As Dave V. stated, this place is massive; at first glance, I thought, holy crap, what have I booked? I seriously thought it was a jail compound or exactly the type of hostel those not-so-great hostel movies were made after. But not to worry, you'll get over it in a jiffy.
I stayed during Rome's August holiday, so the streets were completely quiet, and that didn't help with the initial scare of the property's physical appearance. Once you walk in, the inside pretty much looks like what you'd expect from the outside; old concrete, long halls, and lots and lots of rooms.
The staff there for the most part speaks English just fine, and you can book through their website, through another site like hostelworld.com, or even call through Skype if that suits you. They do have free internet access, and small lockers for you to use if you wanted store away anything important.
(Btw, If you're flying out through the Aeroporto Leonardo da Vinci di Fiumicino, and just staying over in Ostia for a day or two, I'd suggest just leaving your major luggage at the airport. For I believe about 12 euros a day, you can drop your bag at the Airport's Left Baggage Facility. That helped me quite a bit, as it took over an hour and 20 minutes for me to get to and from Fiumicino to Ostia's Litus Hostel (but that might have been because bus service was not running regularly during the holiday) and I'm happy I only had a backpack to haul.
Anyways, back to the hostel. The other guests and staff were friendly as you'd expect, and it's always interesting to start a conversation and hear what part of their journey they're at. The refreshments are really inexpensive there, so that was a big plus. I stayed in a female dorm of 6-beds, and they had a shower and bathroom in our room which was quite nice. They provide you with towels, sheets and a pillow, so anything else you need, make sure you bring it, or you can purchase it at the hostel or the corner stores nearby (Oh, have bugspray if you come in the summer...)
Unless you want to hang out indoors to use the net or something though, I would just go grab your swimmers and a towel and hang by the water with whomever you meet. And maybe pack a picnic/beverages as well, if you're cheap like me and don't want to pay the surcharge at the beach bars. (Oh, and there was also public and private beach access at the time, not sure if that's year round or not; don't be put off by that, just walk around the fence :)
So, should you book there? Yes, I thought it was a good value. It's a no-frills place to wind down a bit before or after a hectic travel schedule. Just be prepared, I think I took 2 buses to get to and from the airport (the tickets can be purchased at the airport), and as the hostel advises, make sure you speak to each bus driver to ask them to notify you of where to get off. They're quite familiar with the hostel, so there shouldn't be any problems. Relax & enjoy, ciao ciao~! read more