Firehouse Hostel — Hotel in Austin

GOOD: Nice size kitchen with lots of pots, pans, and cooking utensils. Late check-in (4AM). Great location to the clubs on 6th Street (however, not close enough to keep you up at night even with the window cracked), and just a small walk to the capital (0.5 mi/0.8 km or 10 mins). Beds have a medium amount of cushion are not cramped together, so one has a good amount of personal space. Each bed has a charging outlet and it's own small personal small mini fan. Sheets, blankets, towels, and lockers are also provided. Limited street parking (about 5 spots) was available at $2/hr during working hours (Monday-Friday, 8AM-6PM) with no limit to the length of time you are allowed to park. However, there was a parking garage nearby as well (not sure the price, because I found parking on the street). There's also a small number of essential items for sale for at the front desk (i.e. deodorant, shampoo & conditioner, razors & shaving cream, etc.) BAD: My 2 biggest problem were the bathrooms and the laundry, and considering the bed setup, kitchen, and BATHROOMS being the biggest impact of one's stay, you can see why no matter how many "good things" there are, this rating will remain at 3/5 stars. You are expected to encounter some water on the ground in the bathroom when showering with other people. It's normal and expected, however, these shower curtains weren't long enough to even attempt to entrap most of the water in the shower alone, thereby having most of the shower water drip onto the floor and be drug all over the bathroom and into the hallways. Additionally, I felt (and it might just be me) that the left sink on the 3rd floor in the men's restroom had mold either on it, around it, or coming from the water spout, so when I was brushing my teeth I could smell it. I did use a different sink and didn't encounter this problem further and I didn't get sick from using the water the first night (which probably meant that it was on or around the sink and not cleaned enough). There was also very limited hocks to hock your towels while you showered, such that the you had to through the towel over the shower rod and forcing the curtain to be open a little bit so someone (of the same gender) might see you. The men's restroom had 4 stalls and 4 urinals, of which 1 stall was out of order, 1 stall didn't lock, and 2 urinals were also out of order. The other issue was the laundry. It's a front loader wash machine, so in order to prevent mold and mildew one MUST leave the washer door open. Well, I guess the people staying at Firehouse Hostel or employees felt as if the washer door was in the way and shut it. There was a tiny fortune cookie sized sign saying "please keep washer door open," and even if one read this it doesn't say WHY! There needs to be a huge red stop sign covering the whole washer door saying to leave it open and that if not left open will cause mold! The smell was very pungent of mold and mildew meaning it's been an on going issue, which causes for speculation that the EMPLOYEES are likely to blame and if they are doing this to this washer, then who is to say that this issue isn't also happening on the washing machines used to wash your bed sheets and blankets! (washing and drying by the way were both $1.89 via credit card only and the tide pod was include as apart the purchase behind the washer and dryer). 1 minor inconvenience was their was few places to hang out within the hostel outside the kitchen which closed at midnight. Yes, they have little open areas and couches to be on, BUT they are right outside bedroom (or other's bedroom's doors), so hanging out with friends in open spaces or forming new friendships was a little limited, outside of the bar on the first floor. Overall none of these things are major things that would make me wanna stay away and can easily be fixed, however, this is my experience. I would stay again, but if I had the option of a hotel for a little bit more, I might...

NO NO NO!!! I was misled, lied too and exploited as a traveller with my stay. They stole about 500USD from me. I was on what was described to me as an “emergency booking” which was because one of my staff booked the wrong days for SXSW, so when I got there they told me they had rooms suitable for these situations and I would be accommodated until I found suitable accommodation. Let me explain more about the stay though...

I didn’t complain about the poor state of the rooms and bathroom facilities, I relied on their hospitality to make up for it and it’s failed. The unclean bathrooms, kitchen and odours in the dorms and most other areas was very poor, while they had a strict zero tolerance against bringing people back or having any type of social interaction with non-guests, it didn’t matter, the sound from the streets below, homeless yelling, fights breaking out, or the very average and expensive nightclub downstairs (yes inside the Hostel), this part of town is not the greatest either, with police shutting down the street with sirens and loudspeakers like martial law for a zombie apocalypse (the zombies being the literal thousands of drunk people staggering home at all hours). While I was there, 5 seperate shootings (yes with guns) were responded to very close to the Hostel, one only metres away.

Having to check out every day was a nightmare, and no way to enjoy a stay, I got threatened with “Check out fees” at $15 per 30 mins everytime I needed to pack up my things and move to a different bed, unfortunately it was just so impractical, I was paying full price, why should I move everyday? I was told this is the standard with the Hostel, and most guests do this??

I ended up moving to a place that was flexible, cheap and understanding while I waited for a friend to have me stay in Hyde Park. It’s clear this is a poor outcome based purely out of the managers spite, arrogance, principle or maybe just to hit some incentivised monetary target for the owners, for a booking that would have otherwise been non-existent and reserved for emergencies. They cancelled my booking and gave no refund when I left, saying they had a no refund policy, even though that’s what was promised. No doubt they were able to capitalise on the extra money I paid, plus renting the space to another guest. They have zero care for the guests, it’s such a shame and I won’t be going back.

When I said how disappointed I was, they shifted the blame on me, they claimed they were accommodating, but as I said to them I would have called my friend and stayed on their couch until a room became available at a place that would have had a more comfortable and clean. I should have done this! I could see them writing some typical PR response to this saying how sorry they are and then refer to their “policy”, but it’s absolute lies.

This place doesn’t suit the partygoers or the conference attendees....

Beware Room 203. Positively disgusting. Skeevy seems like the perfect description for this room. The pic don't really convey how bad this room is, the worst images are of my mattress but the other mattresses in this room were pretty much the same. And the room as a whole is extremely worn, broken storage lockers/lights, dirty walls/surfaces, etc. I don't usually like to write bad reviews and hurt businesses, and I wait a few days to make sure I really want to post them (waited 5 here), but I feel like people should see what they might be getting in this case. I had stayed in the room next door (202) three nights earlier and it was night and day difference. Almost impossible to believe they're in the same building or hotel, let alone adjacent to each other.

Men's bathroom on second floor OK (dusty shelves, overflowing trash, dirty sink, but overall not the worst I've been in), one of two stalls out of order. Kitchen reasonably well laid out and clean-ish. No real common space, to chill and/or meet people, it's really just the front of the hall on the third floor.

I would give the place an overall four-star review for room 202 and the location, but the service was just okay and the place wasn't totally clean - but 202 at least had clean/new-ish mattresses, a cleaner room overall, and not a ton of dirt around and underneath all the mattresses - when you sat/laid on the bed, dirt/dust/mattress plastic bits blew up around the edges. So, zero stars for 203, and even allowing a room to be that gross. So the average is two stars. It almost seems intentional that they keep this room this criminally gross. 7 of 8 beds were occupied for the night, and I paid $47 plus tax. If each other person paid the same, they took in $329 for the night not including the tax. If they put a night or two's revenue into new mattresses, some paint and fixing other broken stuff, it would probably be as decent as 202. Wish I could have seen a few other rooms/dorms to see if they were more like 202 or 203.

Granted things are a little different in Spain/Europe but I just spent six weeks over there staying in hostels every night. Anywhere from $8 to maybe $20 a night, and every single one of them - whether it was in a church or in a municipal building or a private hostel - was way cleaner...