Glacier House — Hotel in Fairbanks

I've stayed in hostels before so I know better than to expect frills. I booked 2 nights at Glacier House Hostel in Fairbanks, AK on Bookings.com which described it as having a desk that was open 24 hours. The room was called the "Tree House Room" and it said there was a shared bathroom and kitchen. It said the room had 2 twin mattresses, so I knew it would be rustic, but I wasn't prepared for how "rustic" it was.||||We pulled into a driveway that had a junky car sitting in it and my husband and I looked at each other. Still, I was willing to keep an open mind. We went into a back courtyard and found a door that said "Hostel" so we went in and down a set of narrow steps that were stained and reeked. We found a door that opened into a large kitchen and living room. There was a man sitting there watching TV who didn't seem to know we were expected. I told him we had reservations so he gave us a little tour of the bathroom and kitchen. The bathroom didn't look very clean or nice.||||Then he took us out to the tree house. Somehow I hadn't expected it to really be a tree house. We had to climb a ladder and open a trap door to get in. The man told us to be sure to keep the trap door closed so the mosquitos wouldn't get in. He provided us with a flashlight because the electricity had gone out in a rain storm. What I could see of the furnishings, they looked like cast offs. There was a book shelf with old National Geographics. There were 3 twin mattresses on the floor. The walls had no insulation or wall board. Part of the roof was corrugated plastic and one of the mattresses was wet from a leak.||||My husband and I had driven 3 hours to get there after a full day of work and we were tired, so we felt stuck. A few minutes after we'd been in the tree house, another man came with a phone that would take a credit card and he charged us for the 2 nights we had reserved online.||||As soon as we laid down to try to sleep, dogs in a neighboring yard began barking and kept at it half the night. In the morning my husband was exhausted and I had been bitten on the eyelid by something. Before I even got out of bed I grabbed my laptop and looked for another place to spend the next night. We packed up all our stuff and loaded it in the car and then tried to find the manager to tell him we wanted the money back for the night we weren't going to use. He wasn't in the big room. There was another house-like thing the first man had told us the owner lived in, so we tried knocking on the door. (This was around 6:30am.) We couldn't rouse him. ||||We went out to breakfast and tried calling the phone number at a more Godly hour but we got an automated message box so I left a message telling him we wanted our money for the second night back and giving him our phone number to call. ||||We had planned this trip so we could go up to the Arctic Circle. We were exhausted from the night before, but we made it. The owner didn't call all day, but I figured that was probably because we'd been out of cell range. When we got back to the hotel room we rented for the second night I tried calling and leaving a message for him again. He still hasn't returned my message as of...

I made a reservation for both me and my boyfriend for a day through Airbnb. After 10-hours flight and driving 6 hours, some rest was going to make our day. After seeing the place, I was shocked and could not make even check-in, unfortunately. It was the opposite of most reviews and I thought the post was a scam. First, both the person who welcomed us and the house did not fit the profile and the pictures or reviews on Airbnb and google. The person could be the helper though but I will never know because he did not introduce himself. Secondly, the house was very dirty and dusty. So, my allergic rhinitis was coming back. The most disturbing part was I did not feel comfortable and safe during 10 min house tour even though I was with my boyfriend. The person who walked us around asked if the place meet our expectations. We were both scared to say no to this question because of the way he asked and looked. As soon as we headed back to our car, we wrote back to the landlord and explained we can not stay there. The good part is they were helpful in responding to our request. I am happy that things got sorted out in the end. Everyone cannot be this lucky though. So, I would not recommend this place at all if you want to stay in a safe and...

I booked a night on airbnb and didn't realize it was a hostel first, but I was not disappointed. The place is very well managed. I was greeted by a very nice host who lives in the building next door, he checked me in and answered all my questions. The place has 2 bedrooms with 2 bunk beds each, a shared kitchen open to a living room. There is also shower and laundry. The materials and furniture are very basic, but everything is good working order. Everything is clean, no odors etc. You're expected to make your meal and clean up, there was plenty of stocked coffee, cream and snacks to put together a nice breakfast. Good Wi-Fi. I think we had 6 or 7 people in, some stayed up late in the living room, but the bedrooms were fairly quite, so I had no problem sleeping. It's in the town close to the airbase, so it's definitely not a cabin feel. But it also means there is plently of stores/restaurants around and parking is not a problem either.||||Overall, the biggest catch is a lack or privacy in shared rooms (if there are many guests, they dedicate girls/boys room, or, I guess, they can give a room to a family), otherwise it's conveniently located, clean, quite and reasonably place to stay. And if you travel solo - can't...