Las Vegas Hostels

Search Las Vegas hostels with up-to-date availability and book a hostel in Las Vegas.

As of early 2008, there are now three official hostels in Las Vegas. These places all have dorm beds that can be booked individually, in addition to private rooms with an otherwise similar set up. There is a strict rule in Las Vegas that hostels can only be occupied by international travelers, although an out-of-state student ID might also work, but it’s best to confirm this ahead of time. These are the cheapest beds in an unusual city, so they don’t want busted gamblers and other hardship cases staying in these places.

What to expect at a Las Vegas hostel

All three places have quite a bit in common, so it’s easiest just to go over those things once. All three used to be motels, meaning they used to be cheap hotels where guests could park their cars more or less in front of their room door. The Las Vegas motels are not as busy as they once were, so these places have made the transition into housing international travelers, although their facilities are still very similar to their previous incarnations.

All three also have less than ideal locations. That’s actually putting it mildly. It’s not that they are 10 miles out in the desert, but that they are each in seedy parts of town where most guests won’t feel too comfortable wandering around during the day, much less late at night. Public transportation in the areas is pretty good, and those who’ll have their own car should be okay, but these cheap beds come with a price that might not be too obvious. In about 98% of the hotel rooms you could book in Las Vegas, you can leave your car where it is during your whole stay. Most of the Las Vegas Strip hotels are next to each other, so walking between them can be a safe and interesting way to spend a day. Alcohol flows cheaply or freely in this city, so being on foot has many advantages.

The three Las Vegas hostels

USA Hostels Las Vegas – This hostel is located in the Downtown area, although it’s 8 suspicious and seedy blocks from the main and busy part. They’ve got a nice pool and the people running it are great. As long as you can put up with that weird walk to the Fremont Street Experience area, this is the best choice for those who want close access to cheap food, cheap (or free) drinks, and gambling opportunities without insanely high minimums.
>>more information on the USA Hostels Las Vegas

Sin City Hostel – This is the smallest and oldest of the three, but it’s got a really good reputation so it’s a solid choice. It advertises that it’s “on” the Las Vegas Strip, but it’s really not. It’s way north of everything interesting, and mixed in with some really sketchy businesses with odd people walking back and forth all day. Again, it’s a nice place, but the location isn’t great.
>>more information on the Sin City Hostel in Las Vegas

AAE Todd’s Hostel – This place only became a hostel in early 2008, and it still partly operates as a motel. But the hostel part is large enough that it’s the largest hostel in the city, even with half of the 117 rooms still being rented privately. They’ve got a nice pool in the center of the complex, and they do frequent parties out there so meeting other travelers can be easy. This place is just a bit south of the Sin City, and sort of walking distance to the Stratosphere Tower, which is a legitimate hotel with a couple of roller coasters on top, but it doesn’t have nearly the glamour of the famous Strip hotels.
>>more information on Todd’s Hostel Las Vegas

Hostel prices in Las Vegas

All three places have beds in dorm rooms starting around $20 per night, and up to about $25 per night on weekends or during busy periods. They each also rent out private rooms for a similar price per person, so you could expect to pay about $40-50 for a private room for two people here.

Is a Las Vegas hostel right for you?

There are two factors that complicate this question in Las Vegas. First off, as mentioned repeatedly above, the hostels here don’t have great locations in a city where location is very important. The other factor is that rooms at the real hotels can often be surprisingly cheap, so you might not save too much money at a hostel anyway. If you are part of the hardcore hostel backpacker crowd, these places can be quite fun, and good places to meet other travelers, but if you are on the fence you might want to look at other Las Vegas hotels or even scan the Las Vegas Deals page, which always has a list of special promotions that can actually get great rooms down to a price similar to these hostels.

When hostels are a good deal

Las Vegas tends to be very seasonal with its hotel prices. Every weekend and every major American holiday brings crowds and higher prices, so it’s much harder to find a good deal on an actual hotel during those times. The week after Christmas is the absolute peak for hotel crowds, while the 3 weeks leading up to Christmas are completely dead. Winter and spring tend to be very full, but starting in June the weekdays in Las Vegas can be pretty empty and good times to find better deals at nicer places. Since the hostels don’t change their prices much through the year, it’s best to check for cheap hotel deals and then book your hostel bed if that doesn’t pan out.