text: No no no no nonnI love backpacking I love staying in hostels I have stayed in many from Quebec City to Saint Petersburg This is not a good hostelnnIt is uncomfortable It is basically a bunch of plywood box rooms set up inside an old church The outside of the rooms are covered in a huge weird mural depicting things like beggars serial killers and teddy bears hanging themselves no I am not kidding I stayed in a person dorm which was very crowded even by hostel standards Ventilation is not great and you easily find yourself either freezing or swelteringnnIt is dirty Most of the facilities are located on the basement floor and to get to them you have to walk through reception and past the common area The bathrooms are vile and the showers are not much better They stink to high heaven there is a lot of mold and I doubt the place has had a thorough cleaning in the past decade Do not even think about using the refrigerators in the common area The staff claims they clean them out once a week This is not truennIt is sketchy Although the neighborhood is safe this is a cheap hostel and some of the folks staying there were definitely transients A security system exists but it is not much You have to enter a code to enter after certain hours but the code is simple and only changes once per week or so Even then staff rarely seem to ask questions about visitors and will buzz people in if they see them standing at the doornnIt is inconvenient Now I like walking so I did not mind that it was a bit removed from the city centre but this is not a centrally located hostel by any means The nearest shops of any kind are a few blocks away It is about minutes from the end of Princes St minutes from the Royal Mile and minutes from the university This can mean a long trip home after a night of pubcrawlingnnShort story Avoid I stayed here because I wanted to check out the Fringe and it was the only option available If you have any other options take them You will be glad you did