If you appreciate great customer service, casual dining/lounging areas, access to an overwhelming amount of amenities, good management, and a generally good hostel crowd, then clearly this is the place to go.
Seriously, this hostel has all of that, and it's in a PERFECT location if you're spending time drinking, sightseeing, or shopping in Dublin. I believe the owner owns 2 other hostels as well, and on their website they advertise a hostel on College Street, but IMO it's in an area that's nowhere near as cool as Camden street.
You have a line of chill bars starting from live music at Whalen's, to sick nightclubs at Temple Bar area or Residence night club, where Arty was doing a show on the same Friday I had to leave. There are plenty of coffee shops, restaurants, diners, fast-food/carryout, grocery stores and more. You're walking distance from the city center, and have easy access to the HopOn/HopOff public transit buses.
As far as the management goes, they were overly helpful and considerate throughout the entire stay. Easy check-in, constantly good local advice, fast responses, and there's a person working the front desk 24 hours a day. If you stay here for 3-4 days, you'll come to know em all by the end of your stay; great people.
*btw you can't bring late-night guests back to the hostel after a certain time, so plan accordingly :)
As for the general hostel condition, it was very clean and well-kept. Maintenance was doing some improvements and miscellaneous stuff like smoke alarms while we were there, but it's always a good sign to see a consistent maintenance crew doing improvements (except when they wake you up). Even more so, the plumbing and water pressure is perfect, and there was never a shortage of hot water.
They offer free wi-fi to the residents, and also have 3-4 very slowwww desktops hooked up to the internet you can pay a measly fee to utilize. There is also a dryer and washer on-site, as well as an iron and ironing board to go with it!! They have two large refrigerators for residents to use at their leisure (and tags to label your stuff with). There is even a full-on kitchen with plenty of appliances, spoons, forks, glasses and cooking utensils!
Now if all those amenities weren't enough, you've got a huge dining table large enough to seat a family of 8 (which actually happened one night), plenty of small 2-4 person tables to drink/chill/eat on, large comfy sofas, and a HUGE painting on the living room walls that were apparently painted by visitors to the hostel. The visitors at this hostel are the perfect diversity for you to meet a variety of different people; and if you're American you're bound to run into somebody from California or Minnesota, coasting through.
I've pretty much run out of everything I could possibly say about this hostel, so book your stay here (tell them the American sent ya) and be prepared to have a great stay. read more