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HI - Brussels - Jacques Brel Hostel

Brussels (City Centre), Belgium

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Address
Rue de la Sablonnière, 30, Brussels (City Centre)   Map
Price
From US$26.98/€16.40/£13.66 per person. Price may vary by season - Check Current Prices by Date Here
Location/Contact
Details
Their Description

Features

  • Free Breakfast
  • Elevator/Lift
  • Bar
  • Food/Restaurant
  • Washing Machine (laundry)
  • Bike Rental
  • Lockers
  • Currency Exchange
  • TV
  • Gameroom
  • Kitchen
 
The Hostelz.com Review
The hostel is situated at the end of Rue de la Sablonniere with many of its windows opening to a small square halfway between the underground stations Botanique and Madou.

The building is a bit of a labyrinth with lots of stairs to climb to get to the upper floors. The rooms are medium-sized if not exactly spacious. As with most hostels, the beds are bunk beds. Each bed is equipped with an individual light, which is a unique bonus. There are no chairs and table in the rooms, which can be a bit awkward if you want to eat in since there's no kitchen either. Magnetic cards are used as keys to unlock the doors. Padlocks cannot be borrowed but can be bought at the reception.

There's a bathroom for every room with basin and shower, but toilets are shared with people from other rooms. What's nice is that all bathrooms and toilets are spotless. The same is more or less true of the rest of the hostel as well. The rooms and public areas are generally nice and clean, but the place could do with a bit more colors and decoration to make it warmer.

Breakfast which is included in the price is not bad (the usual bread, cheese, something meaty, jam, cereal with orange juice and hot drinks). The capacity of the Internet area is rather limited but you can surf the net for free.

New arrivals can occupy their beds after 3 pm. The reception is closed after 7 pm, but latecomers can enter through the bar. The staff is far from being kind and helpful and not so good at foreign languages. Check out is late (11.30 am or 12.00 noon).

This hostel is ok and there's nothing outstanding one should really complain about, but it's neither extremely clean (sterile some people would say) nor very cosy. The lack of atmosphere - and also the lack of public rooms suitable for social activities - may be the reason for people not hanging around much making friends.

-- Exclusive Hostelz.com Review


Your Comments
This is an open forum, and unlike other hostel guide websites, we don't censor out the negative comments.
We do not validate the legitimacy of comments posted on this site—so take what you read here with a grain of salt.
Comment by Sandip, USA
September 2007
Good location and Clean
Good Points -- Friendly and helpful staff, Fairly clean, Free internet, Laundry, Good location (close to Metro), Bar, Outdoor seating. Bad Points -- No lift on my side of the building (My room was on the third floor, with the last floor up a narrow flight of stairs), Room was small, Shower head could not be adjusted (water sprayed toward the curtain).
Comment by mark
June 2006
I visited Jacques Brel on 9/06/06. room was fine, but the rest! do not use the iron in the laundry room. It burned a fist sized hole in an expensive shirt, and it was set on min. Also when i checked out, i left an iPod nano on the bed. when i went back thrre hours later, no one had handed it in and management wouldn't let me back in the room to look or ask the thiefs, sorry, people that were in the room now. just said "sorry. this stuff happens." basically you get what you pay for. so in summary if all you're looking for is a bed, ok. if you're looking for security and peace for mind about your belongings, look elsewhere.
Comment by The Rick
June 2005
The first thing the Jacques Brel doesn't have going for it: it's in Brussels! The rooms were always stifling hot and the Internet could only be accessed when the bar opened at night. What's worse, when the bar opened it doubled as the reception desk, so good luck getting service! I will give it some credit; even though it was filled with school groups during my visit, my room was remarkably quiet. Also, the breakfast was quite good and well-rounded, i.e. cereal, toast, jam, coffee, tea, etc. I still wouldn't go back or recommend it.
Comment by Anonymous
April 2005
Decent overall. Short walk from the nearest metro stop, but close enough to the tourist center to walk there. Helpful staff. The room I was in was a little cramped for eight people. Great showers, bathrooms seemed clean to me. I recall breakfast being the usual hostel affair - no complaints there. While I was there, a huge school group arrived, a potentially huge annoyance. I might stay there again, or I might try something a little closer to the center.
Comment by Nate
November 2004
This was a great hostel, I thought. I got a bed in an eight-person room and was amazed because we had our own bathroom and our own dining area. I thought it was really cool and decently priced. The hostel had a nice staff, too. It was worth the stay.
Comment by Janine
August 2004
Jacques Brel? More like Jacques Hell! The sheets are clean and starchy, but that's about all you want to touch here. Dirty, sticky, and just plain gross!
Comment by Anonymous
July 2004
This was the best hostel of my whole holiday! The whole place was spotless, and clean sheets are given out each day. We stayed in a room for three people, and we had our own shower and toilet. There is a bar with FREE Internet access, and a great atmosphere. The hostel is a few minutes walk from the Botanique Metro Station, and within walking distance of the city center. The lift in the hostel is very slow, so we got fit using the stairs! We had an excellent experience overall, and we would return to this hostel!
Comment by Patrick
July 2004
This was an average place. The beds weren't that comfortable, and I can say that because when we got to Brussels we had been staying in hostels for five weeks. The shower in the room was nice, but the drain didn't work so well for us. It was in a fairly nice location, easy to get to the main attractions and close to the subway when we had to leave. The bar was great, serving only beers from Belgium.
Comment by Anonymous
March 2004
Very nice place. People were friendly and helpful. The shower was in our room, which was nice, but the drain didn't work well and it wasn't the best feeling to have water covering your ankles. Also, the first sheets that I got had a lot of hairs on them, but I gave them back and there was no problem with me getting new ones. The breakfast in the morning was great. It was overall a pleasant experience.
Comment by Jessica from Sheffield, UK
January 2004
We went to Jacques Brel on a Trip throught the EU, we were told the rooms were secure and valuables would be safe. So we were on the top floor and were sharing with best friends. So how come did we return to find a phone stolen? Then to find out the other people we were with had had a phone stolen from there too. Then we found out another party had a CD player stolen too! Fishy?? We thought so. We also reported this to reception immediately on return and were met with stark answers (not our problem - maybe you lost them!). We were then not given directions for the police station - we found it ourselves in the end. But overall it was dismal. Breakfast was late being served, we had to be out for 8, and struggled to do this due to breakfast (which was appaling). The room when we first entered didn't appear that bad, but the beds creeked, the mattresses were uncomfortable (they needed to be wrapped in plastic why??), and the chairs were broken and damaged, and half the plug sockets didn't work. We have refused to return to this hostel purely for the the fact it was so bad. We heard of many other groups also at the EU, they had many better hostels than we had... go to the other hostels, and you'll be better impressed. In one word - Shocking!
Comment by Anonymous
January 2004
Breakfast was awful. The hostel is in a good location for most of the major sites in town though, but the staff were pretty vague, and the room needed a good clean. The bar is well priced and free internet (15 min intervals) was good.
Comment by Mr Objective
December 2003
It's a good hostel. Quite spacious and clean. Three minutes away from metro station. The staff are friendly and helpful. There's a small bristo on ground floor. You can meet lots of backpackers there. I will come back again for sure.
Comment by Anonymous
October 2003
A very average hostel. Big dorms, a fair walk from the train station. But it was clean and well-run with a half-decent breakfast.
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