Hollywood International Hostel

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!

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!

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!

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.

Great location, this place was great. I stayed here five nights, and they were the best.

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.

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.

I stayed here a few weeks ago and I had an absolutely brilliant time. Whether this was to do with the hostel itself or the people I met there is a matter for debate though. The hostel is good, very clean and comfortable and the location can't be beaten (the day we arrived the shuttle couldn't drop us at the door because the Mission Impossible III premiere was happening right outside the door!). Watch out for the moody staff though.

I was offered a job here in summer '05 and had the time of my life. Ive stayed in over 40 hostels in north america and this is one of the best. Ok so your not going to get the same standard of service or amenities as a HI hostel but its the best in LA for value and location for sure. I worked here for just over 3 months and got to know the ins and out of this place pretty well. The hostel itself is actually opposite the kodak theatre - the best located hostel ive ever seen. The price was $18 a night which i think is now $20 but its still a good deal seeing as the USAHOSTEL 4 blocks away is at least $28. A rare find with this hostel is the size of the rooms. The average dorm has just 2 bunks (4 people) which is unheard of in hostel terms. This means that the rooms are pretty spacious so no-one will be bothering you in the middle of the night going to the toilet. The quality of the staff here vary as theyre all work exchangers staying there for 90 days. The cleaning staff are usually japanese or russian students aged 18 - 25 and have a good attitude. The office staff is pretty good depending on what time you are there. I found a regular daytime staff of Argentinian sisters who have been living there for about 5 years and so are the most knowledgeable, even if they are rude to you at first. The morning staff are eastern european men who are very easy going and are the best to discuss any problems with. The night staff is abmissmal. Its made up of a 50+ year old guy who is one the most most rude guys ive ever met in my entire 20 years of life. I advise to not check in on his shift as its not the best start to your LA experience. The security consists of a 6ft tall guy who seems agressive at first but is actually a pretty sweet person. Be warned though if you try to sneak anyone in - this guy doesnt miss a beat. The owner is a very nice guy. He lives for hostelling and has been doing it his whole life. He doesnt care about money or profits at all and goes out of his way constantly to make sure everyone is happy there. The breakfast is pretty awful i admit - toast, jam and coffee, and people always slag it without remembering that its all free! You get what you pay for if you ask me! The showers and toilets are fair and the tv lounge is roomy and sociable. In conclusion this place is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Its a very basic hostel, but just drop all pretences about this place before you get in and youll have a great time.

I spent four nights at this hostel and I loved it. I can not say anything bad about it. Bathrooms and rooms are cleaned everyday, the staff were very friendly, location was great and I made some friends, too. I highly recommend this hostel. Next time I go to LA, I will definitely stay here. Check it out.

I was living and working in LA last year; they offered me a job there that then paid for my room. I worked three hours every day and that was it. I was free to do what I wanted for the rest of my time, so the staff are mostly travelers themselves. The hostel is very limited! Breakfast consists of toast and jam and there is only a fridge, toaster and microwave. Limited, yes... But you just can beat the location. On the corner of Hollywood and Highland. Across the road from the Kodak Theatre Mall, the Kodak Theatre and the Chinese Theatre. If you're lucky you'll catch a Hollywood movie premier or star ceremony right on your street. There is the Hollywood Wax Museum and Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and about a five to ten-minute walk to Hollywood and Vine. The hostel is across the road from the Hollywood/Highland train station and bus deport, which means you can get anywhere from right outside your door step. A 25-cent bus trip will take you to the Farmers Market, Beverly Hills Center, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Blvd. and more. The owner isn't as bad as everyone suggests either. He changed my room, bed sheets and sprayed my bed three times because I thought I was getting bedbugs; however it turned out to be an allergic reaction to some food I was eating. So they actually went out of their way to help me out.

Very good hostel. Go there, it's fun, clean, and in the best area.

A very poor hostel. I've stayed in better in Nicaragua and Costa Rica in the middle of nowhere. It had dirty bathrooms, bedrooms and rude staff. We never had a linen change in two weeks. Unfortunately we paid up front for a room on a Web site booking agency. The manager is Greek and slightly mental, as are the "security" staff! One staff member refused to change the TV channel for other guests because he wanted Dragon Ball Z on!!! Do not stay here, it is a rip off.

I stayed there a night. Do not stay there longer than one night or you will feel bad, because the restrooms are really not cleaned and the breakfast is ...!

This is the worst hostel we have stayed in and we have stayed in many. If you go on their Web site the hostel looks great until you check in, when the reality is different. The kitchen is a microwave in a room that only fits one person, no kettle. There's supposed to be a swimming pool (picture on Web). The owner is very scary and will not give refunds if unsatisfied. I would not recommend anyone to stay here.