The Palace Hostel

LOVE!! 😊 Yeah, at first reading the reviews, my friend and I were a bit skeptical, but the prices are excellent so we thought "Hey, we both come from poor countries, and there will be nothing worse. At least it's an experience." Come to find out that it is waaaay better than we expected. It's true, indeed, that this hostel got a new manager and well that's the reason things are shaping up!😄 SUPER CLEAN! BEAUTIFUL w/ art work and most importantly FRIENDLY!! 💚 Also, there ain't no extra charge for towels or outside hours check-in/out! Plus, coffee in am and just super chill atmosphere. Recommend! Thank you so much, I'm coming back! 😀

For the very inexpensive cost of $11 this place was great. The room was a little warm in mid September but the fan made it great for me in the men's dorm. I don't think most women would be so easy to please. Cool vibe, cool people.

I stayed at the Palace Hostel off and on for a few weeks, its clean and comfortable. I felt safe and enjoyed my stay, there are lockers, kitchens, showers, comfy beds, as well as a.c in every room. The staff is super helpful and fun to hang out with. They will gladly point you in the right direction, or even take you out for a night on the town. You can walk to the beach and its right by a handful of bars and restaurants. The Palace is the kind of place you may expect to meet wonderful people, the kind of people you may love, the kind you keep in contact with and see again some day. I will defiantly recommend my friends to stay here. See you next time Palace.

Such an amazing location, friendly staff, and well priced. Obie, the manager of the hostel is very profressional and cares immensely about the little things that makes someones stay memorable. Nice and clean, spacious rooms. Surpassed all my expectations for sure. Cant wait to come back again.

Atmosphere is a lot better than expected. Great staff and excellent location. Walking distance to restaurants and local bars. Easy access to Walmart and 24/7 convenient store. Beds were comfortable and wifi was on point.

Obie and his staff were phenomenal. They contacted me prior to my arrival to ensure a smooth transition from the airport to the hostel and also recommended cheap transportation methods. The hostel had hot water and a kitchen area to include multiple patios for relaxing. Great location just minutes away from the beach and Old San Juan.

Had a lot of fun here, every night's a party at this hostel. The place was clean and well taken care of, and the staff were very chill and friendly. Also, great location with lots of nightlife. Some rooms have AC.

Great place to stay, esp. if you're interested in getting to know more than just the old city of San Juan. Close to the beach and e.g. Walmart. Great people working at the hostel who are always willing to give you ideas about how to spend your day (♥️ Obie & Donnie ♥️). The rooms are clean with airco. We loved it!

More than I could have ever expected . When I read the reviews, I thought this hostel might be a nightmare but it was cheap so I was willing to give it a try. Wow, I was impressed. The pictures do not do it justice. Apparently, it's under new management and they've made a lot of great changes. I was at several hostels in San Juan and The Palace was by far my favorite. From the moment I walked in I was relieved. It's a beautiful building and the staff greeted me with a smile and made me feel right at home. I arrived in the morning and was able to check in right away. My room was available and they let me check in early. They said I'd be able to store my bags if I needed to check out early. The hostel has several large communal areas so it makes it easy to engage and meet other guests. They also have two beautiful patios to enjoy the weather. I'm a smoker so I was relieved that they had designated areas for me to easily have a cigarette without hassle. There were plenty of showers and toilets so I never had to wait. The beds were super comfy and the rooms were larger than I expected. The kitchen is small but I didn't mind. They had everything I needed and since it was tight quarters, it was more engaging and easy to meet people. The guests were friendly and the vibe was laid back and a lot of fun. It was definitely a diverse mix of travelers and a lot of long term travelers so conversations were great. I loved the location. Instead of being in a touristy area, it's in a real neighborhood. I felt like I had more of an authentic San Juan experience staying there. The location is central so it's easy to get anywhere you want to go. It's surrounded by public transit and there's a taxi station across the street. Just a 5 minute walk away through a beautiful neighborhood is the Miramar area. There was tons of restaurants, bars, museums, things to do, and even a movie theatre. The beach was a good 15-20 minute walk but I usually took a bus. It was a quick trip to Old San Juan and other locations on the island. There's a store with beer and miscellaneous items right across the street and a gas station a couple minutes' walk away. Wal-Mart was close so it made it easy to get groceries. There's several small local restaurants within a couple blocks where you can get full meals for under $4. I'll definitely be back to The Palace. I really enjoyed my stay.

Terrible, dirty and unorganized hostel. I stayed three nights in this place and have nothing positive to say. On the night of my arrival (11pm), I wandered around the hostel asking "Do you work here?" to everyone that I saw. None of the people I encountered worked at the hostel, nor had any idea of who did. Eventually, while standing by the counter downstairs, I called the hostel's phone. After 10 or so rings, a man wearing a towel and looking hungover stumbled down the stairs. Apparently, this was the manager. He showed me to my mixed-sex dorm which stank of cigarette smoke and mold, while handing me a bundle of sheets and telling me to help myself. None of the power chargers in the room worked... They advertise themselves as being the only hostel in PR with AC and memory foam mattresses....but the AC doesn't work and the mattresses smell like piss and body odor. The showers have an impossibly weak flow. Only half of the water faucets are functional- not including the one in the kitchen or the one in first floor bathroom. The whole place smells like cigarette smoke and is infested by mosquitoes- even in the rooms. Additionally, the hostel is totally unlocked and available for anyone to walk in during the day or night-- which is consequently bad since it is bordered on one side by a slum and on the other side by Ponce de Leon, a neighborhood crawling with policemen and prostitutes. This hostel also offers what it refers to as "free breakfast". This "breakfast" is a combination of old, crusty white bread and jam. There were three flavors of jam available during my stay...and each of them contained a nasty, never washed, fingerprint covered, sticky and dusty butter knife for spreading. Finally the staff is lazy, difficult to find and generally lacking in any knowledge if the area...and honestly just seem to be a bunch of free loading,drunk, pot smoking teenagers.

OMG the reviews of this place tricked me into booking here and when I got here it was the filthiest, smelliest disaster of a place I have ever been to!! People all over the hostel were smoking marijuana and the noise was unbearable!! The staff was M.I.A. most of the time, and when you did manage to find someone they were either high, drunk or just plain clueless! The hostel is located in a disgusting area surrounded by druggies, homeless and prostitutes! The bathrooms were by far the most disgusting bathrooms I have ever seen in my life, and I have seen some pretty nasty ones at gas stations all over the world! But the bathrooms at the Palace hostel were by far the worst! The beds smelled of urine and mold mixed in with cigarettes and the place was swarming with flies and mosquitoes! I tried very hard to think of something nice to say about this place but all I can come up with is...I'm glad my stay came to an end!! This place should really change their name as it is soooooooo not a Palace!!!!

I'm surprised by a lot of the negative reviews - myself and my 17 other teammates found this place just fine. We are here for spring break and are taking up 18 of the 23 beds. The beds are a bit creaky, but comfortable. The AC in the bedroom works and keeps the room cool (though the bunk next to the AC unit is freezing). The two bathrooms and kitchens are entirely functional. There's free WiFi (and it's pretty fast even with 18+ of us sharing it!), a cab company across the street, and busy neighborhoods and the beach are all very close by. Some areas that could be improved - the patios can get really dusty, and the hostel has a very open architecture which makes the common spaces get hot and humid during the day. Finally the "free breakfast" in the mornings is nothing to boast about - we've been cooking our own. All in all though; cheap, comfortable, safe, convenient - albeit a little dirty.

When I walked in I felt welcomed ...then shortly noticed that there were no locks on my door and gay men watching my every move...it's a nice hostel just don't drop the soap.

In short: dirty a lot of rusted stuff, super bad administration, not helpful staff, expensive for what you get. 55$ per night for a private room with a shared bathroom. Details: The usual reaction I get from some people when I say I will stay in a hostel is usually a bad one, mainly with hygene concerns. I have stayed in around 8 different hostels in other countries and never had a problem. But for the first time, I felt bad and uncorfortable, this place really gives a bad reputation to the concept of a hostel. I arrive around 1 and the manager had just woke up, didn't know where the keys were. Ok then, we wait. Kitchen is super small, very hard to cook something, bathrooms are poorly maintained, I didn't find toilet paper on any of the the restrooms until next day, this would be totally understandable if they are busy with other things, but they are actually drinking and playing card games untill midnight. Oh, I also saw a sign with the quiet hours: 8am to 10pm and it was ironic to see they don't even respect their own rules. I am going and like to party, but I am sure people need to rest.

I was in San Juan for 10 days and decided to spend my last 3 days in a hostel. I thought it would be fun to meet people to hang out with and explore the city with, but that's not what happened here. First off it took me 20 minutes to even find the place, because its on a awkward dead end street in a neighborhood. Nothing worth seeing In the whole area. There is a close bus that easily takes you to old San Juan, but that's it. When me and my friend arrived everyone was kind of hanging out and I asked about checking in and the guy behind the counter Apparently didn't even work there. They only take cash so we had to walk to the bank to get cash for our room. When we got back our rooms weren't ready so they gave us sheets to make our own beds. Finally a woman who DID work there guided us upstairs with our giant suitcases only to realize oops, we are downstairs. Room was what you would expect from a hostel, bunk beds, table, and Ac. Our room had a window that was warped and wouldn't shut which faced the courtyard where everyone smokes and hangs out. Because of the window our room was filled with Mosquitos. We were right next to the restroom which we thought was really convenient, until either stupid or drunk people kept walking into our room asking "is this the bathroom?" Did I mention the doors barely lock? With enough twist a s shove any door will give way. My friend and I had just finished hiking el yunque and needed to shower. With the door locked, not even 10 minutes into my stay, someone walked into my LOCKED bathroom, while I was showering. Are you fucking kidding me? When does a shut bathroom door ever mean no one is in there? After all this we ended up eating at subway because there is nothing in the area and a woman gave us wrong directions. I wish I could remember her name because she was completely useless. Thinking it couldn't get any worse and we should just chill back at the hostel and watch tv we headed back. The common area has a tv couch and movies that you can watch until ten, I assumed to be polite about sound, but no one else cared. At 8:45 we headed up to watch some tv and discovered the couch was now someone's bed, we asked what was going on and we were told some one needed to stay here, but was what we wanted to watch available on Netflix? Or the Internet? Completely unprofessional. Everyone was always drinking and seemed like no one was running the hostel. Our next couple days were always the same. We would walk in and it was silent, like no one wanted us around because we had complained about the tv not being available when its one of the things they offer. Ready to go on our last night we gave the key back to get our 5 dollar key deposit back, but then we were told since we had such an early flight we would have to call someone to come open the door. It was such an ordeal. No one had communicated as a business that we needed to leave. They are huge on the door being locked, I was yelled at several times to lock the door even when I was mid locking it, which was strange since every time we left our came back the door was unlocked. It appeared I was the only one locking it. Tip for palace hostel employees don't treat your paying customers like they are putting you out. If you need to stay in a hostel I'd suggest San Francisco hostel. I didn't stay there, but its in the heart of old San Juan. I'll know better next time. Wish I could rate this place a zero.

I stayed here for only one night, unfortunately. This place greatly compensated for any lacking in accomodation(which other reviews comment on) with great company. I had a fantastic time meeting and relaxing with all of the visitors, volunteers and staff. I slept comfortably in a mixed dorm and for a very affordable $20 per night. Personally, I have no complaints about the cleanliness. I saw the staff clean, do laundry, and keep the smoking to outdoors only. This place was very relaxed and had a cute sunlit area for us to hang out. We were close to the beach and felt so welcomed by everyone we met at the Hostel. This is the perfect place if you are young, laid back and looking for experience, not luxury. Staying at The Palace was a huge win, and an unforgettable experience.

It's nice for a hostel, but it's in a shitty part of town. I didn't feel particularly safe walking around at night, with the countless prostitutes and what I presumed to be drug dealers roaming around just blocks away. I mean, yeah it's Puerto Rico but.. As far as the hostel itself goes, the staff was friendly and the beds were comfortable. The rooms are all air-conditioned which is very appreciated. The (communal) bathrooms were a bit nasty, slimy showers and lots of bugs and hit or miss if the toilet paper was stocked.. I didn't use the kitchen area, but there are mini-fridges available and a hot plate and toaster.

Such a great location, friendly staff and such great company. Obie, the manager of the hostel is very profressional and cares immensely about the little things that makes someones stay memorable. Nice and clean, spacious rooms. Surpassed all my expectations for sure. Cant wait to come back again.

I thought it was wondrful! Of course, im factoring the price in...150, for my own room, for four nights. The bed was comfortable. The staff was friendly and helpful. I do feel it could be cleaned a little better...but, oh well...

My friends and I are staying here now and I love how it's a central location to all the activities we're doing. The hostel is clean and the rooms are pretty spacious. When we first arrived, the manager was sooo nice (and cute-I think his name was Obie) and helpful. He told us places we should visit and restaurants to eat at. You won't be disappointed with this place

I stayed here recently and I really liked where it was located, I was able to get around easily without being exhausted from the commute. The staff was super nice and friendly and the room I had was spacious. I would recommend this hostel and I would definitely return the next time I'm in Puerto Rico.

Do not stay here. If I could give fewer than 1 star I would. I booked this place for me and my family on December 26th based on reviews from hostel sites. Everything else in San Juan was booked and I booked two private twin rooms for myself, my husband, my father and my brother. Upon arrival we are informed that they have accidentally double-booked the same room for us: both reservations were for room 1D! A room that didn't even have a window. They can't explain how this happened. The manager offered for two of our party to sleep in bunks in the staff room which was so densely packed with bunks it looked worse than prison. My husband and I eventually left and found 1 room with bathroom for $100 a the Hotel San Jorge when we would have paid $70 to stay in The Palace Hostel. My poor father and brother suffered with uncomfortable beds, cold showers and loud guests. During the "check-in" process their software kept crashing, they were unable to manage the comfort of other guests and they offered us the one room comped to make up for their error - then decided not to do that! Other notes: Difficult to find and right next to a park with many people sleeping in the park. The room was not clean, their WiFi had very poor performance. The entire place felt like a poorly run summer camp possibly housing people in unacceptable density. Just book Hotel San Jorge.

Hostels in San Juan seem to all be overpriced. This was far from the worst place I've stayed, but it's fairly annoying to pay $50/night for a private room with creaky bunk beds (not the double bed we reserved), dirty floors, no towel, and shared bathroom. I don't generally mind those things that much, but when you're paying $50... There was an a/c unit, the sheets were clean, and the mattress reasonably comfortable. My only major beef was that we were in a room on the ground floor that had a window onto the patio that didn't lock - anyone could climb through easily. The staff's response: "uh, yeah, what do you want me to do about it?" We had to put our valuables in a friend's room upstairs. Complaints other reviewers have posted about the location are a little silly. It's not the best location, but anyone who would call it a slum is an idiot. Look on a map before you make your reservation.

If you can't find a place where to stay and this is your last chance, better sleep on the beach !! Dirty, noisy and located in hookers neighborhood. The worst probably is the staff working there. Either drunk and LOUD or sleeping, unhelpful and disorganized. Rooms are small and the mosquitos get happier with mosquito repellents. All that for only 50 $ plus taxes.

could not have asked for a better experience. All day (and night) long you could see the staff doing everything they could to keep everybody happy and feel comfortable. Michelle would take time out of her day to walk anyone who needed it to various spots in the area to eat or shop or just hang out. She went way above and beyond. I do not ever think i have seen someone work as hard as "Zee" she was constantly cleaning or lighting candles and doing everything to make the hostel feel homier. Ryan was just the coolest dude you could be around. Definitely worth the price.

Terrible place to stay. Rooms and bathroom are nasty. The guy up front was terrible and disrespectful. Never going back again!!!

this hostel is dirty, disorganized, and has rude staff. it's in a bad location and there are mosquitoes everywhere inside the hostel and bedrooms. probably the worst hostel I have been to in PR, and I have been to over ten hostels and guest houses in the last couple weeks.