Joyce Hotel

Suck it up, this place is cheap
ive been staying at the kent off and on for four or five years. its dirty, smelly, and f***in cheap. get a private room, make nice with the staff (cause they rock), and settle in. you can ask to see the room and say no if you want. the staff know what the place looks like and are very willing to make your stay better. i travel the country on a regular basis and dont keep a solid home, the kent is home for me in portland. use what ever street smarts your god gave you and suck it up! this place has saved my ass so many times.

This place is a homeless shelter
Are you kidding me? This place is not a hostel! This is the place where the homeless stay when they can scrape together a few bucks. I walk past this place daily and it is scary. Drunks and strung out druggies loiter in the doorway and by the (landmark) dumpster. Don't stay here.

Oh my God, stay away!
I work close by to this hotel and know some of the tenants. They have horror stories about the bugs and the nightly fights in the hallways, it is filthy, dirty, and noisy all night. If you plan on showering be careful. The place is dangerous with lots of certified crazy people who live there full time. Some people live there because they can't find anywhere else to go or can't get the money together to get an apartment. I guess if you want an adventure and are desperate or want a desperate adventure this is the place. Personally I have walked by the place and it gave me the willies -- dont go if you are a single woman. There are other places that are better.

Rustic, Inviting.
Where can you enjoy gigantic windows that open onto the street. And the pitter patter of the rain as you're very cozy and warm, wondering if the rain will stop soon. It's like home sweet home!

Seedy, Stinky, Weird, and Whacked out people -- But Cheap
The place is a sh*thole. I've been here for about three weeks now. I am out of work, and unemployment is not enough to pay for even a week here, so I do odd jobs. There is nothing glamorous about this place. It's one step above a homeless shelter. But it's cheap, the people that work here are nice, and exert every effort to keep obnoxious/dangerous undesirables away. Oh yeah, and the older woman at the front desk is hot.

Humbling
When no other hotel else opened their doors to us in the city (all booked) this place had two rooms available that night. We were somewhat desperate and somewhat cheap, so we stayed here. It was decidedly seedy, people staying there were downtrodden, the doors only had a doorknob lock which could be easily slipped with a credit card. It smelled. Everything in the hotel looked as if it'd been abused for twenty years, including the staff. However, it was cheap. The location is amazing. The sheets were clean. I highly recommend actually going to see the rooms they have available before you pay for your stay. They let us do this so at least we knew what we were getting into. Bring flip flops for the shower. You'll want them. I would not stay here if I was a woman traveling solo. That being said, it was definitely an "experience" and I feel I have a good couple stories to tell. Oh yeah, and huge flying cockroach in our room too. My boyfriend killed it.

First class for aficionados of the low life.
Sepid, only for the intrepid. A place for people watching, people, at least they used to be. Find yourself caught in the tattered tapestry of the Joyce Hotel, Scarily moving through the hallways, hand on switchblade, for the first few days until suddenly you start to feel at home in the place, your knife gets stolen, you don't need it anyway, save for the preparation of dinner done in the dual sinks of the licentious lavatory. Expect a hundred televisions switched, expect a young AWOL soldier to share his homemade films, a bearded man drinking beer for breakfast sat by the window all day long, and a day working junkie smoking crack in the middle of the night at the foot of your bed. And even more than this my comrades, the place is dirt cheap. Just make sure you leave sometime.

Inexpensive and ok
If I wanted the room a lot cleaner, I just asked for use of a vacuum and dust cloth and fixed it up myself. Brought my own washcloth and purchased a cheap bathmat for my two weeks or less stay. Was treated very nice and am still in touch (email) with one of the clerks.

Cheap -- for a reason.
Look, it's simple. This place is 16 bucks a night (as of Sept. 2007) -- the more legit hostels are 27 to 30. the Joyce is not a backpacker's hostel, most of the people you meet here are somewhat itinerant -- blue collar day laborer types, and yes, the occasional druggie. However, it is quite cheap, and you really can't beat the location. So I wouldn't recommend bringing your laptop and flashing it around, but if you kind of keep to yourself, nobody will bother you. I've stayed there on two separate occasions. I'm a college grad, I have richly traipsed around europe with my rich friends that style, but if you go into the Joyce with the right mindset it's really fine. Also, if you get your own room, which starts at 27 dollars a night, nobody can mess with you at all. So yeah you have to deal with the dirty hallways and the uriny smelling communal bathrooms, but your own room locks and stuff. I wouldn't recommend the hostel rooms to single women traveling around, but the private rooms are probably fine. It's easier to blend in as a random male as far as the hostel beds go. So it's simple -- with the right frame of mind, maybe the joyce is the right decision for you, if you can roll with a little bit more of a blue collar scene with the occasional druggie, and you want to save some money. If you're looking for a backpacker's hostel with euro-travelers, this isn't it. But staying here does not put your life in danger a whole lot more than, say, walking around downtown late at night. I mean, the Joyce staff doesn't want troublemakers and they kick them out and don't let them back. The Joyce hotel is one block south of the famous Powell's Books downtown. quite easy to find -- just go to Powells and look around -- ask if you are having trouble finding it.

Unless you want to live out your seedy, Charles Bukowski, Drugstore Cowboy fantasies, don't go nowhere near this s***hole.

i stayed here off and on for a few weeks while i was in portland this past august. i thought it was great. the staff was friendly. there is an older woman who works the front desk during the day who is very nice. i didn't really talk to the other guests while i was there since i stayed in a private room. the location is great. it's right downtown and within walking distance of clubs, bars, shopping, restaurants. the thing about The Joyce is that it isn't a luxury hotel. it's not even a nice hotel. in fact, it's sort of filthy and the hallways smell a little. but it's got a thick atmosphere. it's got a unique vibe. i'd stay there again in a heartbeat. i loved it but it isn't for everyone. as far as the people complaining about drugs, hookers -- if you aren't looking for it, you won't find it. i didn't see any of that activity going on.

this place is not unlike a lot of places in a lot of big cities. it is what it is. a cheap place to hang your hat. oh sure there are girls to kick it with. and thats not a bad thing. i was up for this place.

the joyce is a nasty place to stay me and a friend were traveling the west coast and stayed there. its truly a junkies paradise. it was funny to watch all the burnouts walk around and talk to themselves and fight . there is a really hot older woman that works there that is very nice. we payed $675 to stay a month and couldnt do it so we trashed it and left. dont ever go there.

I lived in the Joyce Hotel for eight months in 2000. The only good thing that I can say for this place is the bed was comfortable and the sheets were clean. Getting your drugs of choice is easy in the building. If you bought yourself a hooker, you know where to go for the night. The place was falling down. In some rooms the walls were peeling, and the paper had not been removed. The bathrooms are shared and it was not uncommon to find feces on the floor and in the tubs and showers. The place is rampant with drug users and prostitution. Several people were found dead from overdoses and one guy was stabbed in the chest. The blood was never completely cleaned up. In an emergency, this place will get you out of the rain.

I have stayed at this place and its sister hotel Kent (a block away), but I have never gotten into any of trouble some people talk about. I think those are largely unsubstantiated rumors and they got worse when the Portland Mercury did a feature article on the Joyce. It is a street away from the trendy Pearl District, next to Buffalo Exchange (look for the trash bin outside), Powell's Books, Whole Foods Market, the Portland streetcar, etc. Unless you take a hostel room (a friend of mine had $50 stolen while sleeping) you'll be okay. I agree they have the best price in town, plus the famous *cat* (who recently starred in a local indie film) called Rico!