NY Moore Hostel: Renovated Hipster Hostel with Heart
OVERVIEW: NY Moore Hostel feels like a small, newly renovated college dormitory in NYC's hippest arts neighborhood. Clean, light, airy, and friendly, the walls are becoming the latest neighborhood gallery space. Staff is friendly, multicultural and multilingual, quickly responsive, helpful, and know their stuff. They run a friendly, professional, hip without being snobby or flaky, safe, clean, hospitable place - for which they've already won several awards during their few years of operation. I've had a great week at NY Moore Hostel - one of my best hostel experiences yet. I expect their name and star to rise quickly.
LOCATION: Think of East Williamsburg & Bushwick as the urban campus for the city's newest and next artists, populated by artsies, hipsters, and muggles. Close to local health food shops, bodegas, and a mix of old school Brooklyn neighborhoody shops and restaurants as well as hipster health-food stores and eateries (Roberta's is two blocks away), bars, clubs, galleries, and other creative spaces. This is the avant garde of arts (and gentrification) in hottest nouvelle Brooklyn. It's just a stop or a not long walk to Bushwick and Williamsburg, a brief subway ride into Manhattan's East Village, Greenwich Village, Union Square, Chelsea, and Meat Packing District.
ATMOSPHERE: relaxed yet professional, friendly, responsive. Guests tend toward the young, friendly, artsy and hip, as does the space and the staff. Interactions tend to be chill, relaxed, friendly.
FACILITIES: In a converted industrial building, just renovated in spring 2014, the hostel has clean white, well lit walls in large, open, airy, high ceiling rooms, with lots of air and light. The walls are becoming a neighborhood gallery space. The living room and breakfast area are inviting, furnished with comfortable, clean furniture, and a huge flat panel TV. Improvements are ongoing, and they tell me to expect a new kitchen, new amenities and fixtures in the shared spaces and rooms. Bathrooms also renovated, large, well cleaned, inviting. Rooms are simple, spartan, large and open.
STAFF: Super nice, friendly, quickly responsive & helpful, multicultural & multilingual, and cool. Think: M. Gustave and the Grand Budapest Hostel. Mr. "Buba" Aboubacar Diallo was the night manager, aka Prince of the Night. A Malian guitarist with the style of a romantic lead from Malian cinema, in over 15 languages, including English, French, and Mandingo, Buba entertains, enchants, guides, advises, and problem solves. As him to perform one of his own songs in Mandingo. Victor the evening manager was able to calmly fix any issues, particular technological, and helped me appreciate, setup and install VPN on my laptop.
SAFETY: With 24/7 door guard with video monitoring of the hostels shared spaces, firm doors, and secured windows, the hostel feels very safe and secure.
CLEANLINESS: The cleanest hostel I've ever experienced. Daily shared space and room cleaning of the bathrooms, light housekeeping.
VALUE: Great value for some of the best hostel prices in NYC. read more