I hate giving them 3 stars for the fact that the staff were very nice, attentive and helpful (in person). The location was also very nice. Actually, I would have given it more if I were to compare it with a shared room hostel standard but for a private room experience.. this is the highest I could give.

I got a private room with shared bathroom. The bathroom was right next to my room so it's pretty comfortable. Water took quite long to heat up despite I turned the H tap to full. The water draining was also working terribly. I showered with my feet flooded.

The hostel looked clean in general. There were people cleaning the common area everyday. However, if you look deeply, for example, my room, it's actually full of dust. I assume they just change bed sheets and do general floor cleaning but leave other space untouched. I wanted to close the curtain and a pile of dust just flew up and made me sneeze. Btw, the bedsheet was not clean either. There was a lot of hair of different colors and length. I was very uncomfortable that I used my own clothes to make another layer before I slept. On the second night there was a cockroach-size insect running in the restroom and a very big ant (? - let say an insect) in my room! I know it's Big Bear national park in summer, but I'd expect them to at least apply some insect prevention to human living space..

Breakfast was amazing for a hostel - eggs, bread, jam, peanut butter, milk, waffles (you have to make it - they provide ingredients), tea, coffee. I totally suggest making waffles - it's very quick and easy. Kitchen was very good, just like advertised. They have a lot of everything to use and also dish soap to clean. You're supposed to clean your dishes yourself but I saw a lot of guests left their dirt though. Big fridge. Milk was left in the fridge all day for free from the morning.

They advertised that they have free dinner and that made me thought it's everyday - no they didn't! Free bbq and tacos are only on Sun and Tue. This was extremely misleading! The activity board was also another weird thing. In the morning the staff messaged in the whatsapp group about the hike. I replied and no one replied me until the time came I showed up and they said it's a do-it-yourself hike.. so basically they only suggested you what to do and that's it. I remembered upon check-in the staff showed me the board saying "we have a lot of activities".. suggested activities and you go do it by yourself.

They have like 6-7 parking spots in front of the hostel. Reception won't open until 4pm but I felt like staff were around all the time. They're not responsive in messenger app/social media but if you walk up to them and ask, they will be helpful and friendly and approachable. There was a hot tub but I didn't feel like going in due to the overall cleanliness of the hostel. Location was very good tho. The Big Bear village is a few minutes walk.

Common areas are very good. They have board games and many kinds of sitting/lying down furnitures. I love that they have piano and guitar too. And people respect the quiet time, after that hours, everything was quiet. The only sound I heard after closing all the windows was some random cars passing by the street, otherwise it's very quiet (forest sound doesn't count).

Maybe my expectation was too high from their advertisement and all the good reviews. It's probably worth it for a shared hostel bed but for a $120+ private room, I expected something much cleaner at least.