Selina Commodore Astoria — Hotel in Astoria

So I'm updating this after my second night staying here. I had a better experience the second night, and was able to see some of the positives and wanted to be fair to this business. The first night was the worse night of sleep in my life.

First night - The bar outside is open till 2:30, and it's a raging party down there. It's a packed locals spot. My nerves are shot. And the road noise. This place is LOUD. Even with earplugs. Don't stay in the rooms that face 14th or Commercial, which is most of their rooms. If you want sleep, you aren't a deep sleeper, or can't use earplugs, this place might not be for you. The building is located right between the two main roads going through town, and the windows are single pane. Also the rooms have very little ventilation, so if it's warm, it gets very clammy inside, so you have to leave the windows open, giving you even less protection from the noise. Lots of mod cars ripping through town with loud exhaust. The bar patrons are just screaming and yelling.

Update night 1: around 3:15 it got reasonably quiet outside. So, you've got at least a few hours of sleep you can get here. I was able to fall asleep by 4:15 once my nerves had settled after reading a little. By 9:00 a.m., the daily noise outside picks up. They had ear plugs in a bowl on each floor, but they aren't the best quality and were too big for my narrow ear canal. It can be hard to use ear plugs to sleep if you are not used to them, fyi.

Second night - I slept slightly better, mainly because I got earplugs in at the very beginning of the night, instead of being waken up over and over and having my nerves be too frazzled to get back to sleep, like I did on the first night.

The other main complaint is there is no mini fridge, and no communal fridge, even though this place operates like a hostel. The Norblad, just a block away is almost an identical type of hotel to this, and they had the good sense to put in a communal kitchen with a fridge. I guess you can rent a mini fridge for 10 bucks at the commodore, which seems a bit weird to me. Just put in a communal fridge in each floor's little lounge coffee area. I would have increased my score on this rating by one star if there was that communal fridge available. If I want to stay here again, I'll have to pack a cooler, which is somewhat cumbersome. When you're staying for a couple days and you have food left overs, you have nowhere to store them so you waste money since you have to throw out the food that you don't eat at the restaurants.

I really want to like this place. There are good things it has going for it. The central location, cool vintage decor, vintage building. I enjoyed the room, the size was small but cozy, and I didn't use the TV, and I don't mind communal bathrooms and showers. I like the vibe. If I come back, I'll have to prepare to use earplugs and to brace myself for the stuffiness of the rooms due to really poor ventilation. They don't have blinds, just these solid plastic roll down curtains that are horrible for regulating air, light and privacy. I'd also have to bring a cooler next time.

A few things the management could do to bring their scores up, to keep people returning: put in a communal fridge somewhere. Update the window shades to blinds and curtains, to allow for control of ventilation, light and privacy. Instead of the tiny little fans you provide, offer those window insert dual fan units, to allow for a better exchange of air. Be more up front with people about the noise. That way they can prepare themselves and get their ear plugs in early on a weekend when it is the noisiest. That would have been a great courtesy, and would have increased my rating. I probably would have given five stars across the board if there had been a fridge, better fan, blinds/curtains and a little sign warning about the loud bar/street and to use ear plugs. Most of these one star reviews driven by the noise are seem like people who were blindsided by the bar and street noise, as I was. Getting a heads up about it I would have given a five...

This place is as cute as they can make it, it being a historic building in the middle of downtown. Chris was also wonderful, so no knocks on the staff. However...

I do feel like how they present the place on their website is VERY different from the reality. I booked 2 rooms, one for my parents and one for myself - thinking this was an upscale, boutique-hotel that would be a great jump-off for our 10 day tour through Oregon. Budget was not a concern, I was just charmed by the website and description.

However, this is much more like staying at a dorm or a hostel that is trying to dress up like a boutique hotel. Both my parents and I were barely able to sleep, even after being exhausted from our long travel day from the East coast.

First off there is no AC - they don't name this anywhere as I guess its an assumption for the area (not something I would have ever thought about asking about coming from the rest of the country).

Front desk person is only onsite during the day - the rest of the time you are there alone with all the other guests - so you are completely at the whim of the politeness of your surrounding guests (a group of people hung out at the top of the stairs, which is where my door was - for 2 hours until about midnight - talking, laughing, and playing with a cat). .

And all of this might be okay... if the walls and windows weren't literally paper thin (its a historic building with no sound reduction measures in place). You can hear every single footstep, hallway conversation, neighboring room conversation, as if they are IN your room. And with no staff on site, its kind of a free-for-all. It is also right on the main street - so you hear trucks and motorcycles BARRELLING through your room at all hours, even on a weeknight. Since there is no AC, you're forced with the decision to open your windows and let in even more noise in an attempt to cool off. As undramatically as I can state this - if you are not a dead-to-the-world kind of sleeper, you won't be able to get much shut eye here.

A majority of the rooms DO NOT have bathrooms. They use a shared communal bathroom, so even if you book a suite which does have one, there are people moving about the hallways to use the bathroom at all hours.

I could go on... like how the mattresses are so thin that they fold up on the sides when you lay on them, the couches in the rooms are kind of worn and dirty, there was old cream cheese in the mini fridge... but all in all I can't wrap my head around this self prescribed "vibe" of wanting to support people who want to stay and rest and also those who want to stay, share communal spaces, listen to records (they rent out record players) and party. I am not sure how these two can co-exist in a building like this, as it doesn't seem fair to either experience - and if they were more forthright on their website about the true experience of staying here, they'd probably have to deal with a lot less disappointment in their reviews.

TL:DR - Basically a dorm/hostel with good advertising. No AC, No soundproofing, VERY loud guest/street noise, communal bathrooms, limited onsite staff, and poor bed quality. So uncomfortable that I asked my parents if they'd like to grab rooms at the Astoria Holiday Inn Express, but they championed through it. We did really like Chris, but it was our least favorite and most uncomfortable stay out of...

I booked this rather last-minute, less than 48 hours prior to us checking in, and the pricing seemed to reflect this, though I would still say it was fair. We booked a standard private room on the second floor and it was very nice!! I peeked into the shared bathrooms (the toilet and sink were in their own room, shower was in another space, looked like three of each on our floor), and they were very clean. The building is older but seemed well-maintained, though with wooden floors so there was definitely evidence of it being pet-friendly. There is an elevator, which was nice since we brought our two elder pups with us and stairs can be difficult to navigate, especially when carrying luggage. The lobby was welcoming, every staff member we interacted with was friendly and helpful, and they have a small self-service snack bar. Overnight/after hours, there is a clipboard for you to enter your information and what you took, they charge you accordingly. It was a simple, useful system, especially when the 2am munchies hit. The room itself had a queen bed, surprisingly comfortable, with nice bedding. There was a small couch and coffee table with an electric kettle, a large glass bottle of water and two mugs. The bathroom was small but clean; the shower got hot really quickly and the water pressure was excellent, but the tub did take awhile to drain and it would fill with about an inch of water in the bottom during a ~10 minute shower. The room also came with a fan (!) and a white noise machine (!!), which I was certainly excited about. There was a small closet space with six hangers and a small bench, perfect for luggage and a place to put on one's shoes. Overall, while not the height of luxury, it was very comfortable, we were extremely pleased with our stay and we will likely return.

The location is prime, literally a block from the river walk, and only a few blocks from several restaurants, breweries, shops. Even with two bars literally within eye-sight of our windows, it was quiet in the room. Fort Stevens is about a 20 minute drive away as well, plenty of accessible, paved trails throughout. The one major draw-back, especially if you're staying during the week, is that there is no dedicated parking. There is lots of street parking, but mostly two-hour limit during the day, meaning you might need to be doing some moving around. However, we were told they stop checking around 4 pm and they do not check on Sundays (we checked in on Saturday and left Monday). This is mentioned on their website, so please take this into...