HI San Francisco Downtown Hostel — Hotel in San Francisco

Enjoyed my stay. The limited number of hair dryer, shower room and bathroom are the not so great aspects.

3 bathrooms/showers are on each floor, and the bathroom next to #x01 is the largest of every floor.

If you are a person with long hair, I would recommend you to bring your own hair dryer. There is only 1 hair dry on every floor located in the largest bathroom next the #x01, and there are so many rooms (like 10?) on one floor.

When the hostel is packed, you will mostly likely cannot find an empty bathroom to use, cannot get a hair dryer to dry your hair, or cannot use a shower room. I was going through floor to floor to finally get my hair dry.

No fan in the room. No air condition in the room. If you are traveling in warm seasons, maybe you need to bring a fan with you. I was there in early October, the heater wasn’t on, with the comforter they provided and I slept good. But if you are traveling in winter, you may want to bring an extra coat just in case.

Small light on the bed, outlet, and a little shelve that you can use like a night stand.

There is a sink in the room, and a mirror. (I stayed in a female dorm room for 4)

Lockers are under the bed. You should bring your own lock to lock it. In addition to the locker with your bed number on, there is some empty space in the room where you can leave your oversized suitcase if you want.

Shower room is equipped with shampoo and body wash. You don’t have to bring your own if you’d like.

Mattress and pillow are not that comfortable, I still slept well. Maybe I was just too tired from traveling.

Free breakfast doesn’t offer any meat. Not even Egg. I would really appreciate they at least provide some boiled eggs. Bagels, toast, banana and apple are what they offer, in addition to some instant oatmeal, coffee and tea. Breakfast starts a 7am.

I saw a microwave and water fountain on the 3rd floor next to the kitchen.

I didnt hear any loud noise from the street during the nights. I don’t know if it was because I got lucky and got assigned to a quiet room. Didn’t need to use ear buds for the two nights I stayed in the hostel.

For each bed, they provide bedsheet, comforter, and a towel. If you sleep at the lower bed of the bunkbed, you can hang the towel on the bar to block the views from your roommates.

The location is great. It is near transit and is just on the edge of the good area and bad area. The price is good considering some other places are asking way more to stay for 1 night.

If you are taking BART, the yellow line from airport to Powell station. The price is $9.xx for one way. The ticket machine has a serious User experience design, some travelers and I couldn’t figure out how to purchase the ticket when we got off the blue line from the airport. You need to either insert your credit card or insert cash bill into the machine before you do anything. That is weirdly how you should use the machine. Please don’t tap the screen or press buttons before you surrender your payment method.

And I got panic when I couldn’t find a yellow line when I only saw Blue and red Lines. Why on earth they can’t indicate the yellow line on the sign.

I also witnessed a rubbery on my way to downtown. Hmhmhm, NYC is better than San Francisco in general, if you want to travel in a bit more safer place and in a bit more less expensive city. Seattle is great too, not far...

This was a sweet hostel to spend several days in SF. In short, one of the better hostels I've stayed at! Long review follows...

The guests were mostly quiet, which made it a good resting spot after a day/night out. Not a super social hostel while i was here. People of all demographics and different reasons for visiting, so there were plenty of opportunities to talk with other travelers. The common areas are big and inviting (except for the music in the main hangout room -- it missed the mark imho). Even a small room with a door that folks used for meetings, work, quiet time. Plenty of windows & cute lighting. There was more attention to guest needs than I anticipated - like having water stations in seemingly every common area. The kitchen is huge!! Good system in place against people taking your food. And the dining room is big & airy & nice too! Plenty of space for everyone to be cooking & eating. Laundry on-site is a plus, wifi was reliable, and the bathrooms are private: two toilet rooms and two single shower rooms on each floor, plus the ensuite ones if you have a room with ensuite bathroom. There's an elevator and ADA-compliant bathrooms, as well as the stairs. The hallways are wide enough to accomodate a mobility device. There are womens dorms, mixed dorms, and a variety of private rooms. Prices competetive with the other hostels downtown. $4/night extra charge if you're not a Hostellers International member. Some measures were in place to reduce our water usage. I really appreciated that. The dorm beds have lockers underneath which was helpful for storage during the day -- just bring your own lock if you're worried about your valuables. You can also buy a lock at the front desk. I found the beds comfy, neither too soft nor too firm, pretty neutral. I slept in a private room and a dorm room. Bedding was warm enough for me. The heaters worked well (it's still winter right now). Housecleaning came every day to wipe things down - I was surpirsed at how clean it was kept! The cleaning supply smell didn't linger long enough to bother me, and I tend to be pretty sensitive to that stuff, if that's a concern for you. The included breakfast was simple - plain oatmeal, bread for toast, 2 kinds of jam, hardboiled eggs, cow's milk, bananas and apples. Coffee, hot water, and black tea. The staff were friendly to me and mostly kept to themselves in the lobby, at least while I was here. Location: just on the edge of the Tenderloin, which is a sketchy place to walk around (lots of cop presense, more yelling & loitering than other areas, people wanting to 'ask you questions'). But just walk the other direction (East) and you're good. I (solo, female-presenting, in my 20s) felt & was safe walking up to & past Chinatown and back at night, and all around to the East during the day, & catching buses. It's easy to get lost with all the street names & bus routes etc etc, but with a map or Google maps it's easy to figure out, and you can catch the bus (Muni) to pretty much anywhere. Google Maps accurately tells you when the next bus is. You can store your bags at the lobby for the day, before or after checkout. All in all, I had a good experience staying here & felt able to get my needs met as a sensitive person wanting a quiet place to rest in good company in...

I recently stayed at this hostel during my very first trip to San Francisco and it is adorable. The lobby and common area were cozy and decorated for Halloween. The check-in and out process was a breeze and they stored our luggage for us while we roamed the city and waited for our check-in time. My husband and I opted for a private room since we were on vacation. The room was nice but don't expect amenities like TV or a bathtub. This didn't bother us but it might be a dealbreaker for some. The lack of air conditioning was a shock to us since we're both from Texas, but the room was comfortable with the windows open. Breakfast is typical continental fair with bagels, cereal, oatmeal, fruit and coffee. I love toasted bagels and cream cheese so I wasn't disappointed. This is a hostel so you are expected to wash your own dishes. I enjoy that kind of independent community. I did not participate in the on site activities because I had my own plans (like visiting Alcatraz) but there were scheduled movie nights, museum tours, pizza parties, etc. Had I been there longer OR if I come back for a visit, I'll definitely be down to participate. The central location was perfect for us and I walked almost everywhere. Fisherman's Wharf was about a mile and a half away and since the weather was so beautiful, I opted to walk there and back, however, when I did choose to call a ride, Lyft never had a problem finding me or getting me to my destination quickly. There are a ton of restaurants, coffee shops, Walgreens, etc within a block or two from the front door, so you're super close to anything you may need.

My only con for this place was the noise. I'm pretty sure that San Francisco is just a loud city in general due to its architecture, but my husband and I were SHOCKED at the constant amount of noise, and we're from Houston. The front desk is equipped with earplugs though, so we slept pretty soundly. Also, while the other residents were very nice, no one seemed to understand how to close a door. Our room was right across from the community showers and bathroom, and the folks using them were constantly slamming the doors instead of just closing them behind them. It was kind of weird.

TLDR: I would 100% stay here again if/when I find myself back in the area, but I'll be bringing earbuds and plenty of white noise to drown...