Hostel Ottawa/Laurier Guest House

This should be absolutely zero star inn. I have to say that the owner is the most stupid and impolite guy I have seen. I recommend all who have an idea to reserve a room in this inn should consider carefully. Let me tell you something. I had reserved two rooms before, but when I arrived, the owner said I have only one room and wanted me to pay more money. Our children are very cold, but he did not let them stay in corridor. All children had stayed outside for a long time while he was talking like an uneducated person. Moreover, all rooms are so smelly, you will not sleep inside some rooms like those.

There is no "very poor" or "disgusting" to rate? This place and its owner are disgusting and smelly. There is no Quality Control on this place? why goverment doesn't shut its door for ever to keep people safe of dangrous diseases from this place? This is the worst dirty space in the world, how human being can live there? even animals know that they should keep their place clean but this man just thinks about money. Never ever step there if you care about your health! I had to sleep with my clothes in that smelly, dirty bed and the next day I threw them away. health organisations should fire this place.

Don't be fooled by its cheap price. The truth is that a dirty, smelly, crappy room serves you. The blinds in the bathroom (I stayed in the private room) has many holes, leaving you without any privacy. No air conditioning in the room. Bring warm clothes for your night stay! Car parking is extra! And the gentleman (Dee) will charge extra fee in the name of higher demand of rooms when you arrived there. If you add tax, over-demand premium, and parking together, the price is way byond what you have booked online. I'd rather stay at a low-end inn. Eventually, the price difference won't be significant at all! Strongly not recommend this hostel.

This place certainly looks bad in comparison to the Ottawa (jail) IYH, which is in the centre of everything downtown/Byward Market/University and the jail is well run. I would only stay here if parking was my only priority (hence the second star).

I was born and raised in Ottawa. It is a beautiful city! STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS HOSTEL!!!!! It is a total disgrace! I actually work as a paramedic here and live in the Byward Market (the heart of downtown) and I actually thought this place was an old homeless shelter that had been shut down, given the sealed up windows and the state of disaray. If you choose to stay here be ready to sleep beside the prostitutes and I.V. drug users (be careful not to get stuck by a needle), if the vagrants and prostitutes are not staying there then they are passed out on the front step...The only thing this place has going for it is the location...soooo not worth it!

Yes, it may be not as good as a hotel but as a backpacker, for me, it is more like a home. And the owner's hospitality is undoubtedly warm, which made me like the city more.

I have never, EVER, seen a more disgusting place to stay in my life!!! I can only imagine what comes out of the cracks and from under the bed at this hostel at night, because after entering the room my girlfriend and I ran back down the stairs to get our money back!!! There was no linen. But I doubt we would have showered in that bathroom anyway! The room was 104 degrees, and the windows were sealed shut! (Sound safe??) To top it all off, the person in the room beside ours was smoking inside, however the lovely stench of cigarette smoke was covering up the true smell of the room so I don't blame them for allowing the tenant to do so. I would love to go on about this place, but I can only guess about the rest as there was NO-WAY we were going to stay to find out any more!!! I wish we had found this site before we had made plans to stay there, as it would have saved us a trip. We ended up staying at the Holiday Inn for only $25 more a night, but I truly would have paid $100 more to avoid this joint! Seriously, you are better off walking around outside all night and saving your money than staying here. Ending on a high note...the owner did give us our money back and was very pleasant about doing so. There was no fee in deciding not to stay there, and I actually felt kind of bad about leaving him to have to live there. Nobody should have to live like that.

We visited long enough to pay, decided we weren't comfortable enough to stay, and then felt ripped off. (There are no refunds once you've booked, even if you book over the Internet.) Some surprises and annoyances included: being told that parking is $5 extra per vehicle, even when you park two cars in the SAME parking space; slipping on the ice surrounding the building (they didn't seem to care enough about their "clients" to sprinkle some salt on the ice); having to pay extra tax that wasn't included in the original quote over the Internet; having to give tons of personal information; and an extra $20 deposit. The list goes on and on. It's disgraceful. I hope they read some of these comments.

By rights I should give this hostel no stars at all. Avoid it at all costs.

I live in the neighbourhood and will give it an extra star, only because if you need on-street parking you are more likely to find it here than at the other hostels closer to the centre of town.

The one star rating I give this hostel is extremely generous!!! Please, ensure that you have ALL your vaccinations if you intend to stay in this pauper's paradise! Just don't go there. Period. There are nicer hostels in Ottawa to stay at -- just bypass this one completely! Trust me it's scary to imagine that a place like this even exsists! Yuck, phew, gag and poo poo on this horrid place! Ewww!!! :(~

This hostel is an absolute disgrace and should not be in business. It should be closed down immediately. Do NOT stay there! It should not be allowed to advertise as it does on various hostel websites. It is more expensive than advertised, it is dirty, smelly, and unhygenic, and it is nothing like its description. We will be contacting the appropriate departments to try and ensure that this place is closed down so no one else has to suffer the horror of staying there. It is an absolute disgrace that this slum has been allowed to stay in business in the capital of Canada.

Upon my arrival with the taxi, the taxi driver asked "are you sure that this place is a hostel? It looks a bit strange to me!". Anyway, the host couldn't find the key to the room that I had paid for so I got another room. It is hard to describe the room... the bed was of course too short for me as I am 6ft4", but that was not the real bad thing, the bad thing was that I found lots of black hairs inside the bed and I had to wipe them out before I could dare to get into the bed! The bedcloths were not particularly clean either, so I slept with my clothes on! And had to dress the pillow in one of my clean underwears to make it cleaner, so to speak. The kitchen was of course a dirty kitchen, with furniture which the owners found at some rubbish heap, brought home and dusted off! On the day I checked out, I went back to return the key to them and they were very friendly and asked me if I liked the place and I had to lie to their faces and say, yes I did! Then they asked me, so where are you going back to? And I said "I am going back to Canada!!!" Well, of course I made a mistake and I meant Toronto, but I suppose Canada was the Freudian truth! I have been to many hostels all over the world but this one was really something else... it was only comparable to the hostels of Naser-Khosrow in the slum areas of southern Tehran!

I'm afraid we disagree with everyone else's comments. When we arrived (2 hours early) we were promptly shown to our room and given maps of the local area and recommendations on places to visit as well as places to eat. The shared bathroom was not great but it was clean. Our linen was also clean and did not smell or appear to be stained or soiled. We didn't spend much time in the common room, but when we did it was a comfortable and warm atmosphere to watch a little tv before bed. The location was excellent and, not knowing our way around the city, it was nice to be within a 30 minute walk of many attractions, restaurents, and pubs. The next time we make a trip to Ottawa we will most likely try staying here again. We definitely will recommend this hostel to our friends.

In total agreement. Avid this slum like the plague. It's dirty, smelly and an illiterate maid is all you get for reference if lucky. Forget French or Bilingualism, barely any English is spoken here. Welcme to Ottawa's very own IIIrd world adventure.