The People Hostel Paris Nation: My Honest Review (2024)

Thinking of staying at the People Hostel Paris Nation? I know how difficult it can be to determine whether or not a hostel is a good fit for you when you’re reading short, 50-word reviews. So, if you’re looking for an honest and full review of the People Hostel Paris Nation, you’ve come to the right place! In this post, I’ll be delving into the good & bad based on my recent 5-day stay at this hostel in Paris. That way, you can get a full picture of whether this hostel is for you!

Disclaimer: All of these thoughts and experiences are my own. I was not paid, compensated, or asked in any way to provide this hostel review.

What Is the People Hostel Paris?

If it’s your first time hearing about the People Hostel Paris, you may be wondering what the People Hostel Paris is. Well, it’s a chain of hostels, similar to the St. Christopher Chain of hostels that can be found all over Europe. You can find the People hostels in Strasbourg, Marseille, and a bunch of other locations across France. And within Paris, there are four different People Hostel Paris locations to select from.

• The People – Paris Nation
• The People – Paris Belleville (ex Les Piaules)
• The People – Paris Bercy
• The People Paris Marais

For this post, I’ll be only talking about my stay in the People Paris Nation. So, if you see me writing “the People Hostel Paris,” please assume I am referencing the Nation location. 🙂

Where Is the People Hostel Paris Nation Located?

First, the People Hostel Paris Nation is located in the 11th arrondissement. For those who don’t know, Paris is divided into 20 different arrondissements or neighborhoods. The lower the number of the arrondissement, the closer you are to the city center. I like to think of it like a snail’s shell. The numbers increase in a clockwise direction as you move further towards the outskirts of Paris.

And if you’re looking at the map below, the purple pin represents the exact location of the hostel. As you can see, the hostel is not exactly in Paris’s city center, but it’s also not too far away.

On the map, you’ll also notice a couple of other pins marked on the map. The leftmost red pin represents Philippe Chatrier Court. This is where the highly anticipated annual Roland Garros tennis tournament is held. From the hostel, it took me about 45 minutes to commute there, so you can very easily get across Paris without having to spend hours on the metro.

Moving to the two orangish pins directly to the right of the red pin are Paris’s two most famous landmarks: The Arc de Triomphe (upper pin) and the iconic Eiffel Tower (lower pin). From the hostel, it takes about 15 and 25 minutes, respectively, to reach them if you take the shortest route via the Metro lines. The last pin represents Jardin des Tuileries. This was my favorite place to just relax and walk around. It’s also where you’ll find the lovely Musée de l’Orangerie, which is one of my favorite museums in Paris that I highly recommend! 😉

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The People Hostel Paris Nation Review

Alright, now that you have a decent idea of where the hostel is, let’s delve into my complete review of the hostel! I’ll talk about 3 complaints I had and then talk about the good bits second.

The People Hostel Paris Complaints

1. Bathroom

My first and biggest complaint about the hostel is the communal bathroom. Each floor has a communal bathroom, one for each gender. When I first saw the bathroom, I was surprised by how nice it looked. Like wow. It looked quite nice and in much better shape compared to a LOT of the bathrooms I’ve seen at other hostels.

However, as I used the various bathroom facilities, I noticed all the small cracks and faults. For example, there was a weird smell. During my entire stay, the weird smell never went away. This isn’t to say that the smell was awful or unbearable, but it was certainly noticeable and had a foul tinge to it.

The second thing is that the stalls are incredibly small. This is a pretty common theme with most bathrooms and things in Paris. But, as someone very small, 5 foot nothing according to my university professor 🥲, the toilet and shower stalls were small even for me. There was lots of careful turning and twisting to avoid knocking into things. And, while it didn’t hinder me too much, I know this is something I would want to know if I were larger…

2. No Kitchen

My second complaint is that there was no communal kitchen. When I booked this hostel, I knew a kitchen wasn’t going to be available, so it wasn’t a problem for me. That said, it still sucks when you aren’t able to make food or bring leftovers home, especially in a city as expensive as Paris. So, this is just another thing you may want to keep in mind as you book your accommodations in Paris. If you want to be able to cook food, you’ll want to book another hostel…

✅ Explore other options for hostels in Paris

3. Squeaky Ladder

Lastly, if I’m being nitpicky, I found that some of the bunk bed ladders were super squeaky. I can’t tell if this was just an issue in my room or a hostel-wide issue but some of the ladders in my room made super loud banging noises anytime someone put any pressure on the ladder. I felt really bad climbing up to my top bunk when I’d get back from Roland Garros after midnight. And it honestly sucked when people would climb up or down in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning.

Again, this isn’t the biggest issue. But, considering they clean the rooms every day and are likely aware of the loud noise some of the ladders make, you’d think they do something to silence or at least muffle them. That said, I was able to block out 90% of the noise with some good earplugs. So if you’re a light sleeper, my recommendation is to bring earplugs!

Actually, any person no matter what type of sleeper you are should bring headphones. You never know who is going to be snoring or who might be coughing throughout the night, and it’s just better to be safe rather than sorry!

✅ 🎧 Grab some earplugs for your next hostel stay here.

The People Hostel Paris Positives

After reading my complaints, you may be wondering why anyone would want to stay in the hostel. Well, don’t worry — there are actually plenty of good reasons to stay at this hostel!

1. Clean & Comfortable Rooms

First of all, I loved the design and aesthetic of the entire hostel. And as soon as you step into your room, you can easily tell this is a premium hostel. The bunks are custom-built out of wood, which is such a nice change in pace from the unstable and rickety metal bunks that cheaper hostels tend to use. Each bunk bed comes with a thick black-out privacy curtain, wall outlets next to where your head rests, and a long ledge for placing small things like your glasses or a water bottle.

🔌 PRO TIP: Make sure to bring a universal adaptor to charge multiple devices! This is the exact universal adaptor I love to use and recommend!

Not to mention, the beds themselves are very long and extremely comfortable. I seriously slept like a baby each night on them and struggled to will myself out of bed because they were that comfy. Oh! And every bed comes with a large storage compartment beneath the bed that you can lock with your padlock. This is a great feature because you can securely store your personal belongings and it means that there’s more walking space available.

I’ve been to hostels where the lockers don’t even fit a personal backpack or where there are no lockers at all… And if you’re wondering about the sizing, I easily fit my carry-on suitcase and personal backpack in the cubby. That said, I don’t think you’d be able to fit a giant checked suitcase… All in all, the hostel gets a gold star on comfort, cleanliness, and design in the room!

2. Nice & Safe Location

Another big plus in my books is the hostel’s location. Sure it’s not located right in the heart of Paris, but the hostel honestly still has a pretty convenient location. As mentioned earlier, a metro station is right next to the hostel… as in it’s less than a 2-minute walk away from the hostel.

This makes a whole world of difference whether you’re traveling with a checked bag, a carry-on suitcase, or just a backpack. No one enjoys having to lug their stuff on foot across town when they’re tired and have just spent the last half-day or full-day in transit. So, for me, the hostel gets a big thumbs up for being easy to find and conveniently located near a metro station.

P.S. In case you missed it earlier, there’s a direct line into the center of Paris from this metro station. It takes about 25 – 30 minutes and usually isn’t that busy since you’re near the end of the line!

Similarly, I found the hostel’s location to be pretty safe. Even when I would come home well past midnight from the Roland Garros Tennis Tournament, I never felt unsafe or was approached by some of the homeless people. This isn’t to say you’ll have the same experience, but I honestly was a big fan of the hostel’s location because it’s part of a beautiful roundabout and felt safe!

And speaking of safety, the hostel has two layers of security. There’s the front reception area, which you can access with your keycard from the street. Then, you use your keycard to access your specific room. From my perspective, this double layer of security was perfect for making me feel nice and secure!

3. Rooftop Bar

A huge advantage of this hostel is its rooftop bar. For those who have never tried gaining access to a rooftop bar in Paris, it’s a pretty challenging task. Normally, they charge you a fee, you have to make a reservation, and/or the food and drinks are just obscenely expensive. All these factors make it feel either like Mission Impossible or just not worth it.

But, what’s amazing about the People Hostel Paris Nation is that they have their own rooftop bar! Let me tell you, the rooftop bar offers gorgeous views of Paris! From the top, you can admire Paris’s cityscape and see both the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre’s Sacre Cœer!

The only downside, depending on how you look at it, is that the rooftop bar is open to the public. This means that it gets pretty crowded up there since this previously hidden gem spot (since the hostel is pretty new) isn’t so hidden to the public anymore! In fact, there’s a very good chance you’ll see a line out the door to the hostel in the evening as people who aren’t staying at the hostel want to also catch the stunning sunset views from the top. Either way, I highly recommend spending some time on the rooftop bar and taking in the views!

🥐 PRO TIP: Make sure to go in the morning or head there early in the evening well before sunset if you want to sit outside on the deck! Oh and mention you are staying in the hostel since there are some seats reserved for hostel guests!

4. Kind Staff

Another positive takeaway from my stay was the kind hostel staff. Every single interaction I had from check-in until check-out was pleasant. It was super easy to strike up conversations with the staff, and there were even a few times I asked for help, and they were more than happy to assist me.

For example, I purchased a Navigo Card, which is essentially a metro card that allows unlimited rides on the metro for longer stays in Paris. However, for your Navigo card to be valid, you have to have a picture of yourself on the card.

Understandably, I don’t think most people travel with a 1-inch by 2-inch profile picture of themselves. So, I literally took a selfie in my room and asked them to print it out for me. At most hostels I’ve stayed at in the past, they’ve charged guests for printing services, but in this case, they offered to do it completely free. 😅

Then at one point during my stay, I lost my keycard, which was a first for me. Of course, this happened when I had somewhere to be and was on a tight deadline. 🙄 When I explained the situation and asked for a new key card, they had no problem issuing me a new one free of charge. So, in my eyes, the staff gets two thumbs up for being so accommodating and kind!

5. Nice Little Touches

Finally, I really appreciated all the little touches. For instance, in each shower stall, there was a little wooden dial with 3 plastic hourglasses attached. Each hourglass represented a different amount of time (3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes). You could turn the wooden dial to start the 3 hourglasses and use them to gauge how long your shower is. I know it seems kinda frivolous, but I honestly appreciate the small touches like this that encourage people to save water!

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Should You Stay at The People Hostel Paris?

I’ll be direct, I highly recommend this hostel. It is easily one of the nicest and most comfortable hostels I’ve stayed at in Paris. And despite its downfalls, I still had a very lovely stay! That said, I won’t beat around the bush — this hostel is expensive. Like, my bank account cried a little when I paid for it. Thus, it’s entirely possible that this hostel may be pushing your budget or is completely outside of your budget. I remember when I saw the price of this hostel, I almost immediately ruled out staying at this hostel since I’m used to paying $35 USD or less per night at a hostel.

However, what made me decide to stay and be okay with paying a premium was the idea that you get what you pay for. And with a city like Paris, where hundreds of thousands of people pass through, there are some not-so-great bits of the city. I’m happy to pay for comfort, peace of mind, and safety. So, if you have the means and are looking for very comfortable lodgings that are still cheaper than a hotel, I highly recommend staying at the People Hostel Paris Nation.

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3 Tips for Staying at The People Hostel Paris

If you decide to book your stay at this wonderful hostel, here are 3 tips to make your stay even more enjoyable.

• 🧖‍♀️ Bring a microfiber towel: Unless you don’t have space in your bag or don’t mind paying extra to rent a towel from the hostel, I recommend bringing a microfiber towel! The one I use is by Rainleaf and I love it! It’s super compact, odorless, and dries quickly.

• 🔐 Bring a padlock: At this hostel, every bed comes with a large storage locker beneath the bunk beds. Unless you want to risk having your stuff stolen, make sure to bring a padlock. I honestly carry two on me just in case I lose one, but that’s just me being extra cautious.

✅ Grab the Microfiber Towel I love to use when I’m traveling
🔐 Here is the padlock I use and recommend for hostel stays

• 😴 Make bunk bed requests prior: If you have a preference for the top bunk or bottom bunk, make sure to email the hostel a few days before your stay. If you wait until you’re checking in at the hostel to make a request, there’s a good chance they won’t be able to accommodate your request!

🧖‍♀️ PRO TIP: You can use your microfiber towel as a privacy curtain if you ever stay at a hostel that doesn’t provide one!

The People Hostel Paris: FAQ

Wrap-Up: The People Hostel Paris Nation Review (2024)

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the People Hostel Paris Nation and think it’s the perfect place if you’re looking for somewhere to stay that has a friendly ambiance, is conveniently located near a metro station, and offers very comfortable lodgings. That said, the hostel is on the more expensive side. But, if you’re like me and believe in paying extra for peace of mind and safety, then I’d highly recommend staying here. Regardless of your decision, I hope this review has been helpful and you have a marvelous time exploring Paris!

✅ 🗼 Check rates & availability for the People Hostel Paris Nation

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