Whilst the hostel was easy to find and not too inconvenient with respect to the underground system, the whole experience was a little disconcerting;

- The room was relatively clean, but locks on some doors were broken.

- The area may have been safe, but appeared rough and made you feel unsafe; there were police and fighting youths at night.

I'm sure there are better located places, for a similar amount of money, that don't make you feel so unsafe.

This hostel was dirty, had tiny shower rooms and was located in a rough neighborhood. You are better off staying somewhere else. On top of it all - it was $100 a night!

Hey,

I know I'm writing this a little bit late, just stumbled upon tripadvisor again because I'm planning our next trip :) In November 2007 me and my girlfriend (both in the 20th from germany) spent almost a week in the Central Park Studios Hostel. I spent A LOT of time before the trip searching for cheap and clean Hostels in New York, and this was one of only 4 Hostels fitting our budget (around 50$ per person/night) that didn't have bad reviews about cockroaches or bedbugs and was in Manhatten.
I reserved the place over internet because there was no other way to do so. I even called the manager of the Hostel before the reservation because I wanted to make sure we get the place (because it was just 2 weeks or so before the trip), but he couldn't give me any information about available rooms and told me I had to make a reservation through internet and then everything would be ok.

The Hostel is situated in a very quiet area at the northeast edge of the Central Park, the metro is located just 2 blocks down, so just a jump away from the hostel. There is nothing special around in that area.
When we arrived from the airport by metro the manager was sitting in his office and welcomed us quite warmly.

We expected the worst for this cheap price when we moved to our room, and we were quite astonished when the manager opened the door. The room was small, but kind of cosy and clean, the most important of all. The mattresses were covered completly in plastic under the bed covers, so they were in excellent condition.
Of course everything was very simple, the shared bath room and shower are small and very basic, but everything was in a very acceptable condition.
The room contained a double bed (good construction), a little tv with a digital receiver and an empty fridge, everything very simple. No special view through the window. It seems our room was once part of a big living room, we had the remains of a chimney at our wall :)
The most important is, its absolutly quiet there during the day and night.

The hostel is occupying the whole building, and there is a security camera on every floor, so we weren't concerned about security, although the door locks are quite simple and could be broken up very easy I think.

To get to lower Manhatten calculate ca 20min in total with metro.

If you are searching for a quiet, cheap and clean place to sleep in New York and don't care about big space or 20min in metro to get to lower manhatten, this is what you were searching for :) Another place I can recommend is the "Hotel 31", where we stayed just for one night because it was fully booked on the other days.

READER : STAY AWAY !!!!!! This was the worst hostel experience I had in my life. The manager's respect for guest's security is a joke!!! When I arrived, I was shocked to notice a VERY strong smell of gas coming from the kitchen. The lady showing me the room said that it was because other guests had cooked earlier on. I demanded to see the manager. He came 20 minutes later and said that the smell was actually due to some chemical products used to clean the drains. Funny, because the smell was not coming from the WC tub or sink drains, but from kitchen. Anyway, he promised that the smell would go away after a few hours, which obviously didn't happen. What is worse is that I asked to be accomodated in another room or building, and although there were available beds in the SAME type of dorm I had booked (4 beds dorm), the manager refused to move me because the other dorm was not prepared. I guess that preparing a bed would be too effort-consuming... He told me that I had the choice between the safety and security hazard and the street. It was pretty late, and you know how hard it is to find a place to stay in NYC. I preferred to run away from that place, but I lost my deposit. Stay away from this place. Go to Jazz on the Park, which is located the other side of the park in a much better place. The staff at Jazz are really great, it is way more fun than the nightmare called Central Park Studios at Lexington.