Boston Homestel — Hotel in Boston

My husband and I booked two nights at Boston Homestel after combing the internet for days looking for reasonably priced accommodation and finding nothing under $300/night besides this place (including on Airbnb). We booked largely out of desperation and good faith, hoping that the single review on here stating what a nice place it is had some truth in it. I’m sorry to say we were pretty disappointed. ||I’ll start with the positives, though. This is a relatively newly-opened hostel kitted out with two well-appointed kitchens and three very clean bathrooms, all with brand new fittings. There’s also a downstairs lounge area and an outdoor deck which, besides the broken bit of garden furniture, is pretty nice. Our room (room 6 I think - but can’t be sure due to lack of room numbers on the doors or keys) was clean and the beds were reasonably comfortable and had clean sheets on them. It’s also very well-located in a pretty quiet neighbourhood right around the corner from the JFK/UMass T stop, which is 3 stops south of South Station. The check-in process was quick and the woman who checked us in was perfectly nice.||All that being said, the drawbacks are many and impossible to ignore. The hostel isn’t signposted and has absolutely no curb appeal; it just looks like a rundown old house. That continues as you go inside, where we found one staircase cordoned off completely due to wet paint. Obviously it’s still a work in progress. ||Although the other guests at the hostel on the nights we were there were nice and respectful enough, the walls are also paper thin and we heard just about every bit of activity during the night, from people getting up to use the bathroom (the door of which needed to be loudly pulled in order to lock thanks to a bad paint job), to someone using the microwave at 4 AM (?!). ||Our room, although clean, was ridiculously basic. I say “ridiculously” largely because it’s described on the hostel’s website as “deluxe”. Turns out that really only means you have the luxury of not sharing your room with other people. The only things in the room were the two beds - a double and a single. Considering we paid $118/night plus tax, this is pretty unjustifiable. No, $118 isn’t expensive, but it’s also not exactly cheap. It wouldn’t kill the owners to add a bedside table or two with a lamp and maybe some soft furnishings. Either that, or take “deluxe” out of the room title and decrease the price by $20 or so. We also got one towel each, but no soap or shower gel. There is hand soap provided in the bathrooms, but again it wouldn’t hurt to leave some extra toiletries for guests as a courtesy. ||But the most inexcusable drawback to our experience at the Homestel was the lack of any air conditioning or even a fan in our room. I spent a year living in Boston so I know that A/C is weirdly uncommon in a lot of residences, but this isn’t a residence, it’s a hostel where paying guests should expect a basic level of comfort. Anyone who’s experienced Boston in the summer knows that the heat and humidity can be suffocating, and somehow it managed to be a good 5 degrees warmer in our very stuffy room than in the main areas of the hostel. So to not provide a fan at the very least is something I consider almost inhumane. We slept through our first night mostly because we were completely wiped out from jet lag and also thanks to the two separate beds in our room, but I still woke up covered in sweat and feeling very unwell. Had I had prior warning of this situation, I would’ve cancelled our booking. I’m 5 months pregnant and have enough discomfort trying to sleep as it is. The second night, we ended up taking the fan out of one of the common areas once everyone had gone to bed. Low-level theft isn’t something I normally stoop to, but I didn’t see another option. This is a small hostel with not many rooms. It wouldn’t cost a huge amount to put a fan in each one, but it would make a massive amount of difference to the guests. I really hope the owners see to this soon otherwise I can’t imagine a single person who stays at the Homestel this summer is going to be...

The owners were impolite and disrespectful(Actually I am not a kind of person who leave reviews. It's my first time to leave a review on Google). On the day I arrived there, I asked about parking, but they didn't answer. I felt a bit bad, but I thought there might be some reason for that(Maybe they were busy so forgot to respond and so on). But, the next day I happened to drop my charger under the bed and asked them if I could get a long stick to get it out, but they ghosted me again. So I asked them why they didn't answer me continually and they told me that my questions were "common sense" ones so weren't worth answering. I was speechless and couldn't believe what I saw. I couldn't imagine how rude they are.

I just arrived there a day ago, so it's natural that I don't know where the items are located. I can't understand why my questions were "common sense" ones. Even tho those were easy questions, I think they shouldn't respond in that rude and disrespectful manner, absolutely.

Plus, before I visit there, I've been traveling for 2.5 weeks, but this was the only hostel where I cannot use an A/C. There was an A/C controller on the wall, but it was locked, so guests could not turn it on, so I couldn't sleep well coz it was too hot(I had to take out a chiller from the freezer to cool down my body). The owner made an excuse hard to understand saying that the day was an unusually hot day. Hey, now is June, summer.

Finally, a guest put some trash in the wrong trash can by mistake, and a owner took it out from the can and started to scold the guest. I think she should just correct it and put the sign above the cans about what items should be put into which cans so that guests wouldn't be confused again. I guess the guest felt embarrassed and humiliated as well, being scolded and treated like that in front of others.

Overall, their attitude toward guests was so unpleasant and I definitely don't want to go there again. Other than the location, I definitely don't want to recommend this place to others for sure.

To you,

Don't write a novel with ur own prejudice. I didn't have any intention to blame staff, but it's ur obligation to know the parking rule near the area exactly, and let guests know about it, instead of blaming guests and avoiding responsibility of answering guests' questions.

It makes sense guests can change their minds. At first, I'd like to secure parking space and ask you to reserve it coz i didn’t know how the parking situation is going in that area, but once I arrived there, I found that there was enough space on the street, so if possible, I wanted to park there and save the parking fee from the next day? Is that wrong? If u were guest, maybe you try to do the same. Be in others' shoes as a COMMON SENSE.

As I told you, I just arrived there less than 1 day, so I truly didn't know where the broom was. Even tho guests used the kitchen, they might not know where the broom was. You judged me I asked the question to bother you even tho I knew where it was. What a stupid judgement. You were the first one to ghost my question with ur own prejudice, and I am sure you will be the only one who does that in the future. U just don't have necessary manner.

I've visited many other accommodations so far, and it's true your house was the first one with NO A/C. Whether the weather is hot or not, guests should use it when they feel it's hot inside. Even tho you think it's not hot, that's your own thought, and not letting guests use A/C is out of sense with ur own thought, sacrificing guests' convenience to save ur electricity bill.

Lastly, before coming here, I asked if we could stay at the same room, and you proposed to offer the extra bed first and I accepted it. Don't you remember?

And even tho it's nothing to do with the issue, honestly, charging $30 for extra bed per night is way too much. The price of the extra bed itself is less than $30 in second-hand markets.

You said you dont judge, but you constantly judge with your own biase. Plzfix your rude attitude, and stop making excuses...

WORST EVER CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE! I HAVE NEVER STAYED AT A HOSTEL AND THIS EXPERIENCE SOLIDIFY IT. Booked this hostel by accident because it was cheap. MORAL OF THE STORY READ THE FINE PRINT. When I tried to get a refund, after having to book another hotel room. I was pretty certain I would get the refund but it got denied when I called Booking.com, so I called he hostel directly expected the owner or manager or who ever it was on the other end of the phone was unsympathetic to my situation. $70 lost to the wind, for a space I never set foot in. Then he starts to get loud on the phone, when he's explaining there was signage posted by the doorbell and I interupted him to say there was NOTHING indicating it's a business. In my opinion that person who picked up the phone is not a suitable personality for THE HOSPITALITY BUSINESS, he was ZERO% HOSPITABLE. Especially, when money is tight, due to the COVID 19 PANDEMIC. I will never return to that site or recommend to anyone.

Earlier that day, when my cab pulled up and dropped me off at residential address in Dorchester, the address listed in the confirmation through BOOKING.COM, I thought I was in the wrong place, I had to triple check the address, I expected to find a tradition hotel model. Nothing welcoming or inviting, (ie no plants, flowers, seating), instead I pulled up to a grey, mediocre, sloppy, 3 story bulding in an IFFY part of Dorchester. . There was no signage on the door or next to the doorbell, indicating it was a hostel/businesss, the door code for thekeyless entry was not provided in the confirmation email, then when I called the number provided to get guidance there wasnt an option to speak to a live person. The recorded message just kept looping, instructing folks to leave a voice mail or an email, which was SUPER FRUSTRATING because that does not help people when you are from out of town and you're questioning if this is someone's house. So I was more than a bit frustratied, when I had just sat on a 2.5h Ferry Ride in 83 degree weather, then paid a cab to the address,. Then feeling like I had no other choice, I started looking for another place to lay my head so I ended up walking, with my luggage, in a foreign town, two blocks, to the closest traing station. THANK YOU GOOGLE!.

SAVE YOUR MONEY AND GO ELSE WHERE. IT'S A CHEAP PLACE, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. Silverlining to this story, after leaving the hostel, BECAUSE THERE IS NO SIGNAGE INDICATING ITS A BUSINESS. I ended up using HOTELS.COM, found and booked a dorm style room with a private bathroom for ($45) in Downtown Boston! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND staying at Found Hotel Boston Common. When I walked in the AC was cranked, which is greatly appreciated on a hot day (83 degree weather), there was someone at the front dest who greeted me warmly and while i was checking in, again I did not read the fine print and she informed me I would be sharing the room, I asked her to upgrade me to my own room, which she was able to and I ended up paying the same amount for the Dorechster room with the added benefits of the site and sounds of staying right by the Boston Common.

Over and Out Travelers, hope this helps to alleviate stress and getting yelled at over the...