Breakfast
Wi-Fi in Lobby (pay)Description
Hostelz.com's Review
Chicago International Hostel is one of the cheapest in Chicago, while still being bearable. The decor and the hostelers have a decidedly international flavor, making the hostel a unique experience.
The Location
The location is ok. The hostel is located about three blocks away from both the Granville and Loyola metro stops on the red line. This means that via public transportation, you are thirty to forty minutes away from downtown Chicago, and maybe twenty minutes from the cool and rather yuppie neighborhood of Evanston. The hostel is located in a middle-class, primarily African American neighborhood nearby Loyola University. There's not a ton of local culture or places to eat, but at least you can buy necessities nearby.
Rooms and Bathrooms
Each bed (which is a regular bed, not bunked) includes drawers for storing luggage. However, the doors on the rooms do not have locks, and the only lockers in the hostel are tiny. Additional complaints are the lack of air conditioning (which makes visiting in August rough) and that the train runs nearby, making a lot of noise (this would not be a problem if you go to bed late, however, as the train stops running at midnight). Male and female bathrooms are present on every floor, containing a few stalls and showers, but amenities leave something to be desired. Half the showers are missing curtains, the toilet paper is in need of replacing, and there is no soap provided (bring your own).
Common Spaces
The common spaces are rather roomy, and the eclectic decorations are nice in a bohemian sort of way. There is a large living room with a television and a piano. There is a kitchen (it is roomy and well-equipped for people to cook and eat together, but it smells kind of funky). There is also a laundry room and a back room for free luggage storage (only the hostel staff has keys). The hostel is not overly crowded, but other hostelers are sociable and friendly enough, despite the sweltering heat.
Summary
Overall, we find the hostel to be ok. For Chicago, the price is good. Additionally, the hostel decor is rather charming in its own way (everything from oriental furniture to numerous music and movie posters). However, amenities are not what one could find at one of the nicer chain hostels, and without air conditioning, staying for several days in the 90-degree summer could be unpleasant. Additionally, checkout is rather early at 9:30 a.m., and even when not checking out, the hostel requires that hostelers not be in the hostel from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for cleaning (so no sleeping in). If you can live with the drawbacks, we recommend the hostel for the price, especially in the more moderate months of spring and fall. If you are looking for a hostel primarily to visit sites in downtown Chicago though, and you don't have a car, you may want to look for a hostel actually located downtown.
The Location
The location is ok. The hostel is located about three blocks away from both the Granville and Loyola metro stops on the red line. This means that via public transportation, you are thirty to forty minutes away from downtown Chicago, and maybe twenty minutes from the cool and rather yuppie neighborhood of Evanston. The hostel is located in a middle-class, primarily African American neighborhood nearby Loyola University. There's not a ton of local culture or places to eat, but at least you can buy necessities nearby.
Rooms and Bathrooms
Each bed (which is a regular bed, not bunked) includes drawers for storing luggage. However, the doors on the rooms do not have locks, and the only lockers in the hostel are tiny. Additional complaints are the lack of air conditioning (which makes visiting in August rough) and that the train runs nearby, making a lot of noise (this would not be a problem if you go to bed late, however, as the train stops running at midnight). Male and female bathrooms are present on every floor, containing a few stalls and showers, but amenities leave something to be desired. Half the showers are missing curtains, the toilet paper is in need of replacing, and there is no soap provided (bring your own).
Common Spaces
The common spaces are rather roomy, and the eclectic decorations are nice in a bohemian sort of way. There is a large living room with a television and a piano. There is a kitchen (it is roomy and well-equipped for people to cook and eat together, but it smells kind of funky). There is also a laundry room and a back room for free luggage storage (only the hostel staff has keys). The hostel is not overly crowded, but other hostelers are sociable and friendly enough, despite the sweltering heat.
Summary
Overall, we find the hostel to be ok. For Chicago, the price is good. Additionally, the hostel decor is rather charming in its own way (everything from oriental furniture to numerous music and movie posters). However, amenities are not what one could find at one of the nicer chain hostels, and without air conditioning, staying for several days in the 90-degree summer could be unpleasant. Additionally, checkout is rather early at 9:30 a.m., and even when not checking out, the hostel requires that hostelers not be in the hostel from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for cleaning (so no sleeping in). If you can live with the drawbacks, we recommend the hostel for the price, especially in the more moderate months of spring and fall. If you are looking for a hostel primarily to visit sites in downtown Chicago though, and you don't have a car, you may want to look for a hostel actually located downtown.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
August 2007
Photos taken by the Hostelz.com reviewer — Genuine photos you can trust.
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Hostelz.com Guest Reviews
The nightmare continues, I see Stayed here a while back, i see that the bedbugs are still thriving and the staff are still indigent morons. This place still owes me in excess of 200 for instructing me to park somewhere that resulted in my car getting towed. I now live in Chicago, and I cannot believe this place hasn't been shut down yet, of course, since the people who run this place remind me of low-level mobsters, it would make sense that they have managed to stay open. For the amount of medical bills you will pay to correct the bedbugs and any infection you will contract while staying here, it is well worth it to pay a bit extra and stay anywhere else. You would honestly be better off on a park bench or in an alley. — Anonymous, US (2012-05-21) Stay as far away This was the worst place i ever stayed. I got lice, bedbugs, mice running all over the place. The bathrooms were Calcutta in July. There is a man named Soni the owner, he is rude, mean bastard. The place is disgusting and Vile. Do not come here and tell your friends not to. — Syeed Javid, Pakistan (2011-02-08) It is a sh*thole This place is a peace of sh*t. It is nasty. The owner is cheap and mean and yells and scream. Why do you promote such a disgrace of a hostel. The staff are rude and stupid. No one should stay here. I got bedbugs and lice while staying here. Do not book this hostel. It is a peace of sh*t and a real sh*thole. — Javid Kahn, Pakistian (2009-10-25) Avoid like the plague. A vile, nasty, and poisonous place to stay. Don't be fooled by the low price. you get much less than you pay for. Spend a few extra dollars and stay at somewhere that at least presents a veneer of caring for their customers. The faults are almost too many to list, but most are linked to the fact that the owner and staff all border upon being criminally negligent. If you stay there you have no choice but to leave all your valuables in unlocked rooms, since they give you no key and there are no lockers. You are kicked out of the hostel from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. everyday, when they "clean" and provide you with "freshly laundered" sheets. This minor frustration would be justifiable if anything in the hostel could be labeled clean. The place is a dump from top to bottom. The toilets are a particular highlight, walls coated with dead flies, cobwebs in the rafters, a layer of piss across the floor, and various fungi growing on the shower curtains. However, my particular favourite is the bedrooms. Do not expect to sleep in comfort, you are right next to the El and trains go past every fifteen minutes throughout the night. I heard the sounds of people having sex out the window every now and then. The rooms have no air con and are thus always too hot or too cold. I woke up every now and then throughout the night and had to put on a jumper. However the piéce de résistance is the state of the beds which swarm with bedbugs as the state of my body can currently testify. In short, do not stay at Chicago International Hostel unless you want to leave looking like a person in a Seurat painting. I have said nothing yet about the attitude of the people who work there, and I wont because I can't be bothered, and neither can they. Also, it's next to a mental asylum. Woops! Forgot to mention that in your location description, didn'tcha. — Harry, England (2009-09-24) Do not stay there, worst hostel ever seen (out more than twenty) Cleanliness. Absolutely repulsive, no joke. Men's bathroom is really filthy, both the toilets, the showers and the sink (full of insects). Believe it or not, nobody cleaned the bathroom in the five days I stayed there. They didn't even collect some litter from the floor (neither in the bathrooms nor in the dorms). Guests must leave the hostel from 11 to 4, they are supposed to clean but believe me, they don't. There is no fitted sheet in the beds, so you know that you sleep in the same place as somebody else did before. But there is something much worse that people usually don't know -- a roommate left the hostel and the staff didn't change the sheets for the next guest! They just made the bed and pretend them to be fresh! Security. There are no keys for the rooms, you have to ask in reception for them to open the door for you. The result of this (stupid) rule is that the door is always open, and anyone can enter in the dorms. There are no lockers in the rooms, and the staff should know that it is very likely that you get robbed, because they make you sign a document stating that you agree that they are not responsible for lost items. We complained about the lack of lockers, and they offered to take care of our items for us, but would anybody in his right mind accept this after having signed that they are not responsible for the lost of items? Price. Once you arrive at the hostel, they do not pay the conditions of your booking regarding the amount of money to be paid at your arrival. They claim that they do not receive the 10% that you pay in advance as a deposit and that you must repay it (never seen before). Also, they also tell you that you must pay some taxes which do not appear in the terms and conditions (as it is the common and lawful situation). At the end, the price to pay is rather arbitrary and not so cheap. Furthermore, the hostel is very far from downtown, so you have to pay for the public transport which is not cheap either ($2.25 to $2.50 a single ride). Location. Close to a metro station, but very far from the city centre and the main attractions. Be prepared to spend a lot of time and money on the public transport. Staff. Sounds unbelievable, but the staff are even worst than the rest. They obviously do not like their job, and only care about the money. The one guy was extremely unhelpful, insensitive, and miserly. He ripped us off, saying that there was an overbooking and that we had to pay again a deposit of 10% that we had already paid. He also invented some additional taxes for us to pay. He changed the price for us to pay twice of three times, it was absolutely arbitrary. No apologies for the overbooking, no understanding of the situation, they only care the money. Arguments as solid as "this is Chicago, men," "I didn't make the rules," and such. It came as no surprise to me that there is a big poster of Al Capone in the reception, the staff obviously follow his example. We booked a private three-bed room for the women, and two beds in a dormitory for the men. At least they could have had the detail of arranging a five-bed room for all of us, but they didn't want to forget the sex-separated rooms (stupid) rule. Check-out time is at 9:30 a.m. Every guest must leave the hostel from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There male and female dorms, but no mixed ones. The elevator does not work (I guess that it has never done). If you really have to or want to go to Chicago, there are more hostels. I don't know them but I don't need to -- stay at other place. — ermadi, Spanish (2009-06-01) Not bad Not bad, especially considering the price. (what else were people expecting for about $22 a night?) This was the first time I had stayed at a hostel, and didn't know exactly what to expect. Stayed two nights, check in and check out was a breeze. The staff was very friendly, and even though they say check out is at 9:30 a.m., they let me check out three minutes before they closed for cleaning without any fuss. The extremely squeaky men's bathroom door on the second floor was more of a bother than the noise from the train. As long as you wear shower shoes, the bathroom was decent. It could definitely be cleaner, but there was plenty of warm water, and it warmed up fast. Every time I came back to the hostel during the day, the door to my "dorm" room was locked, which was a little bit of a inconvenience, but kind of reassuring. The beds were pretty uncomfortable, and my comforter had some questionable stains. None of my stuff was ever touched, and I lucked out and had some cool people in my room. Definitely not a bad experience overall. — Erica, USA (2009-04-10) Something's missing I have stayed in a few hostels and didnt get what i've come to expect. The staff was rude, at check in i was treated like i was inconveniencing them as i was only staying the night. i was told at least twice about the 9:30 check out and when i went to leave at 7 to make a meeting they acted surprised. also there is no liquor allowed -- while this didnt affect me i know it may some people and with these policies and the commercial/industrial bare bones look of the dorm areas you get a feeling almost like your in a shelter. finally the hostel is three floors with no elevator. All I can say is I was warned and didnt listen. — Adam, us (2008-10-15) Horrible times three -- stay away! this was horrible! i've stayed at another very horrible hostel before and it has found its match! the sheets were dirty, there was hair that was not mine or my friends everywhere (shower, bed, floor), the floor was dirty (i would have never walked bare foot there), the towels were stained (don't wanna know with what). the bathroom was gross, too. the hostel closes for cleaning but then we came back after we have been out all day and the door we locked (we had to leave a deposit of $20 to even get our own key) was open. good thing we hid our stuff in a closet! after questioning the manager he told us they don't even touch the room as long as you stay there -- so when exactly is it being cleaned? good thing we didn't plan to stay for a week. he even was fresh enough to ask me why the door was open -- and then didn't have an answer when i wanted an explanation! i can just advise everybody to stay away -- it's outrageous to charge 30 bucks a night for a place like that. — Lilly, Austria (2008-09-23)
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