The Hostelz.com Review
The Hollywood International Hostel is in a great location. That is the most it has going for it. It's directly across the street from the subway that unfortunately is almost useless to most, and in the heart of the media district. Walk up a flight of stairs to the second floor of a brick building that has businesses beneath, and you'll be facing a very long hallway that runs the length of the building. We noticed right away when we went to use the bathroom that there was no soap there, and it smelled of urine. There were sereral sinks and showers, but no soap to wash hands. I asked at the office. "Do you have any soap, or can you sell me some soap?" "No, sorry."
Our dorm room was a typical 4-person bunk room. Linens were included in the $19 fee. We asked the office clerk if he knew where we could park the car. "No, not really. You could park down there, but it will be expensive like fifteen dollars," he said pointing out the window to the lot below. The sign at the office entrance said breakfast was included. In the morning we went out to see what it was, not expecting much. That's exactly what we received. Breakfast was a piece of bread and jam, butter, or peanut butter. A man with a bread loaf periodically walked downstairs from the TV room to place a loaf on the table below. We saw no real facility for cooking. The "kitchen" was a sink and shelf in a closet with just enough counter for a coffee maker. Coffee was inclused as well at breakfast. There was one typical-sized refrigerator, which was full. The TV room was a good size, with the usuals milling about. Internet access was $1 per ten minutes with a bill feed machine.
Our dorm room was a typical 4-person bunk room. Linens were included in the $19 fee. We asked the office clerk if he knew where we could park the car. "No, not really. You could park down there, but it will be expensive like fifteen dollars," he said pointing out the window to the lot below. The sign at the office entrance said breakfast was included. In the morning we went out to see what it was, not expecting much. That's exactly what we received. Breakfast was a piece of bread and jam, butter, or peanut butter. A man with a bread loaf periodically walked downstairs from the TV room to place a loaf on the table below. We saw no real facility for cooking. The "kitchen" was a sink and shelf in a closet with just enough counter for a coffee maker. Coffee was inclused as well at breakfast. There was one typical-sized refrigerator, which was full. The TV room was a good size, with the usuals milling about. Internet access was $1 per ten minutes with a bill feed machine.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
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Hollywood International Hostel Reviews from the WebHostelz.com Guest Reviews
Best Hostel In Hollywood I went to two other hostels that would not rent to me -- a college student with a Visa and ID because they did not like the way I looked. This hostel, however, did not make such judgments. It is a hostel for mature people: you are expected to know and follow the rules -- it is really that simple. The room was clean and no one stole my laptop. The cast of characters here would make for a Hollywood film. For example, I shred a room with Ivana Trump's stalker, just Google it. The linen was clean. simple breakfast (PB&J) is served weekly. The day manager, Sean, is remarkable. A very intelligent and nice guy. I would stay no where else. The room is 25 with a 25 deposit, so $50, $25 returned if you follow the rules & check out on time. Don't be vulgar or rude to the other (crazy?) guests or you will be asked to leave immediately. — Barry McCarthy , AMerican (2011-01-15) Very good, I would come back i think they made change or something staff very friendly and they had a lot of activities and stuff. I spoke with the new manager and said they were doing a lot of upgrades to the place. Can't wait to see what they did fro this summer. Lots of girls there too!!! had a great time hope to back there soon. — Cambron , France (2010-03-29) A complete mess Well if i had any lighting in the room or could actually see the damp and dust properly im sure my review would be worse. The staff were very reluctant to help and i found when you asked them anything it was a real effort for them to be polite and friendly except for one older guy who was actually polite to me and went out of his way to find me a lamp so i could actually pack my bags. The toilets and shower areas were disgusting, the showers had no lockable doors so your privacy was very limited, and they were also closed for two hours in the middle of the day for cleaning, why they didnt clean them at a more suitable time i dont know. Breakfast was a joke, and as for a kitchen well if you can call that a kitchen. The only thing going for the place was the location that was great. The staff should also be more respectful and turn the TV down when guests are sleeping especially after a long flight. — Cat , England (2009-12-07) Great staff The location of this hostel is pretty good because it's near the subway, which takes you in about fifteen minutes to downtown. The staff in the hostel were extremely nice and helpful. Thank you! The only really bad thing about this hostel is the smell in the rooms, it was very strange. The bathrooms weren't bad for a hostel, just bring your one soap with you. — miri , Swiss (2009-08-11) Good and really bad The location is great, but maybe the only one good thing about this hostel. Although I called several times to confirm my reservation, we were told that there is no such reservation, after all they did us "a favor" with letting us stay there. The staff are really unfriendly, rude, unhelpful. The rooms are ok, but the breakfast is invisible -- only coffee offered. — Zebu , Bulgaria (2009-02-03) Fair for a hostel you get what you pay for. the toast in the morning is free, and the 18 bucks a night is your bed with basics. i will agree almost all common bathrooms are horrible once you hit 11 a.m., but hey, i guess its part of the experience and it will give you a story to tell everyone when you get home. excellent location! — brooke , australian (2008-10-11) Dirty, unfriendly, horrible joke for a hostel! Exhausted after climbing all the stairs to get in, we were greeted by a very dull, unhelpful individual, who refused to break $2 for a phone call home. Shortly after our privilege of being in the company of this lovely individual we found our room, which was, wait for it, Yet another horrible addition to the hostel, two bunk beds, three lockers, a lights bulb, and a window is what we were greeted with. With the weather being very warm outside, it being the first day of summer, I thought maybe, just maybe it would be a little cooler in the shade of our room oh but was I wrong, it just seemed to so much stuffier that even with the window wide open (which didnt have a lock I might add) I still felt like suffocating! The room itself smelt like they left a rotting corpse behind, the floors creaked anywhere you went, the only upside was that the single plug we had in the room was working! The showers are just a joke and look like drug market with half of them out of order, and the staff are just so cold and unfriendly. After spending my first night in here, and lying in my own pool of sweat, at something like 18$ a night, the place is like a torture camp. I would have gladly fallen asleep on the beach somewhere and probably would have gotten better treatment by the homeless passing by. However being all so negative one positive thing about the place is the location, location is great but my advice to you, avoid at all possible costs! — vlad sikora , Ireland (2008-06-21) BedBugs!! I stayed here in 2004 for two nights. I think it was August time. It was a long time ago, but I had such a bad experience here, I thought the review may still be helpful to people thinking of staying here. First impressions was that the place looked like a bit of a dive -- but that didn't really bother me, because you can't expect hostels to be that great. However, then I saw the bathroom. It was filthy! Now like I said, I don't expect hostels to be perfect, but this bathroom looked like you could catch a nasty disease! The toilet seats were encrusted with yellow stains -- years worth of dried on urine I would imagine. At one point during my stay I walked over to the bathroom to use it, but a guy said could i come back in a bit because he was cleaning. So I thought this was good because it obviously needed a clean. I came back 5 mins later when he had finished cleaning and the bathroom was still as dirty as it had been before!!!!!! what did the cleaner do in there? nothing by the look of it! The yellow stains were still on the seats, the dead cockroach was still on the floor of the furthest toilet cubicle. Could not believe it. My room looked clean enough (although shabby and dingy) but the next day I woke covered in bed bug bites!!!! My feet, legs, arms, lower back, and stomach were completely covered in red bites. Never seen so many bites in my life. I even had about 10 bites on each toe!! They must have fed on me all night. Went straight to reception distraught. The guy on reception said it was mosquitoes!!! I knew there was no way you would get that many bites from a mosquito. Later I spoke to this one nice guy he worked there and he confided in me that a girl a few days earlier got bites all over her too, but management won't admit they have a bed bug infestation!! I moved beds, but woke up with even more bites the next day!! So i decided I had to get out of there.
I also asked for my money back but they said no. I went to the local pharmacy to get some cream to put on the bites, a lady working in there was really nice and asked if the hostel was dirty and I told her it was. She said I should ring Environmental Health and they'd get an inspector to go in and get some samples of the place to see if it had a legal health standard. I probably should have phoned them, but I didn't, instead I went back to reception and threatened that I would call Environmental Health if they didn't give me my money back. It worked!! They must have known their hostel was below heath standards and were worried about getting shut down because they even offered for me to stay in a private room for free! However, I obviously declined the room, I didn't want anymore bites! Now this was 2004 when I got the bites so I don't know if they still have an infestation, however seeing as from the below reviews the place is still dirty as hell, I would imagine that management hasn't bothered getting the exterminators in, in which case the infestation might be horrendous by now. But who knows, although I would never stay there again. Besides the cleanliness issue and the bedbugs the hostel also had no atmosphere, it wasn't easy to meet fellow travelers, there was hardly anyone around the hostel -- probs because they stayed away as long as possible! This is the worst hostel I have stayed at. — hostelgirl23 , England (2008-03-30) Unbeatable location, and that's it staying in this hostel was an experience to say the least. we arrived at after twenty-plus hours in transit, hauled our suitcases up the unbearably steep stairs, only to be greeted by a very unfriendly mafia looking/sounding old russian man. after a cold welcome he gave us the key to our room, which literally smelt like poo! the window looked over a two-meter alleyway which received barely any natural light, hence the room was freezing! no heater of course, and very thin blankets (i asked for extra, but this was clearly too much of a problem for the lovely staff). i wore four layers to bed every night and was still freezing! i shudder to think if the sheets had been changed ever (i think the leopard print disguised the stains rather well). i couldnt stop scratching when i was in that bed. i pray it was only psychological! you could feel every spring digging into your back and the pillows were literally two centimeters tall! we woke up every morning groaning and longing for a massage! the bathrooms were ok (i mean its a hostel, you cant expect much) except for the fact that you had to throw dirty toilet paper in the bin! the "kitchen" was filthy, with probably a years worth of jam build up encrusting the table. so, you may ask, why did we stay here for so long? the location is unbeatable! right in the heart of hollywood, you can see red carpet premieres from the "living" room window (which had wooden park benches instead of sofas by the way). buses and subway right outside, shopping, nightlife, heaps of places to eat. there's always something going on a things to see, so hanging out in the hostel is unecessary (why would you want to) if you dont mind slumming it i would recommend this hostel purely based on location! — Lu , Australia (2008-03-04) Very Poor This is one of the worst hostel I've ever stayed in, it's dingy and smells, the staff are unhelpful, and there are no information facilities. There are wooden garden benches to sit on in the lounge. The kitchen is the size of a shower cubicle, the pool table is broken, the stamp machine is broken, the phone card machine is broken. Security is an issue the front door is always open and is on the main street. Oh and you have to make your own bed too. — Sarahk , UK (2008-02-26) This place was terrible, the restrooms were like a crack den, and many showers/toilets were broken. The staff were very rude and had little info about activities. Rooms smelt horrendous, were dark and dingy, and full of boring other nationalities. We stayed for two days which was more than enough. Avoid it at all costs. — Lee smith , English (2007-04-11) I hated this Place. The people who work there are very uptight. I was in the same room with the manger of another hostel name Vladimir that got fired the previous week. He went through all are things and he told the front desk and they said they have complaint about him but they need proof. I saw him in my bags! isnt that enough. Beware of this place. — Daryl (2007-03-20) Great location, this place was great. I stayed here five nights, and they were the best. — susan (2006-10-27) horrible and smelly even in a private room. only good thing i found about this hostel was at the time was there was a good bunch of people staying there! staff were really rude and unhelpful. only stay here if you are desperate. — Angelina (2006-10-05) Very rude staff. Definitely the rudest staff I have ever met. Really did not like his job. Poor cleanliness and unhygienic toilet areas. Great location is the only good comment I can make for this place. — Eadaoin Kelly (2006-09-15)