Hands down the best hostel I’ve stayed at so far! highly recommend. best thing about this is the restrooms are all private, single-occupancy rooms located outside of the bedrooms. they got so many amenities and hangout spots in the building.

Very impressed by this hostel - great location and full amenities. There was a huge price discrepancy between this hostel and other hotels in Boston, and I was worried I would be staying somewhere sketchy based on how affordable it felt. Was pleased when I arrived and saw the hostel was centrally located, with access to nearby parking ($24/hr). The hostel was clean with fresh sheets and towels, and all amenities you might need. Kitchen was fully stocked (pots/pans, fridge, coffee...) and hostel was quiet. Perfect for my overnight stay in Boston.

The staff was friendly, the bathrooms were very clean and the rooms were good value for the money. I stayed in a 4 man room on two separate nights. The first night I was on the 5th floor bottom bunk, the second night 3rd floor top. The mattresses were firm, but comfortable, and had encasements. What I really liked about them were the curtains and the individual lights and power strip. It made each bunk feel a bit like a capsule hotel space. The fifth floor room was too hot for me and there was no wifi signal. The third floor room had wifi and was cooler, but the room was more narrow. I think that all of my roommates were from different countries, which was fun. They were all pleasant and friendly. Do note that everyone has different sleep schedules due to jet lag, so the room will be dark most of the time. I also appreciated the $5 after checkout luggage storage, which I used twice. Definitely a great option for solo travel.

I was very comfortable with my stay. I actually used the extra sheet provided as additional curtain to have more privacy and keep my area darker, but that's personal preference. Everything is accessible and walkable. The restroom can definitely be improved.

Extremely cheap rates for an ideal location, a very clean and well-resourced hostel with a great kitchen and many common facilities. My roommates were all very quiet and respectful and the private bathrooms with hostel-provided one-use bath mats were amazing! Bring your own padlocks and slippers/flipflops!

Perfect location! But bathrooms didn’t have floor mats, no vent fans, too quite you can hear people in the next room. Check in and checkout was easy. Room and bed was comfortable. The storage doesn’t come with locks, you need to purchase one for $8. Trains are just a few mins away. Didn’t feel unsafe. Overall It was good, but not as good as black elephant hostel in Portland.

Pro: - Clean rooms and bathrooms. - Safe-feeling. - The hostel has many activities you can take advantage of, if you're so inclined. - Fantastic location, very easy to walk to neat things downtown, and it's cool to be right next to Chinatown and all of those restaurants. Con: - The shared rooms don't have any noise mitigation. The floors are concrete and there aren't fans for white noise, so you're going to hear it if someone rolls over on their bed or decides to have a 3 a.m. snack. - Unlike the normal hostel protocol where you're expected to do your own dishes, it seemed that the staff were doing the dishes at this hostel. That sounds great, but the dishes were often not clean to make and eat breakfast in the morning. It'd be much easier to just set the expectation that each guest washes the dishes they dirty. - The elevators were out for the six days I was there, and the bathrooms on the first floor were out of order. People had to haul their big suitcases up multiple flights of stairs. Edited to add: if you look at the other reviews, the elevators have been out for weeks. If elevators are important to you, it might be risky to stay here.

We stayed at HI Boston Hostel for 5 nights in a private room, but overall we were disappointed. It met only the bare minimum. Despite quiet hours from 11 PM to 7 AM, a group of guests stood near the elevators talking and laughing loudly around 12:30 AM. While I understand the hostel can’t control every guest, it would have been nice if someone had reminded them of the quiet hours. Another major issue was the air conditioning. There is a control panel in the room, but it doesn’t actually work. You can’t turn the AC off or adjust the temperature. We were freezing for all five nights, and I had to sleep in a sweatshirt every night. We had to tell somebody to turn it off from reception but that did not affect still. The location in Chinatown was noisy, and the large number of homeless people nearby made me feel uncomfortable at night. In hindsight, I would rather pay an extra $20–30 per night to stay in the North End. The front desk staff were friendly enough, but the owner/manager could have been much warmer and more welcoming. Since this is a hostel with a volunteer program that attracts travelers from all over the world, I expected a friendlier atmosphere. If you’re choosing this hostel just because it’s a little cheaper, I’d recommend keeping your expectations low. Personally, I wouldn’t stay here again.

I stayed here for a couple of days. The location is excellent - just a 5-minute walk from Boston Common. As someone staying in a hostel for the first time, I was genuinely impressed by the amenities and the strong security measures in place. They also offer weekly walking and pub tours, which I couldn’t join but would definitely recommend to others. That said, the customer service was horrible and by far the biggest downside. I’ve worked front desk myself, so I know exactly what basic professionalism looks like—and this was nowhere close. The staff were rude, dismissive, and acted like answering guest questions was some massive inconvenience. Helping guests is literally your job. You’re not doing anyone a favor by doing it. Your front desk staff—especially the manager-looking Indian guy—needs proper training on basic courtesy and friendliness. They were frequently glued to their phones and couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge guests walking in. It’s common decency, not rocket science. Everything else about my stay was good. Fix the customer service or you’ll keep driving people away.

I stay at hostels because of value for the money, and HI Boston meet and exceeded the mark. From check-in to having some provisions for my next adventure, whoever had the desk was friendly beyond just professional and courteous. The common areas, and particularly the kitchen, were well-stocked and well-maintained, something that isn't always true at hostels. The dorm I was in wasn't huge, but was laid out so it seemed bigger than it was, and it was impeccably clean. For a change, I had a slack day between trains, and HI Boston even had that covered with a FREE professor-led walking tour of downtown Boston!