000 per booking, subject to its terms.
- Radical Storage: Another huge international network, currently claiming 16,500+ locations across 2,300+ cities, with a €3,000 guarantee per bag.
Our advice: Don’t get too hung up on choosing a single favourite app. Search all three and choose the best-reviewed storage point that’s actually convenient for your journey. It will often vary depending upon where in the world you are.
How Do Luggage Storage Apps Work?
Bounce, Stasher and Radical Storage aren’t simply enormous warehouses filled with tourists’ suitcases. Rather they’re networks connecting travellers with local businesses that have some spare storage capacity and need a second income. Over recent trips, we have left our bags in a laundry in Mexico City, a Greengrocer in Shanghai and a giant room filled with lockers in Helsinki; all courtesy of the Big 3 storage apps.
In either of the apps, search for where you want to leave your luggage and you’ll be shown nearby participating locations, which might include hotels, convenience stores, cafés, dedicated lockers and other businesses. You then book online, take your luggage to the location and return to collect it later (do remember to collect it!).
It’s an appealing model because storage isn’t restricted to railway stations and airports. You could leave your backpack near the museum you’re visiting, the neighbourhood you’re exploring or the station you’ll eventually depart from.
But remember that you’re ultimately entrusting your luggage to an individual storage partner. The quality and location of that particular partner may matter more than which app you booked it through.
Is Luggage Storage Safe?
Generally yes of course. These platforms vet their storage partners and provide some form of protection against loss, theft or damage. However, travellers should read the small print rather than being seduced by the biggest guarantee number.
Stasher, for example, advertises protection of up to £10,000 per booking, subject to its guarantee terms. It also explicitly advises travellers not to leave passports, travel documents or valuable electronics inside stored luggage.
That’s sensible advice regardless of which service you use.
Keep your passport, wallet, phone, essential medication and expensive electronics with you (yes I know carrying a MacBook across a strange city feels wrong). A portable travel safe can help. We’d also photograph the bag when handing it over and keep your booking/check-in confirmation until you’ve collected everything.
A £3 luggage-storage booking is supposed to save you from carrying your backpack around Rome. It isn’t the place to leave your passport, £3,000 camera kit and spare kidney if you can reasonably avoid it.
Bounce vs Stasher vs Radical Storage
Bounce: Best for Finding Somewhere Nearby
From our research and experience, it seems to us that Bounce’s biggest advantage is scale. It currently advertises more than 32,000 storage spots across 4,000+ cities – this is considerably more locations than either of the other two major services.
That doesn’t automatically make Bounce better, but a bigger network increases the odds of you actually finding somewhere close to where you need to be. That’s important. Saving £1 on storage isn’t much of a victory if collecting your bag requires a 40-minute detour before catching a train right?
Locations include both local businesses and proper lockers, with prices and opening hours varying by storage point. Bounce also has an app and currently offers app users 10% back in Bounce credits on bookings.
Choose Bounce if: your priority is finding the most conveniently located storage point rather than remaining loyal to one particular service.
Stasher: Best for UK and European City Trips
Stasher works on much the same principle, using a network of hotels, shops and lockers known as Stashpoints. It currently advertises more than 9,200 locations worldwide, with particularly substantial coverage in cities including London, Paris and Barcelona.
Its guarantee is also worth noting. Eligible bookings are covered up to £10,000, although travellers should read the terms carefully and avoid storing high-value electronics and travel documents.
One downside is cancellation. Cancel before your drop-off period and Stasher currently offers either a 50% refund or a coupon worth 100% of the booking for future use. That’s less generous than a straightforward full cash refund, so bear it in mind if your plans are uncertain.
Choose Stasher if: it has a highly rated Stashpoint conveniently positioned for your itinerary, particularly when travelling around major European cities.
Radical Storage: Best Alternative to Check
Radical Storage is another seriously large player, claiming more than 16,500 storage locations across 2,300+ cities. Partners are known as “Angels” and, as with its competitors, include hotels, shops and other local businesses.
Bookings currently include a guarantee of up to €3,000 per bag against loss, theft or damage, subject to the company’s terms. Radical also advertises 24/7 customer support and free cancellation.
Its large international footprint makes Radical worth checking alongside Bounce and Stasher rather than treating it as a backup.
Choose Radical Storage if: it offers a better-located or better-reviewed storage partner than its competitors. That’s ultimately the metric we care about most. And best of all, our readers can bag a discount on all bookings using the Coupon Code – BROKEBP.
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What About Train Station Lockers?
Image: Nic Hilditch-Short
Before downloading three apps, check whether your railway station already has luggage storage.
Traditional lockers or staffed left-luggage desks can be incredibly convenient if you’re departing from the same station later. Drop your backpack, explore, return to the station, grab it and board your train. Job done.
But station storage isn’t universally available, opening hours can be restrictive and prices can be considerably higher. Lockers can also fill up during busy periods and larger backpacks or suitcases won’t always fit.
App-based storage becomes particularly useful when you want to leave luggage somewhere other than the station. If you’re spending your last day exploring the opposite side of the city, dragging your bag back to the station first rather defeats the point.
Don’t Forget the Free Options
But before paying anybody, maybe ask your accommodation.
Hostels are generally pretty good about letting departing guests leave backpacks for a few hours, and many hotels have dedicated luggage rooms. Some will even store bags before check-in or after checkout without charge. This is useful even if you’re just travelling with hand luggage.
Airbnbs and apartments are less predictable because hosts may need to turn the property around immediately, but there’s still no harm in asking.
We’ve left luggage behind reception desks all over the world. If your hostel will safely store your backpack until 6pm for free, use it. You don’t need an app to solve a problem you’ve already solved.
How to Choose a Luggage Storage Location
Don’t automatically book the first pin on the map. Check the final price, individual location reviews and opening hours, and think about where you’ll actually need your bag later.
If you’re catching a 7pm train, a storage point beside the station may be far more useful than one beside your accommodation. Equally, don’t book somewhere that closes at 6pm and assume you’ll somehow work it out….they won’t wait for you to come and collect your bag.
Keep valuables and essential documents with you, photograph your luggage at handover and leave enough time to collect it before your onward transport. Missing a flight because the guy holding your backpack has temporarily disappeared into the stockroom would be an impressively stupid way to save yourself an afternoon of carrying it.
Bounce vs Stasher vs Radical Storage: Which Is Best?
Image: Nic Hilditch-Short
If we had to pick one service before knowing the destination, then Bounce currently has the advantage on network size. More locations should mean a better chance of finding storage where you actually need it.
But that’s not how we’d recommend using these services.
Open Bounce, Stasher and Radical Storage and search around where you want to collect your luggage, particularly if you’re heading for a station or airport afterwards. Compare the final price, opening hours and reviews of the individual storage locations.
Then book whichever one works best.
The difference between paying £4 and £5 to store a backpack is pretty insignificant. The difference between walking two minutes and taking a 30-minute detour across town to retrieve it absolutely isn’t.
Our winner isn’t necessarily Bounce, Stasher or Radical Storage. It’s whichever one has a trustworthy storage point in the right place at the right time.
