Orange Village Hostel - San Francisco, California

X M.

I stayed in a 4-bunk bed room with an en suite bathroom at Orange Village Hostel. The bathroom is quite small—more like a camper’s bathroom—but it gets the job done. The ambiance throughout the hostel was pleasant and welcoming.

One of the best perks is the daily breakfast included for guests. The breakfast spread is good, featuring toast, waffles, fruit, cereals, and coffee, which is an unbeatable value considering the price of the bed. If you’re not a fan of their breakfast, you’re welcome to use the well-equipped pantry to prepare your own meals.

The hostel also has a cozy common room next to the kitchen, perfect for socializing with other travelers. It’s a great spot to relax, meet new people, and share travel stories. Plus, they offer free water refills throughout the day, which is a thoughtful touch for guests on the go.

The location is very strategic—just a short walk to Union Square, Trader Joe’s, and plenty of eateries and shops. It’s also close to BART and the cable car turnaround, making it easy to explore the city. There’s even a museum just a couple of blocks away. However, the hostel is near the Tenderloin neighborhood, which might be off-putting for some due to its reputation, but with basic street smarts, it’s manageable.

The staff were friendly and helpful, and the 24-hour reception adds a sense of security. Overall, I would definitely stay here again. For the price, nothing beats the combination of location, breakfast, social spaces, and a clean, safe place to rest in San Francisco.

TAONN

The only good part about this place is they clean the whole place, including the rooms, every day and the staff are very nice. It's absolutely not worth staying unless you really like being cramped in rooms with 4 - 8 people. I stayed in the women only room (4 ppl) and it still sucked. People are just gross, no matter what. Someone stole my food out of the kitchen fridge every day and they lied saying they can't look at the video to see, even though they have signs in the kitchen saying they can. Their coffee is watered down and nasty, with only sugar and 1% milk to put in it. The juice is nothing but sunny d and their breakfast is waffles, dry cereal, yogurt, bananas and toast. Their store (next door) has very little in it and it's extremely over priced. They give you one flat sheet and a hand towel at check in, there is one pillow and a square shaped throw blanket on the bed. I suggest bringing your own stuff. The rooms are extremely hot too. The whole place is just craptacular. SF is such trash now.

Kenna L.

Orange Village hostel is an organization that hates San Francisco and San Franciscans. They don’t allow people with local IDs to stay in their hotel for any reason this location is exclusively for out of town or out of country guests.

In addition to being anti San Francisco Orange Village hostels cleaning staff enter your room without knocking and walk in on you in a state of undress.

Their front desk staff do their best to be kind and human while existing under their companies anti people and anti San Francisco policies.

Also their key cards check you out automatically before 11 am despite the signage everywhere that says check out is at 11. When I attempted to get the front desk staff to tell me when the actual check out time was they declined to explain the discrepancy.

I cannot recommend this anti people anti San Franciscan establishment to anyone who loves this city. They don’t love us.

Antonio B.

Great place if you’re on a budget. We had a room with private bathroom and it was actually pretty good. Centrally located, but didn’t feel dangerous. Breakfast is lacking, but one can’t expect much from a hostel.

Douglas K.

Let's start with the bad:
1- Staff is rude and cold, you can tell they hate their job.
2- For a hostel, they have very strict and absurd rules: I arrived at the hostel at 1:30 PM after a flight from SFO and the girl at the counter told me that check-in is at 3:00 PM, so I have to wait in the lobby for 90 minutes just to get my room. Not a problem, I decided to lay on one of the couches in the lobby to rest a little bit. However, the clerk said "Hey! you cannot lay on the couch!". Excuse me? this is a hostel, not a 5-star hotel and I already paid for their services. Moreover, there was no sign that said guests are not allowed to lay on the couch. What am I supposed to do, wander around the city with a bunch of homeless and drug addicts for 90 minutes?
3- There are signs all over the kitchen saying that guests must wash their own dishes, yet very few guests did this. But none of the staff enforced it and they're strict that I lay on the couch? go figure.
4- The logistics of the rooms are just weird: the sink is outside the bathroom, there is no mirror in the bathroom, and the sink has no soap. So, what's the point of having a sink if we cannot wash our hands? water alone won't clean our hands.
5- Beds don't have curtains for privacy: out of all the hostels I've been in Mexico, Colombia, Ukraine, and Spain, at least have of them had curtains between bunks for privacy. But here, you get nothing. I expected more for $40 a night.

You could say that you get what you pay for. But no, there are far better hostels in third world countries for just $6 a night with far better treatment and services. For $40 a night, I was expecting something decent, but not something as trashy as this.

Again, at the many hostels I've been, guests are considerate and have common sense. However, here one of my roommates decided it was a good idea to rinse his feet... in the sink! seriously? that's what showers are for. I don't know from what culture was he from, but that was downright nasty.

The only perk of this hostel is the location, it's just three blocks from the BART station which is very convenient. If it weren't for that generous Algerian woman who served me food, this hostel experience would have been completely terrible. At least I have some hope that there are good people out there. All in all, do yourself a favor and pay the extra money to go to another hostel or hotel.

Trip.com M.

Check in time us standard for Most hostels. They have a luggage storage for free for early check-in. Amenities are expected for a hostel.Overall, had a great stay. Good location.

Gabriel P.

I get you want to steal from people who have ID issues but the smug way you speak to them is in uncalled for. Prepaid for the room at Orange Hostel. Start of a two week vacation. Had a very long day. At check in the front desk would not let me check in with a picture of my ID and the temporary paperwork I received from the DMV while waiting for my real ID. I had my credit card booking info etc. To send a traveler to the street at 230am doesn't seem to be in the spirit of what hostels are all about.

Please do me a favor avoid booking here. I had to wonder around the streets of San Francisco in the cold until the next day.

Rick H.

Clean and comfortable. I had a nice private room with private bath. The location is excellent and the stsff extremely helpful. Full kitchen is available to use and a free breakfast setup every day.