We originaly stayed at the hi hostel chicago.. but after deciding we wantd to stay longer we were told there was no more room left for the additional nights so we were sent to the arlington.. On arriving we didnt no what to expect! Okay the HI hostel was alot cleaner, more ficilaties and much larger.. but i honestly had more fun in the arlington! We were slightly disapointed when we first arrived at the arlington having come from the "Hi" because it was more like a hotel rather than a hostel.. but after our first night we had a far better time.. It had alot more atmospher ( partly because you were aloud to have alchol in the arling, unlik the Hi ) I think the arlington is good for young groups traveling.. But for familys or couples just looking for cheap acomidation then i would say the Hi is better.. One thing i would say about the Hi hostel in chicago is ITS MASSIVE! compared to the other Hi hostels we stayed in over america! But yeah we stayed in both.. and i would go to both again!

We stayed here during a festival as it was the only cheap place that we could find with any rooms left. I have to say it's the worst place I have ever stayed and actually reduced me to tears on entering our room!!! The may have been partly due to our long flight though..... :)

Negative points: the room had two grotty beds, with clean sheets but dirty blankets. The carpet was filthy, the window (overlooking a fire escape) had to be wedged open and the toilet was in a cupboard about 2 feet wide. The mattresses were bigger than the bed bases and the sheets, although clean, weren't actually big enough to cover the mattresses. Oh, and we suffered bed bug bites throughout our stay. Nice.

We asked if we could change to another room, but were told they were fully booked. The manager didn't care about our complaint or anyone elses for that matter. We overheard many complaints during the course of stay.

Positive points: the communal showers were fairly decent and never busy. The hostel is situated in a really nice area - Lincoln Park - which felt safe and rather bohemian.

P.S. Chicago is a great city though and this awful hostel didn't manage to ruin our trip.

While I was in Chicago, I stayed at both the HI hostel and the Arlington House International Hostel. While both provided a bed, continental breakfast, and a good rate, the HI hostel was clearly the more comfortable place to stay. As soon as I stepped out of the elevator to get to my dorm room in Arlington house, the smell of the basement was pretty disgusting. However, I kept and open mind and continued onto the 9-bed dorm room. You have to put down $10 cash to get the key. I got to the room and saw a bunch of bunkbeds and was grateful to have the regular (non-bunk) bed by the door. The other beds seemed to be occupied. It was pretty cool that we had a bathroom and another sink by the door. At the HI hostel, we had a shower stall, toilet room, and a couple of sinks in the room. Each room had a common area and two bedrooms with five beds in each bedroom. They also had an extra shower and toilet room in the hall in case you needed it. When I checked into Arlington house, housekeeping had not come in to the room yet so my bed did not have new sheets and I didn't have a towel yet. No problem. I ventured off to explore the rest of the hostel and Chicago for a few hours.

Arlington house also has a TV room with a pretty big screen. That's probably the only thing that they have that HI did not have. However, when you're traveling, television is not a priority. There's somewhat of a music theme going on at Arlington too with the white grand piano and a couple of guitars in the office where you check in. There was a French guy who liked to play music and did that in the lobby in the evenings. I suppose that was charming to those who were into that sort of thing. It was also handy to have bicycle rentals too.

So I got the sheets and towel by the time I returned from doing other things in the city. Time to shower because it was a really hot day. This is when I realized that this was going to be a crappy stay. The water comes out of the faucet but when you pull the rod to make a shower, the smallest trickle of water came out of the shower head and the only way it could be strengthened was to turn up the cold water because the hot water did not flow any more than a little trickle. Luckily it was a hot and sticky day so a cold shower was quite refreshing.

Breakfast is where HI is much better. At HI, you can choose from toast, at least two types of cereal, three kinds of muffins, and oranges. They have coffee, milk, and orange juice too. At Arlington house, they have weak coffee, bread, bagels if you're lucky, and various types of jam. Yay. The kitchen and dining area is not air conditioned so if you want to eat in comfort, you need to take your food to the media room, where a few guys were sleeping because there was no air conditioning in their boiling hot dorm room in the basement. I was lucky enough to be female and had an air conditioner in the female dorm! Apparently, that air conditioner was only recently installed, maybe a week before I checked in. Air conditioning was invented many years ago. It took until August of 2009 for Arlington house to get some? Why?

I found another bathroom on the main floor and thought it was convenient because I could hang out in the media room and not have to go downstairs to my dorm to go to the bathroom. Also, the shower was strong enough to rinse the soap off my back! However, the sink started flooding and no one seemed to care. Later on, one of the employees told me that the men's room above the kitchen actually leaks and there's a bag that catches the leak, but sometimes it gets kinda full. Ew!

If there are any redeeming qualitites about Arlington house is that there are a lot of great places to eat on Clark Street, which intersects with Arlington Street. I saw a shawarma place, an Austrian bakery, and a sushi place, all within one block. There is a supermarket too in case you want to make your own meals.

So, if I had to give stars to these hostels, HI would get 5 and Arlington house would get two. I'm being generous with the latter because they were in the process of upgrading the hostel at the time I was staying there. At least they are making an effort to make some improvements.

The location is great; the price is great; the staff is great. A major refurbishing and some reconstruction was going on at my latest visit. New mattresses and window air conditioning units were delivered. There seems to be a serious effort to upgrade the facility. I've visited often, and whenever I've encountered a problem, manager Louis Garcia and his staff take care of it -- quickly, efficiently, pleasantly. The housekeepers are lovely young women who work like Trojans -- cleaning up after several hundred travelers is no easy task, and some folks leave a truly terrible mess. The building is old, its ventilation is none too good, the carpets somewhat musty.... But rooms can be aired and carpets cleaned. Over the years, I've encountered most of the problems listed in various AH reviews; however, I can attest that things have gotten better and better.