Backpackers Hostel & Pub

Never again! Admittedly, this was the LAST AVAILABLE HOSTEL in Boston the weekend we visited. We checked into Backpackers after a long day of driving from Manhattan along the coast, so were really looking forward to a solid night's rest so we could wake refreshed the next morning and enjoy the day exploring Boston. No parking in the ridiculously shaped parking lot, so we parked on the street. Neighborhood is pretty dodgy so we felt nervous leaving the rental car parked where we couldn't keep an eye on it. The building is run down and in need of some serious renovations and a proper deep clean. We were initially booked into a room that didn't have enough dorm beds for us and the existing people, so after speaking with someone at the front desk, we were given a whole dorm room to ourselves (two of us) which was the highlight of our stay. The beds were creaky and had plastic covers, some of which were ripped or had holes. The shower room was scummy and looked like they hadn't been properly cleaned in weeks, and the door didn't have a lock, but had two stalls, so it was pretty much a free for all if someone wanted to come in. My advice would be to pay a bit more and stay somewhere better. Seriously, it`s not good.

Where shall I begin?  
I arrived back in Boston on an overnight bus from Philadelphia, so I hadn't had the best night's sleep and was looking to lay my head down for a couple of hours. After taking 2 subway trains and a local bus (always a sign that the location is not good) I arrived on School Street and saw this place at the end of the block. I didn't like the look of it from the moment I saw it. I rang the doorbell several times, but there was no reaction from inside, even though I could see several people sitting there. After about 5 minutes, someone walked out of the building so I could go in. There was no one at reception. In the lounge area, several shifty looking people were sleeping among piles of luggage and a girl was checking her e-mail on one of 2 Very Old Computers. When I enquired about reception opening times, the e-mail girl snapped at me that reception wasn't open until 9 and that if I had used my head, I would have waited at the Greyhound station for a couple more hours. When I informed her that I had not travelled on Greyhound, she at first looked surprised and then annoyed and didn't speak any more.

Around 9am 2 guys who, I have no doubt, are called Guido and Vinnie, entered the building and opened the day's proceedings which first of all meant that they put on some 70s country radio station that blasted from built-in-the-wall speakers all around the place.
I had made a reservation for 2 nights but had already decided that I would only stay for 1 and would rather sleep at the airport the next night than spend $80 here. After checking in for a single night, I made my way to the dorm which was spartan, to say it nice. Creaky bunk beds, plastic mattrasses, pillows about as thick as a newspaper, and there was only 1 toilet shared between 2 dorms (= 16 people). The bunk beds had no ladders which meant that, if you were unlucky enough to have a top bunk, you could either go get a chair somewhere to provide assistance, or crawl on commando style. There was no airco in the dorms which meant that it was like being in an oven, even though there was only 1 other guest in the room besides me at that time. Breakfast was served some time later and turned out to be a big wedding cake. While I like cake, I expected bread or cereal or something like that, rather than patisserie handywork. Lockers were situated in the hallway, rather than in the dorms and were so rickety that one well aimed kick would break the doors. I put my back pack in there and hoped that it would still be there the next day(it was). I then made my way to the showers, which turned out to be as crappy as the rest of the facilities. They (2) were built into a closet, which could not be locked and had no hooks to hang your clothes on so the only options were to put your clothes on the dirty floor or, again, to find a chair somewhere to help you. One of the showers was ice cold, the other one was aaah!-my-back-hurts hot.

The so called 'pub' does not exist. It consists of a girl behind the reception desk who offers choice of 1 type of beer- Budweiser bottles which are, at $3, ridiculously overpriced given that this is a hostel and has no facilities. There are dozens of pubs in CENTRAL Boston where you can get a Bud for $3 and that have facillities like toilets that work, good music, proper food(not cake) and  proper service rather than an angry looking girl who will serve you only if she is not too busy talking to her boyfriend on her mobile.
The pool table had no chalk, and when I asked, the girl at reception (on a rare moment that she wasn't on the phone) told me to just play without chalk. Playing pool without chalk is equivalent to playing darts without a point on your darts or playing tennis with a golf ball. And while we're on the subject of pool.. one of the reviews below here says they have a free pool.
They do NOT have A free pool. They have free pool. There's no jumping in water involved.

As an overall assessment, there's 2 positive things to mention: the guys running the place are friendly, even though I'm not sure about their ability to run a hospitality establishment. And after the night I stayed there, I could leave my back pack in the luggage room for the entire day while I went into the city for a drink.
Other than that, everything is disappointing and not worth your hard-earned dollars.
I stayed here for 1 night because all other hostels in Boston were booked solid and I will not stay here again. I spent the next night sleeping  on a bench outside Dunking Donuts at Logan Airport and had a much more comfortable night than I had here.  (Cheaper too :) )
For a star rating, I was somewhere halfway between one and two. I have given two stars but, given the spartan facilities and haphazard way this place is run, that is really giving them more than they deserve.

A filthy place, everything is run down. Awkward layout. (For example, showers are not in the bathroom, instead there are two showers built into what seemed to be a closet on a different hall than the bathroom.) It's about a .75 mile walk to the nearest metro, downtown Boston is about 4 stops away.( A complimentary shuttle is provided to the metro until noon.)  Also, in the summer the rooms get uncomfortably warm, as there is no air conditioning, and the 8 bodies in the room act as space heaters. The owners do not seem to have any pride in their business. My advice - pass on this place.