Firehouse Hostel 605 Brazos Street, Austin, TX 78701

"The hostel itself great. The room have space for everything, clean linens and towels; obviously there's the noise of downtown but the location is too good to complain about that. However, we had a very bad experience with the girl who's at the reception in the morning. We arrived before the check in to leave our backpack and we still hadn't receive our code to open the door. She was so pissed off that she had to stand up for us, and she open the door so fast it almost hit our faces. She was extremely rude and when l asked her about the code and how to find it she said it was not her business to know anything about it. Fix your life girl!"

"Firehouse is a fun hostel with great staff and I've met a lot of cool travelers while staying there every time and still keep in contact with a few. Howie and the rest of the staff are nice and friendly and will give suggestions for things to do and where to eat around the area if you ask. Howie has been bringing back activities for guest to do like poker night and pub crawls as well. It's right off 6st so easy access to all the action taking place on that street without having to drive or use public transportation to get to it. The kitchen/common area is always a good place to meet other travelers as well. Solo or in a group you can usually find more people to join in with if desired. The speakeasy below is also great as a good place to hang out watch live music and the drink prices are pretty good for 6th St I always stay there whenever I can when in Austin."

"This is a really cool hostel to meet fellow travelers in. It's got such an amazing vibe. The kitchen is so open and great for chilling in and meeting up with fellow travelers & chatting about what they've got going on. It's in such a great location too. Staying here will definitely enhance your Austin trip. Just make sure you bring your noise canceling ear buds & download some white noise to listen to while you sleep, if you want to keep a normal business hours sleep schedule; The speakeasy stays going until pretty late and you can hear it in your room."

"I stayed in the 6 bed male dorm. The room was unfortunately quite cramped and there frankly wasn't any shared space for you to place your personal belongings, so you'd have to store your stuff in the "locker" which is essentially the floor space below the lower bunk bed but with a locked door. I ended up just placing my personal belongings on my bed which is the upper bunk bed. Speaking of the upper bunk bed, I was quite alarmed when I found that there was a huge gap between the bed and the wall (I was sleeping on the upper bunk bed next to the window), and since it was just a twin bed, I was worried that I would accidentally fall off the upper bunk to the floor (or worse, fall out from the third floor window). If you are in a fortunate position to pick a bed, I would recommend a lower bunk bed. The male showers were fine - stable supply of hot water, and the stalls were never all occupied. However, since there was no hook and there was just a small shelf in the stall, I had to dress up outside the stall. The hostel does not provide breakfast, but there are plenty of great eateries just around the corner. It also doesn't organize events, although it has a "speakeasy" bar on the ground floor. Since the hostel is in the heart of downtown Austin (and it even has its own bar), music could be heard in the bedroom even at midnight. I could hear the bass pumping through my mattress at 1am. At one point the music would stop, so I wouldn't be too concerned about that, but if you are a light sleeper, I would recommend some ear plugs. The hostel is located in a convenient location - the next few blocks are all bars, and there are even more bars if you are willing to walk 5-10 minutes more. Plus, you can walk to major tourist attractions or take public buses to get to where you want to go. With a convenient location and a low price, this hostel is hard to beat. I would stay here again, but perhaps try my best to check in at 3pm to claim a lower bunk bed if I can."

"Mixed feelings, because it is cheaper than most anywhere else, though the $38 per day parking nearby offsets that if you have a car. Location wise, it's great to walk to places, and there were good people to talk to in the hostel, but I ended up checking out early due to issues that prevented me from sleeping: 1. This is located right above a bar that plays music very loud, and if you have a dorm on the second floor, you are going to have a rough time sleeping at night even on a weekday, even with ear plugs with how the bass carries. If this was the only issue, I would get over it and just sleep from 2:00 in the morning until 9:00 or 10:00. 2. With 8 people in a room it can get pretty muggy, and the ventilation doesn't seem to keep up with the level of humidity, so the windows have to be opened at night, which leads to all kinds of traffic noise... I wear earplugs every night, but that close there's not much that helps. 3. Some guests in the hostel may need to be interviewed about whether or not they have stayed at a hostel before, or have the front desk emphasize that you should not be on a phone call at 6:00 in the morning, or laughing at YouTube videos that you watch on your phone. Two of the guests in my dorm did not seem to understand that. 4. Blackout curtains, and curtain rods... Almost all of the curtains in the room let in plenty of light, making mornings after a late night difficult as mentioned in the first point... Not only that, but one of the curtain rods is falling down in room 201 which lets even more light in. I really appreciate the staff there, they answered my questions and helped me check out early. I needed my own space and didn't want to risk additional nights with issues in other rooms. Perhaps a bit more detail on some of the rooms or arrangements based on people's desire for sleep versus staying out late would be helpful going forward for people making a decision to stay here."