Dublin · Ireland
Clink i Lár
HostelPunk native reviews
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Vibe Analysis
Right in the middle of Dublin, a couple of minutes from Temple Bar, with trams and taxis and most of the city walkable. The location is the strongest thing it has going. It's a tall, fairly new building done up with bright, colorful graphic design, and the bar downstairs doubles as the main hangout, with a pool table and a sociable buzz for meeting people over a drink. There is no kitchen and no cooking facilities, not even a microwave, and outside food and drink generally aren't allowed. This isn't flagged clearly when you book, so plan to eat out every day. That cuts into the usual money-saving point of a hostel, and it gets sharper because almost everything else costs extra too: towel rental (around 5-6 euros), luggage storage lockers before check-in or after check-out (roughly 4-10 euros for a few hours), a guaranteed lower bunk (about 3-6 euros), and early check-in. It can feel like a budget airline for exactly this reason. Breakfast is around 9-10 euros, billed as a full Irish but often turning out to be bland scrambled eggs, potatoes and beans, frequently run empty and slow to refill. Check-in is the other recurring pain point. It runs through self-service kiosks or tablets with usually one staff member to cover a crowd, so queues of 20-30 minutes are common, and there are repeated mix-ups: charged for early check-in that wasn't given, wrong room categories, mixed-sex bookings landing someone in a single-sex dorm, and the assigned bunk not matching what was paid for. Keycards can be unreliable, and forgetting one in the stairwell has left people locked in for 20 minutes or more. Cleanliness is inconsistent and often poor. Bed linen is handed over with stains, hair, or worse, and you typically make your own bed on arrival. Rooms and bathrooms sometimes go uncleaned across multi-night stays, bins aren't emptied, and bathrooms can smell of mould. The bathrooms are tiny, often with no toilet lid, no shower screen or curtain (so water floods the floor), and no hooks or shelf for your things. Rooms run small and spartan, closer to a prison or jail cell than a bedroom. Beds are frequently hard, and bunks sit so tight to the wall they're awkward to make. Sleep can be a struggle. Many windows either don't open or only crack a few centimeters, and several have no proper blackout, so early sunrise wakes you. The AC tends to be central or automatic, noisy, and can't be controlled at the bed; when it shuts off around midnight, upper bunks can get uncomfortably hot. On top of that, construction next door has been starting around 7AM with loud drilling and hammering, and large school groups of teenagers run and shout in the halls again and again. Staff are genuinely mixed: some are warm and helpful, and a few are lovely, while others are curt, dismissive, or unhelpful when problems arise.
Signals to check
- No kitchen, microwave, or cooking facilities, and outside food and drink generally aren't allowed, so expect to eat out every day.
- Many things cost extra: towel rental, luggage storage lockers, a guaranteed lower bunk, and early check-in.
- Cleanliness is unreliable; linen can arrive stained or with hair, and rooms and bathrooms sometimes go uncleaned for days. You usually make your own bed.
- Bathrooms are very small and often lack a toilet lid, shower screen, hooks, or shelf, and can flood or smell of mould.
- Check-in runs through self-service kiosks with few staff, leading to long queues and frequent booking and room-assignment errors.
- Sleep can be hard: windows that barely open, weak blackout, noisy central AC that shuts off at midnight, early-morning construction next door, and loud school groups.
- Rooms are small and basic, beds are often hard, and the price can feel high for what's offered.
- Some staff are friendly and helpful, while others are curt or dismissive, especially when problems arise.
- Isolated but serious hygiene incidents have occurred, including a bed bug, used condoms in rooms, and unclean shared areas.
- Booking changes and cancellations have been handled poorly, with charges kept after cancellations and a late arrival's reservation cancelled.