This is a bustling hostel in the busy section of the city. Around the corner from Sleepzone are a couple blocks of apartments populated by mostly young people. Which translates into noisy partying at night. Fortunatly they knocked off by midnight, which was a blessing. The hostel itself was as quiet as you could expect from a busy place.
Parking is on the street or at a Car Park several blocks away- so that's a hassle. In all it was a nice place. Efficiently run. The staff was friendly and helpful. The biggest hassle was the laundry. There is only one washer & drier for guests, of which there are many. So it takes a very long time to do laundry. As a possible plus you get to meet and spend a lot of time with your fellow guests, as you watch over your wash.
For a Hostel in a big city I would say it rates pretty high. The attendant hassles are the property of so many people using the place.

We stayed in a private double with a shared bathroom in June. For the price, it was pretty good - clean, big room, helpful staff. The only downside was that it was VERY easy to hear other travelers from inside our room (you could hear every footstep on the above floor) Location was pretty good. Breakfast was toast and jam... and that's it. I suggest skipping the toast and getting an Irish breakfast elsewhere.

I will explain the good points of this place firstly before getting on to the bad points - a lot of which may not bother the average hostelling traveller.

This is in a excellent location close to all of the action in galway city. It is very clean and they have a computer area which has free access to the internet with about 6 working computers.

Their website is excellent and you can see there views of the rooms and hostel etc.

On the down side the website oferred a time for check in "as a default of 11.00" but when i turned up they could not offer anyone check in until 3pm which completely screwed up my day as I had travelled there for one day only and had not had a chance to shower and wanted to shower when i got there. I then had to pay for a secure locker to store my stuff until that time. I had booked a private room so any level of effort by the staff would have ensured that i could have gotten a room at a much earlier time if they felt so inclined.

The wireless internet reference on the website makes it sound like the building is wireless i.e. wireless in the rooms but this is only available in the computer room and the common room and the reason for me picking this property was the free wireless as I needed to type a report up for half an hour but it was confidential info so i could not get it done in the public areas comfortably.

My room was also a handicapped room so the bathroom was one large wet room area and the floor took hours to dry out. The area outside of the mosiac tiled shower square had slippy tiles. The sink was really low and tiny. Again no one warned me that this is where I would be staying.

The breakfast was described as "light" continental so i was not expecting much but i did expect more than bread, tea, bad coffee and juice. No sign of cereal, fruit, cheese etc etc.

The staff are friendly but overly busy so you are always kept waiting.

For the average traveller who is turning up late in teh day and staying in a dorm this is probably a good choice for galway but if you are a singe traveller or a couple then you may get better value/service in one of the many B&B's.

I had a private double in the buildings across the street. Clean, bright simple decor, sunny, and the bathrooms were refurbished and cleaner than many hotels I've been to. Laundry, refrigerator, kitchen facilities on the ground floor. The outside door and your own room locks so I didn't think safety was an issue. Toast and juice in the main hostel in the AM. Internet access was fine. Staff was helpful, clear about rules, and nice.

My room faced the street so unfortunately late at night you could hear packs of drunk 20-somethings returning to the main hostel but I was so tired that I'd go back to sleep. The other minor annoyance is the oft-mentioned showers but I just left a note in the kitchen when I used the shower and removed it when I was done.

The price was cheaper than hotels that despite minor annoyances Sleepzone is worth a stay.