Hostel recommendation for Berlin, arriving late

Circus Hostel is the venerable stalwart, a very short walk from Museum Insel. Look into pricing now-it is extremely popular due to its location directly atop the Rosenthaler Platz U-Bahn stop.
The U-Bahn does not stop directly at Tegel Airport-you must take the bus to a U-Bahn stop. If you decide to stay at Circus Hostel, this will be an easy route to MapQuest, as Rosenthaler Platz is a major intersection.

You could also have a look at one of these.....

https://www.hihostels.com/destinations/0009/hostels

I've always found HI Hostels to be well run and fairly consistent from one property to another. Having an inexpensive HI membership provides better prices.

Be sure to tell them that you'll be checking-in late.

Hi,

The most central of the HI hostels (if that's what you want) is that on Kluckstrasse, which is to the west from Museum Island. From Tegel there is the bus TXL to Berlin Hbf. At Berlin Hbf you can catch the S-Bahn. I would suggest staying in private independent hostel in the eastern area. Those are at Berlin Alexanderplatz.

"...from Tegel to the hostel." Which hostel? If you're going to Alexanderplatz for the hostel, I would take the bus TXL to Berlin Hbf, then take the S-Bahn on track 16 or 17 eastward to Alexanderplatz, which also a main junction point.

If you've been looking at the Berlin rail map, the S-Bahn "Tegel" station and the U-Bahn "Alt-Tegel" station serve the area of the original village of Tegel (the clue is "alt" or "old" in the U-Bahn station name) and are not anywhere near the airport.

I stayed at PLUS Berlin in Friedrichstein and thought it was great. Clean rooms with en-suite bathrooms, comfortable beds, and a bar with good happy hour specials. I found it easy to navigate the city using the U-Bahn (Warschauer Strasse station is very close to the hostel).