Laily F. Noor

Review of Hostelling International New Y...

Because the hostel has so many rooms for any type,...

Because the hostel has so many rooms for any type, the room you got might be affecting your experince to this hostel. I stayed in 8-bed female dorm in first floor (117). Thanks God, it's good (because I read some review from the guests before, and it could hit or miss). The room I got was clean and has enough space. There's curtain for each bed. Electrical plug and usb port in each bed. Body size mirror and big locker were inside the room. And here's more good things about this hostel
Pros:
- The building looks cool and consider as landmark.
- Safe neighborhood.
- Close to subway, restaurants, and supermarket.
- Big kitchen with all equipments.
- It has big communal area including living room, dining room, gaming room, theater room, and pation to chill out.
- Towel and bodywash were provided (dispensered)
- Shared bathrooms were relatively clean
- Informative staff.
- A lot of activities everyday

Though it has many good qualities, I couldn't really enjoy my stay because it's noisy inside the hostel. Every part of this hostel was full of people during my stay. Apparently HI Hostel NYC is so popular among tourist and visitor, so it has a lot of guests including group of student/school club. The other things that I didn't like:
- Elevator was slow, better to take stairs unless going with luggages
- AC in my room was very noisy. I had to turn it off during the night to have good sleep
- Need to give a sign in toilet for not flushing used toilet paper in toilet bowl
- Staff didn't give a hostel tour, so bit lost inside the hostel on my first day.
- I understand about room safety with key card, but it's uncomfortabel to bring it everytime visiting toilet which is shared outside the room. I forgot to bring it once, and I had to ask receptionist to give me another key.
- Althought the hostel is in Manhattan, but it bit far from most main NY attractions
- We all know that New York is expensive, but with $4/night additional fee and $5 luggage storage after stay, Ouch, it hurts me!

However, I still reccomend this hostel to everyone who visit New York City for the first time