The location is great. A dorm room is definitely among the cheapest accomodations in the area and works perfectly. The dorms are more like little apartments, at least the 4 bed female dorms are. There is a little common room, 2 rooms with 4 beds each, a disabled kitchen (only microwave works) and there is a bathroom for the 8 beds, 2 sinks with mirrors (independent from bathroom). The safety measures will make you for sure feel at ease. You have to use your room key to get into the building at night. You have to use your key to operate the elevators at all times. You have to use your room key to get into your dorm and to get into the room you have your bed in. Public transportation is pretty easy to get to. There is police presence at all times, specially at night. You are where all the architecture tours will take you, literally you will walk around the hotel in some of them. Staff was very nice and accommodating. You can get blankets, extra towels and clean sheets anytime you ask for them on the check in counter. The kitchen staff was specially nice and patient with sleepy people like me. This is in the second floor, where they serve continental breakfast.

It is understandable that things can be out of service at times, but having the hot water machine break down during my stay (Nov) was not the best experience. Also, the laundry room for guests was out of service, which was pretty frustrating. Another thing that could be better is having bigger lockers as the dorm rooms certainly have enough space. Still this is just something that would be nice to have, the lockers are pretty standard hostel size.

The location can't be beaten especially if you keep in mind that hotels in this area are really expensive. Right in the middle of downtown, two blocks away from Michigan Street and close to train stations and bus stops and walking distance from lots of main attractions like the cloud, Lincoln Park, The Riverwalk, etc. Although the building is old and the furniture is outdated, it was very comfortable and. Breakfast was outstanding, with many delicious options to choose from.

For the price everything was great

The location is downtown Chicago, as central as you can get. There was a lot of security in terms of locks and staff. The breakfasts were great if you don't mind the same thing every day. The staff were excellent. I had a problem with my credit card owing to two transactions going onto it for over $600 in total due to internet crashes when trying to book on this site. The staff allowed me to make free phone calls (my UK phone was out of range) to sort the matter out. I am very grateful as it was a stressful experience.

There was one male shower cubicle on the floor for 19 rooms! One evening the air conditioning was on and it was late October. There didn't seem to be any way to control it. When the outside temperature dipped again the air conditioning did at least become central heating.

Free breakfast, showers are good, MASSIVE personal lockers ( I could fit my luggage, backpack, and MORE!!), laundry facility was a suprise and easy. Vending machines in the laundry room provided soap, and dryer sheets, plus some extras like locks, usb sticks, headphones, etc. The location was PERFECT. I was in walking distance to many downtown attractions and train stations as well as bus stations. This hostel must have been in the heart of Chicago. Also, Navy Pier was in walking distance if you're down for a bit of a walk. maybe 10 minutes of walking and you're right by it!

While the wifi was free, it unfortunately didn't work at all during my stay. I stayed for eight nights and wasn't notified of any issues of the wifi, so it makes me think perhaps they are not aware they have problems with it. I'm glad I have unlimited data. It could also be possible that too many people were on it so it wasn't working just for me.

The location is perfect, just a couple of blocks away from the busy Downtown area, close to Grant Park and access to public transportation (bus stops at State St or L Train stops in Wabash St). We were surprised at how big the hostel was yet our mini suite for 2 people was within a "house-like" environment of only 4 suites/bedrooms, so it was actually quiet and very comfortable with a shared living room, kitchen and bathroom. For a hostel breakfast the options were more varied than we were expecting, and served in a prolonged time frame. There are at least 2 common areas that we saw, super big and nicely decorated, with pool tables and other games, high tables, lounge couches, etc. Staff was always very friendly, the amenities are very clean and well maintained. It's an incredible stay for the price!! I would definitely recommend and would go back to stay here. We could leave our suitcases for the entire last day, which was a huge favor since we were leaving the city at 7 pm. They only charge $4 per bag and we could go in to the restrooms before we left to freshen up and change before our trip back.

Nothing negative to say really!

Breakfast was very good (there were sweet and savoury). The lockers are big. There is a kitchen on each floor (the kitchen on the second floor is the best equipped, there was everything to cook). The location in the loop is perfect.

There are not many dishes that can be put in the microwave because the plates are not microwave-safe. There should be a cupboard with boxes that can be labelled for storing dry food (bread, etc...), as there is in other hostels. There should be hooks in the rooms for towels. Some mornings the staff provide reusable crockery for breakfast and on other days disposable crockery. I don't understand why. That's better to use reusable dishes. Sometimes the rooms are too expensive.

The entire facility was very clean and safe. Great location within walking distance to a lot of sites and great transportation options nearby. I liked the privacy of the curtains for each bunk bed.

The bunk bed set up was a bit rickety and quite squeaky when going to the bathroom plus my room was right above the El and the noise was constant throughout the night so I did not sleep very well. But I was glad to have a safe, clean place to stay. Next time I'll bring earplugs and request a bottom bunk. Also, great location but the immediate area felt a little sketchy (just 1-2 homeless people sleeping down the street, they were pretty quiet from what I saw).

Quick check-in. The front desk loaned me a fan as well since my room felt pretty warm. It's very quiet, even in the common areas. The location is great. Right next to the library, only about 20 mins walking from Union Station, 5-7 min. walk to the Art Institute and about 20-24 mins from the Field Museum. If you want to take public transportation, there's the trains running next to the hostel and bus stops less than a block away as well. It's a clean, no-frills kind of place. I had a private double. In the room in addition to the bed, was a small wall desk and chair. In a small alcove, there were extra sheets, towels and an ironing board with iron. I liked the tall windows and extra tall ceiling I had. Lots of natural light. The bed was firm but still a little soft. I had no trouble sleeping through the night. I didn't take part in any of the group programs or tours offered or use the laundry room so I can't comment on those. The breakfast is pretty basic. Bagels, croissants, bread, oatmeal and cereals for the most part. Nothing extravagant but good to get you going in the morning. When I got there, one elevator was out of service and the button wouldn't stay lit when pressed so I thought the other elevator was down as well so I climbed the stairs to the 7th floor with my backpack on. I just needed to be patient. The other elevator was up and running by the next afternoon so the wait time drastically decreased.

Unlike my last visit, this time I had a room facing the train tracks next to the building (If my previous room was facing them, I've forgotten). If the windows could be a little thicker to block out the noise, it'd be great.I quickly got used to the noise though and didn't need to use earplugs at all.

I like the bed, but little bit hard to climb in and out the bed. (Cz the wood safe is too high) Feel safe, cz you need to have a card to everywhere. Kitchen is so good to cook. Hairdryer is in the room, just it has overheart protect, you need to wait for a while to use it second time if you have long hair. Free activities!! Awesome way to know this city and meet new people. If you don't have too much schedule, you can just follow their daily activity or ise their free facilities:)

Room cleaning not everyday, showering water comes out little bit weak. Breakfast did not have any veges or meat. But they have apples, banana, boil egg and outmeal rice. Just you need to go there earlier ~or only bread and yogurt.

location: amazing. close to trains, close to everything you would want to do downtown. activities offered: so many options for everyone and ways to bring the guests together breakfast: was simple, offered enough that you could fill up and feel satiated, but I would say it gets old rather quickly as theres not much variety room: LOVE the blackout blind, thats a great touch. The only downsides were that the ac was blasting over top of my bed 24/7 and I was freezing. But they did give me a second blanket so that was very kind. The other suggestion I have would be to install a small wooden shelf or something between the base of the top bunk and the wall as when your upstairs bunk neighbor turns their light on at 1 am, it brightens up the bottom bunk as if its day time. The other reason for this is the person above me kept dropping their phone down the crack in the middle of the night and once it smacked me straight in the face. A barrier in this space would save many headaches for all lower bunk guests! Otherwise, amazing!

........ nothing to say here really