The Hostelz.com Review
The Chelsea Hostel's best attribute is its location - it is in a good, safe neighbourhood across the road from a police precinct. The 23rd Street Subway is only about a 5 minute walk and buses leave from 8th Avenue nearby. It is an easy walking distance to the amazing sights of Midtown Manhattan (Empire State Building, Times Square, and also where the City Sightseeing Buses leave from).
To get there it's a 22 block walk from the Port Authority Bus Terminal -- just take a yellow cab for approximately $7-8 and save yourself a lot of time and hassle.
The hostel itself is alright, the rooms are small and cramped, and without air conditioning you'll need to sleep with the window open -- luckily it's good location means it's not too noisy. The facilities are good - there is a small kitchen, but being New York, you shouldn't really need it - you can fill up on 95 cent bagels for dinner! There are four internet computers which cost $1 for 10 minutes of access.
The bathrooms are shared between each floor, so be prepared to wait in the mornings. There is a good social atmosphere though, the big courtyard usually has lots of people milling about, so there's always someone to go and have a drink (or ten) with in the nearby bars.
During our stay the check in staff were not friendly, be prepared for abrupt service without a smile. If you want advice, don't ask the staff, read the local sightseeing pamphlets as you'll find more out from them.
The Chelsea is good value for money, it's let down by the staff but worth staying at simply for the location.
To get there it's a 22 block walk from the Port Authority Bus Terminal -- just take a yellow cab for approximately $7-8 and save yourself a lot of time and hassle.
The hostel itself is alright, the rooms are small and cramped, and without air conditioning you'll need to sleep with the window open -- luckily it's good location means it's not too noisy. The facilities are good - there is a small kitchen, but being New York, you shouldn't really need it - you can fill up on 95 cent bagels for dinner! There are four internet computers which cost $1 for 10 minutes of access.
The bathrooms are shared between each floor, so be prepared to wait in the mornings. There is a good social atmosphere though, the big courtyard usually has lots of people milling about, so there's always someone to go and have a drink (or ten) with in the nearby bars.
During our stay the check in staff were not friendly, be prepared for abrupt service without a smile. If you want advice, don't ask the staff, read the local sightseeing pamphlets as you'll find more out from them.
The Chelsea is good value for money, it's let down by the staff but worth staying at simply for the location.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
March 2005
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Chelsea International Hostel Details
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Chelsea International Hostel Reviews on Other WebsitesHostelz.com Guest Reviews
I did not believe my eyes when we arrived here -- the room was only a bed, no hangers, no towels, and a door you nearly could look true. I killed 2 big cockroach before bedtime. The bathrooms were not better, I hope NY fire dep. will close this place. We left after 4 days for another place to spend our final 8 days in NY. — Mona , Sweden (2011-09-19) Cold in winter I stayed here a week during winter. The rooms were very very cold. I was not prepared for this but an older guy who was staying in my room had brought not only his own duvet, but also an electrical heater! Usually you would expect that heating would be included in the price. Don't expect much help from staff, they will check you in and out but probably not much more. Location is good I guess. — Sebastian (2009-08-10) Ok hostel Spent a week in this hostel, in a private room, overall there were no problems. it's very basic, a bed and a sink, but there was an air conditioner, which although noisy was needed. It's in a good location, and the bar around the corner (jakes saloon) does the best cosmos! The staff were unbelievably rude and slow. It took ages to check and i waited thirty minutes to check out, during which time an employee was checking in another guest in and the other employee was on a phone call! — Dee , Ireland (2008-07-21) Ok Pretty clean place, staff was friendly despite what people said, great location of course. — Helena (2007-11-12) Amazing location and couldnt be safer with a police station over the road. We stayed in a double room which had a bed and no space for anything else in it! It has no a/c either but has bathrooms on every floor -- shared with about 4 other rooms. Free pizza night is great and you can come and go as you please. Kitchen is tiny but has a nice dining area and seating outside too. — Jon and Laura (2007-03-25) We stayed in a private room for two nights there. The price is around 70 dollars per day. I think it is kind cheap in NYC. The room is small..just can put a double bed and another forty-five centimeter hallway that we can leave our luggage on the floor. The shower room and toilet is in the same floor. we share with other three rooms. the subway is around five- to ten-minute walk from hostel, around fifteen minutes' walk to times square. I think it is a good deal in NY. — Claire (2007-03-01) The staff was really rude, unhelpful, and uncooperative. Many of the tourist had problems with the staffs and the dorm was in unclean conditions. The price looks attractive but paying a few bucks more and staying at another place should avoid you with the troubles you get in this hostel. Good rating of this hostel is all about the past. — Matt (2006-10-07) This hostel was average, it had fairly clean dorms with 2 showers and one bathroom to 10 people, an outside area with picnic benches, 2 kitchens, and a computer room. The first night I arrived (completely my own fault!) me and a friend had to book a private room as we had got our dates wrong and had booked for the next again night instead of that one. The private room that they gave us was on the top floor of the building and up about 4 flights of stairs with no lift, if you can just imagine us 2 young girls trying to drag our 3 months worth of stuff that we had collected up all they stairs! must have given anyone who saw us a great laugh! When we got up there, the room was TINY! one double bed and a sink crammed into it and no room to move! It was also very noisy at night, I woke up at 2am and though we had slept in! It sounded like, the middle of the day! Anyway, the next day, when we were actually meant to be checking in, we had to move all our stuff back down the hundred thousand stairs to a dorm room on the bottom floor. This was the complete opposite of the private room, its was clean, had loads of space, lockers and clean linen on all the beds! We stayed in the dorm for 3 nights and had great fun. The hostel is in a good neighbourhood and is only 2 blocks from the nearest subway station which takes you anywhere you want to go. There is lots of good places to eat nearby and newsagents that sell beer and wine, which you can drink in the hostel. Overall I would say yes! do come and stay here, but if you can, take a dorm room and not private!! and when I was there I didn't see one single cockroach. — Lynsay(from Scotland) (2006-10-07) I was so close to giving this place three stars and then realized that some of things that I did not like about my stay where from my own lack of thinking ahead. Attempt to go to N.Y. and share and unconditioned room in the spring or fall. If it is summer then buy a cheap mini cooler to keep water and juice in your room. If you go in summer buy a cheap fan for your stay. If air conditioning is not present. Stay away from political conversations with the people who stay at this hostel as many will not understand what a balanced view is. Be careful of locking yourself out of your room at five a.m. going to the can. This is easy to do when drunk and sleep deprived. Do not count on your drunk sleep deprived roommate to break out their sleep to open the door. And for !@###$ sake do not start banging on the door as this place reverberates every little sound in the book, including the sound of new york chilidog and beer exiting the next morning. Great location and a fair staff that are not strict and understand young travellers (sort of). Oh yeah, do not stand on the bathroom floor at any cost. Use your shoes, garbage bag, or sandals when stepping out of shower. From what I gather one of the safest areas of the city to be walking as a tourists. — rwj (2006-08-25) The first time I ever visited NYC was a solo trip. At LaGuardia a pretty girl asked if I wanted to share a private room with her at the Chelsea Hostel. I would have slept in the subway to be with her, so I was more than happy to come. I had a blast at the Chelsea Hostel. I stayed there again last May, and brought many cousins. Again, it was a good time. Unbeatable location, decent common areas, and a good vibe. I am not giving the Chelsea Hostel the highest rating because the staff was not rude to me, but I could picture it wouldn't take much. They work behind a bulletproof glass window, I sometimes felt I was at an impound lot. And the ground-level rooms have street noise. That's the price of a hip neighborhood. They could invest in double-paned windows and tighten the seals. A little bit would go a long way. But all in all -- thumbs up, go for it. Get a top-level room. — Abe (2006-07-04) Rooms are cramped and hot, air conditioning didn't seem to do anything but biggest problem was the cockroaches. One night at two a.m., three girls were just chatting in the room when we spotted a huge cockroach by our beds and then turned round and saw two others on the other side of the room. It was just disgusting and reception were useless apart from giving us some bug spray and saying they couldn't help it. I don't believe this at all, if bug spray was used weekly it could easily keep them out, and they could block the holes letting them in. If you can bear to sleep in a room with cockroaches crawling around with you stay here as it's cheap for N.Y. and great location, however, there is no way i would ever stay in this place again, so please try to get somewhere else. — Vicky and Ali (2006-06-29) I had a good time here. I met a lot of great people. Its a very sociable hostel and quite easy to meet people. The rooms are cramped and old, but you will get a decent nice sleep. The neighbourhood is centrally located and its pretty safe! — bec (2006-06-10) Excellent location, clean, the staff is ok, and it's really cheap to be in Manhattan. — Nano (Argentina) (2006-02-08) We stayed there (two youth leaders and four young people aged 17-21 years) in 2002. At that point the staff were rude when we arrived, but a combination of me looking like a jetlagged psychopath and my overwhelming politeness overcame their attitude. There were no cockroaches, it was surprisingly beast-free, and hot. They attempted to charge us extra after breaking into our room to fit an air conditioning unit. Up the proverbial gum tree, we were on a very tight budget.
The housekeeping staff cleaned up for us (I think they thought we were from a Third World country and had never seen wardrobes) and they warmed to us after we explained that no, two of our young people were just noisy, inconsiderate, badly behaved and selfish.
If you're looking for a hotel, go book one — and pay for it. If you're looking for hostel accommodation, this is it. How people behave towards you often depends on how you treat them. — Rees (2005-09-25) I stayed here in October 2004 and now I'm heading back to New York. I thought I'd have a look here to see if anything had changed. It seems like the staff are still very rude and unhelpful. (They even stole my sunglasses from my bag when I arrived! I saw them, confronted them and then they denied it!) When I called from the airport to say I would be checking in late they hung up on me twice. The security guard (if he can be called that) was a huge sleaze. The clothes dryer didn't work and I had to carry my wet clothes to London. My food was stolen from the kitchen, and only one of the lockers in the room wasn't broken. This placed is screwed up — the only good thing was the location, except during Halloween. — Carly (2005-07-18)