This place was pretty cool, and I definitely recommend it to those of you traveling in Deutschland on the cheap.
Not only are prices great but it's awesome to see a little bit of what life was like in East Germany ("Ostel" being a play on the words "ost" = east and "Hostel.") No doubt it's probably not totally accurate, and it feels more like what life in the 1970-80's looked like in the US.
The staff is basically invisible. I know they must go around to the rooms, but I never saw them while they were there. Twice we passed the front desk and no one was even to be seen. They did happen to be around to offer locking up any valuables in a room by the front desk and opening it again for us the next day. The beds are alright (I had a horrible sunburn so I can't say anything felt super amazing at that time anyway), and it did surprise my fellow traveler that it was a co-ed room, but I suppose we could have expected that. We had two bunk beds in our room and of course in Germany these areas are shared with others, which is fine. I was traveling with one other girl so we took one bunk. We came back later and there was a guy and girl who were going to use the other two beds. They didn't talk to us, though we spoke in German around them hoping maybe we would seem less offensive (Berlin didn't seem especially American-friendly whenever there was opportunity for a one-on-one with a native). They didn't talk to us either way. The nice thing is there was a bathroom off of our room so at least it wasn't a communal shower area. I appreciated that little slice of privacy. Though it was difficult to estimate when the other two in our room would need the shower in the morning. Luckily, they were up and out of the room before we woke up, so it was never a problem.
It is handily close to the Bahnhof making it easy to travel with baggage without needing a taxi. It did take us a bit to find for some reason. If I recall, it is a little behind some brightly colored buildings, so look around a bit. There are banners announcing its presence. It was super cheap and had reasonable accommodations. I can't recall if breakfast was an option. I want to say no, as we didn't do it. Stop at the train station instead for some delicious German bakery items! read more