Backpackers Hostel & Pub

Do not stay at this hostel! I was a guest and then I wound up getting a job there. The owner of this hostel, along with its manager, horribly mistreat the employees who work there. The owner of this hostel was put in prison for trying to fix an election. I myself was being physically and emotionally bullied while working there. I pleaded with the owner to help me but he would not. He did nothing to stop the abuse that I was going through! I had to get the police involved and eventually had to take the perpetrator to court. Do not stay at this hostel! It was a very unsafe place for me!

If you are looking for a cheap, safe place to stay close to Boston or Cambridge — look no more! I’ve been crashing here for a week and just got to leave a comment!
–Wifi super fast — and there are several computers in the guest room available for guests
–Free off street parking!!! (On street for residents only)
–clean showers (gotta wait for 5 mins for the hot water to kick in))
–Quiet neighborhood
– Friendly employees
– close to T
– shuttle service for guests to the T (Wellington station)
– walking distance to convenience stores, the library, cafes and bars
– kitchen if u want to cook something up
– coffee and P&J sandwiches in the morning for the guests. Thanks!
Oh! Bunk beds in my room so might be sharing space with other same sex lodgers! As far as that, I lucked out to have no more than 3 girls to share the room with and all were polite and courteous. Besides keep in mind that you probably need a bed to spend the night and don’t want to spend much on b&b.
Things to improve: laundry skills (sheets and towels) are not consistently washed the way one would like
Overall I am very lucky to have stumbled upon this place! I’ve told my out of state and international friends about it. I would definitely come back here again should the need arise!
PS The place is undergoing some renovation so we expect it to be nicer and newer. I hope for my sake they won’t up the rent

The place was a bit out of the way from downtown Boston, but it wasn’t too bad of a commute. The hostel offered a shuttle to the Wellington station throughout the day and for the most part is on call, and from there you can catch the orange line into any part of Boston. The shuttle only runs during the day, so after 10 – 11 you’ll have to walk, take a taxi or a bus to get to the hostel.
The only con about the place that I could see is that the staff seemed a bit aloof towards guests and that there is no one on staff early in the morning so if you needed directions or anything you’ll have to figure it out yourself

People, this is a hostel. It will be noisy and uncomfortable because you are sleeping with other people in the same room (some are polite and considerate, and some are selfish. You cannot control your roommates). If you are not ok with that, go to a hotel. If you are ok with that, don’t complain for being cheap!
The staff is great, they go out of their way to help you, especially if you are polite and respectful. There are tons of restaurants just 5 min walking distance and the public transportation is not bad at all.
Enjoy Boston while you are ther. You’ll be tired enough to sleep at night and stop complaining about being in a hostel.

Pros: Staff is very accommodating, especially with transportation to and from the subway, which is located nearby. Parking & linens are included. Some rooms have their own restrooms & showers. Discount for cash payment versus credit card payment.
Cons: Uncomfortable beds. Noisy.

Stayed here in last week of March and had a very pleasant experience. If you want a thrifty yet convenient, calm, & clean hostel, this is your place. You can take the Orange rail from Boston and it gets you within less than a mile of the hostel. Call hostel for free shuttle service from orange rail at Wellington station! No regrets. Worth the money.

Where shall I begin?
I arrived back in Boston on an overnight bus from Philadelphia, so I hadn’t had the best night’s sleep and was looking to lay my head down for a couple of hours. After taking 2 subway trains and a local bus (always a sign that the location is not good) I arrived on School Street and saw this place at the end of the block. I didn’t like the look of it from the moment I saw it. I rang the doorbell several times, but there was no reaction from inside, even though I could see several people sitting there. After about 5 minutes, someone walked out of the building so I could go in. There was no one at reception. In the lounge area, several shifty looking people were sleeping among piles of luggage and a girl was checking her e-​mail on one of 2 Very Old Computers. When I enquired about reception opening times, the e-​mail girl snapped at me that reception wasn’t open until 9 and that if I had used my head, I would have waited at the Greyhound station for a couple more hours. When I informed her that I had not travelled on Greyhound, she at first looked surprised and then annoyed and didn’t speak any more.
Around 9am 2 guys who, I have no doubt, are called Guido and Vinnie, entered the building and opened the day’s proceedings which first of all meant that they put on some 70s country radio station that blasted from built-​in-​the-​wall speakers all around the place.
I had made a reservation for 2 nights but had already decided that I would only stay for 1 and would rather sleep at the airport the next night than spend $ 80 here. After checking in for a single night, I made my way to the dorm which was spartan, to say it nice. Creaky bunk beds, plastic mattrasses, pillows about as thick as a newspaper, and there was only 1 toilet shared between 2 dorms (= 16 people). The bunk beds had no ladders which meant that, if you were unlucky enough to have a top bunk, you could either go get a chair somewhere to provide assistance, or crawl on commando style. There was no airco in the dorms which meant that it was like being in an oven, even though there was only 1 other guest in the room besides me at that time. Breakfast was served some time later and turned out to be a big wedding cake. While I like cake, I expected bread or cereal or something like that, rather than patisserie handywork. Lockers were situated in the hallway, rather than in the dorms and were so rickety that one well aimed kick would break the doors. I put my back pack in there and hoped that it would still be there the next day (it was). I then made my way to the showers, which turned out to be as crappy as the rest of the facilities. They (2) were built into a closet, which could not be locked and had no hooks to hang your clothes on so the only options were to put your clothes on the dirty floor or, again, to find a chair somewhere to help you. One of the showers was ice cold, the other one was aaah!-my-back-hurts hot.
The so called ‘pub’ does not exist. It consists of a girl behind the reception desk who offers choice of 1 type of beer– Budweiser bottles which are, at $ 3, ridiculously overpriced given that this is a hostel and has no facilities. There are dozens of pubs in CENTRAL Boston where you can get a Bud for $ 3 and that have facillities like toilets that work, good music, proper food (not cake) and proper service rather than an angry looking girl who will serve you only if she is not too busy talking to her boyfriend on her mobile.
The pool table had no chalk, and when I asked, the girl at reception (on a rare moment that she wasn’t on the phone) told me to just play without chalk. Playing pool without chalk is equivalent to playing darts without a point on your darts or playing tennis with a golf ball. And while we’re on the subject of pool. one of the reviews below here says they have a free pool.
They do NOT have A free pool. They have free pool. There’s no jumping in water involved.
As an overall assessment, there’s 2 positive things to mention: the guys running the place are friendly, even though I’m not sure about their ability to run a hospitality establishment. And after the night I stayed there, I could leave my back pack in the luggage room for the entire day while I went into the city for a drink.
Other than that, everything is disappointing and not worth your hard-​earned dollars.
I stayed here for 1 night because all other hostels in Boston were booked solid and I will not stay here again. I spent the next night sleeping on a bench outside Dunking Donuts at Logan Airport and had a much more comfortable night than I had here. (Cheaper too :))
For a star rating, I was somewhere halfway between one and two. I have given two stars but, given the spartan facilities and haphazard way this place is run, that is really giving them more than they deserve.

The other reviewers had much worse experiences than I did, but I wasn’t exactly a fan. I mean, in most ways, it was a typical hostel experience (which I don’t mind, but I know many do). The usual European kids playing billiards and such. I didn’t meet any homeless people or anyone that seemed apparently like a rapist or to be mentally ill. Uncomfortable bunk beds. I got stuck on top. Ugh. But no big deal.
My 7 roomies (I’m a gal, if it matters) were very nice and friendly and, even though I’m 30 and they were basically 18, we had nice little bedtime conversations. Also, I liked the fact that there was a ½ bath adjoining our room, in addition to the full baths down the hall.
In my experience, the real problem was the location. Part of this is my fault: I was an idiot and thought the place was on School Street IN BOSTON (near Boston Common), so I thought I had an awesome deal and was pretty disappointed to find that 13 School Street in Boston was actually a Radio Shack. (The dudes there said that this disappointment happens a lot though, so other idiots exist and have booked this hostel.) At any rate, the area’s kind of sketchy in the dark and you do have to walk quite a distance from the train/​bus (and, if you’re going into the main areas of Boston, you have to transfer bus-​to-​train-​to-​train). You know how when you’re watching the news and they show a bunch of B-​roll to represent «blight»? Well, it looked like that. I arrived there quite late (having thought I was going to Boston), and I didn’t feel particularly safe. I wouldn’t suggest that other ladies walk by themselves there at that hour, which is kind of a problem if you’re trying to save money, which I assume you are if you’re staying at this place.
The dude at the front desk was perfectly cool, helpful, nice, but the woman I spoke to on the phone was pretty crazy and hard to understand and kind of yelled at me incomprehensibly.
So, all in all, a mixed bag, but I wouldn’t actively choose it.

Odd location and the name Pub IMHO meant they’d have more than cans of beer ($ 3) in some old ‘fridge. Staff attitude at check in, oops sorry I bothered you. Good thing: free shuttle to one Metro Station
Mens shower, still not sure where it is
Rooms have NO ventilation