American Backpackers Hostel

Untruthful, dirty hostel you should avoid
This hostel promise you that if you leave a nice review on a website like this, you can get a free night at that stinky place. It was incredibly dirty. Yes, it was cheap, but you had to pay $2 extra for sheets with ink/fungus stains on it. People who worked there were rude. There was a bad vibe in the whole hostel, strange people (except the people, like me, who looked around in horror, thinking, how the hell did I end up here?!). Mixed toilet, that you couldn't flush if someone was showering. and the climax -- bedbugs. They have bedbugs and actually admit that (there are signs). Instead of handling it well, they put a sign there saying you can get anti-itch cream. Well, sorry, will they pay for my cleaning costs if I take them home? Don't go there.

Best way to meet other travelers and cheap!
if you're looking for cheap and perfectly located close to all the sites i would seriously check it out. had a great time the people are super chill. i met some awesome peeps! the staff Vince and Angela are great and and were very helpful. it's a gritty, no frills, really relaxed place. lot of fun.

Bugs! Stay away!
I got bed bugs from this hostel. It has been a year and I have had Orkin spray numerous times. I got a new bed, I keep my clothes in plastic containers and nothing on the floor. I still wake up every night at 4 a.m. to check for them. Pay the extra money and go to a real hotel or a nicer hostel. Really. They are infested and you will get bugs if you stay here and you may not get rid of them. Treating them will cost you way more then staying somewhere nicer. They can live a year without feeding and all you need is one to get into your suitcase or purse or makeup bag and you have them. They can be so tiny that you won't see them. It is irresponsible of them to remain open and not treat this problem. My friend also stayed there at a different time and she continues to fight them as well. Please stay away and ask all hostels you go to if they have them.

My sweet home
My first impression of the hostel wasn't good. It was an incredible party place where every time you can make a new friend. If you do not have work, always somebody is there for you to tell what to do and excellent place to know Vancouver and enjoy this.

Very good place to be to meet new friends
I stayed at this hostel for November of 2007. I really enjoyed this hostel. It's cheap, and people there are very friendly. I enjoyed the fact that on the first day I didn't know anybody and by the second day I had met several lifelong friends. There is a rule that we do our own dishes and some people decide not to, but eventually it gets done. If you are looking for a hostel experience and meeting new people this is the place to go.

A great experience.
I arrived in Vancouver with almost zero money in my pocket, and this was the best hostel i found. even though it is the cheapest does not mean it is the worst. the guests are excellent! the staff is extremely friendly and helpful. any time day or night when i had a problem i only had to go as far as a common area to find someone who could help me. It is a very relaxed place. not the cleanest, but still incredible. I would recommend this hostel to anyone who wants to have the best time possible in Vancouver! I will definitely return.

Pretty lousy
a "you get what you get" type of place, 10 bucks. i would call it a bunkhouse instead of a hostel though. i saw few young people, no one had checked in for six days prior to me. the toilets were broken one night, i would rather lick a sidewalk than eat in that kitchen. i think i got head lice from sleeping there. i saw a couple girls but wouldn't recommend it unless you like being around lots of thirty-ish looking men at night i met no one cool, everyone just walked around and was real quiet. it was 10 bucks a night, right near the downtown, however, so it was good enough i guess.

Cheap place to stay -- don't lose your cool
When I went to check in, the lady at the front told me that I called last night and canceled the room. This was crazy because I was driving on my way there at the time that she said I called. I went back to the car and when I came back to figure out what to do, she acted like a totally different person. She called me "sweetie" and "found" a room for me and my four friends. I know she lied about me canceling the room, but I think the reason was that she booked a room that they didn't have. One of the beds was on the floor -- no big deal. Just go with the flow, be patient and polite, you will do fine.

The worst, rudest hostel i have ever visited
This is a dreadful hostel. Do not go here. The woman who runs it is a complete psycho. There is nothing about an age limit on the website but apparently you have to be over nineteen to stay, so since one of us wasn't, she completely flipped -- saying we should read the small print and that she wasn't there to babysit. Then when she started going on about how dare we go into our hostel and try commit fraud, we left, after a few harsh words from us. This resulted in her telling us we had attitude problems. Think it might have been the other way round. Even though we didn't get as far as a room, it looked pretty grimy and disgusting. Its only $10 for a reason, splash out an extra few dollars and go somewhere else.

I would return to this hostel once and again. If you prefer new buildings then this is not your hostel. If you like the hostels where everyone sits alone and its bored, this is not your place. But if you like feeling like at home, Vincent and Angela know how to do it. Thanks to them for making my trip to Vancouver an incredible experience, to all the people who were there, who were really nice and made me feel Vancouver was my home despite I had just arrived. Great place!

Ok so the last comment posted was by me, and I'm still staying there, and I still love it, and I have since the last comment, practically made friends with Angela, and like seriously, she just wants respect. which I can deal with because I expect the same, except she gets to boss me around because she cleans after all us pigs and puts up with assloads of crap, and junk. I love her but not in a weird lesbo way. Also, I love staying at this hostel. Everyone is friendly and there are a few people that have been there a while, and some almost as long as I. It's really good if you're hard for money, and don't mind having to clean your dishes before you use them.

It's a hostel -- not a hotel. Great place, had a lot of fun. There's one really bipolar bitch, but other than that everyone is pretty cool.

this place is amazing! I never want to leave! the rude lady is angela and she's a bit bipolar, but harmless! true that was a horrible first experience, but it's a wonderful place if you're open minded and really broke!

this hostel is cool. nice laid back atmosphere. great kitchen to cook with even an espresso machine. my female dorm was like at home -- girls sharing clothes, makeup. the place has charm, even if old, and rates for long term stay in the winter are very very cheap. and that's when you get the real feeling and make friends. the owner is a ex-reggae star. He used to play with Bob Marley, was friend of Che Guevara and he is a sort of politician now.

This place is a real dive.Seriously.I walked in one day to reserve. After standing around for thirty minutes, someone finally comes to the desk. The lady tells me to come back the next morning and there are dorms available. So I come back at around 10 a.m. I'm waiting around for fifteen minutes. No ones at the front desk. I politely ask the cleaning lady if theres anyone working at the front desk. She replies rudely, I'll get there when I get there. After another fifteen minutes she comes back and says what do you want. I asked politely if there are any dorms available. She replies no there aren't. What do I do? I have all this luggage with me and nowhere to go. So I put a dime in a slot and get online to find any room elsewhere. I checked out the american backpackers online, and it turns out there were dorms available! She totally lied! As soon as she noticed me checking online, she comes over to me and tells me to get off, because staff comes first she says! I was in the middle of booking for a place to stay and she kicks me off without a care. What an unintelligent bitch! So after todays experience, I'll never go there again. I recommend paying a few bucks more and going somewhere where the staff are more intelligent and the service much better, and the place much cleaner.