Sleep Well - Espace du Marais asbl

For a hostel it's a great place to stay for a few days. It's a huge place with a mix of twin, triple and dorm rooms.

The twin rooms were basic but it was clean and the beds were comfortable. The hostel doesn't provide towels even in the private rooms but they hire them for €1 at reception. They don't have any toiletries in the bathrooms, not even soap, so make sure to pack your own.

The wifi worked well both in the reception and rooms. It's free and was a good speed.

The bar area is in reception currently and has a good selection of beers. It was still open at 2am when we came back. It was a good place to meet and have a drink but I'm not sure I'd spend the whole evening there.

Breakfast is included in the room rate and was surprisingly good. There was bread, cheese, cold meat, cereal, yogurt, eggs, juice and tea and coffee. It's served from 7am to 9am during the week and until 10am at the weekend.

The hostel is one street over from a busy shopping street, reasonably close to the metro and an easy walk to the city centre.

My friend and I stayed in a 4 person female room. It was clean with an attached bathroom where toilet was a separate room than the shower which is really nice. Beds were fine, but not enough outlets. Wifi throughout the hostel. There's a decent common area and free/easy luggage storage. Free breakfast was good too- baguettes, toast (jam/butter/Nutella provided), ham, cheese, orange slices, many hot drinks, orange juice, etc.) I would have given 4 stars, but the hostel has lock-out hours from 11am-3pm where they clean. It's super inconvenient that you can't come back to change or grab anything from your room for 4 hours! There's also no shared kitchen. The location is okay.

OK there is not much to say. You know how a hostel works, BUT a couple of things
I was confused about....The Hostel is OK. It is in the city center and everything is close by. I was just disappointed by the points I mentioned below:

1. Which hostel on earth has a check-in time at 3PM??? We arrived very early (around 9am) and we were sooooo tired and we couldn't check in!!!

2. Since we booked a private twin room we were spared from the 'lock-out'. Those who book a dorm have to leave the room from 11am until 3pm!

3. They have no open kitchen which you can use 24/7. The kitchen is just open for breakfast in the morning. The only thing they provide is a microwave, which was really dirty. BAH!

4. Internet is NOT FREE!!! 30min=is 1 Euro. How insane is that?

5. NO TOWELS! and no soap either... BUT at least they had toilet paper, great isn't it?

I stayed here a few nights in 2007. As Jill said, Sleep Well is OK. I also arrived early in the day and could not check in. There is a place to leave/lock up luggage if you want to wander, which is easy enough given the hostel's location.

And internet, yes, is not free. Kind of a pain in the butt. The hostel is very much,' hey, you need a place to stay and this is it.' If you're staying here, you aren't going to be sitting around much at the hostel. There is a bar, so that's convenient. The four person rooms are clean, not spacious. And you need your own towel + soap.

If you lose anything there (say, a camera) depending on whom you get on the phone, they are helpful.

I came here after an overseas flight and arrived around 9 am, but was told check in wasn't until 3pm, which was awful. I left my backpack in the luggage room, but was so exhausted that I ended up just booking the Marriott instead so I could lay down. The staff really acted like they didn't give a s*** about anything, and had the personality of rocks, which did not make me want to stay. I had already paid when I decided I couldn't sit in the lounge feeling sick for 6 hours and they wouldn't refund me when I told them I was going elsewhere. I didn't even get to see the rooms so I can't comment on them, but I was not impressed with this place and didn't feel welcomed or valued in the LEAST. Try another hostel if you're going to Brussels.