Gaslamp Hostel San Diego — Hotel in San Diego

Place is dark. Walls and floors are dark blue and deep reddish or brown. No parking except paying them $25 refundable up front, balance collected at checkout.

Kitchen is open just 2 hours with nothing to steal food wise so why lock it 22 hours? Other hostels have kitchens open 24/7 with individual kitchens adjacent to bedrooms, including a refrigerator and stove with necessities. Breakfast is a piece of untoasted bread or cereal with coffee. Other hostels leave kitchens open 24/7 and serve more than one item when they offer breakfast.

Toilet stalls and showers are cramped. Other hostels have kitchens and a bathroom for each room. In this place one shares a bathroom with the entire floor of people constituting wait time and a walk down the hall at night. One thing nice is friendly desk girl who acted professionally.

What reason would I have, liking Found Hotel with hostel rooms at a great price, staying elsewhere IF THEY HAD AVAILABLE BEDS? Why this person writing says I chose her hostel over Found is queer. Why lie saying she told me to go to Found but didn't for an unknown reason? Blatant and unusual unprofessionalism on her part.

Beds are exposed to rest of the rooms guests which is up to five people and the overhead light when anyone is up. Other hostels have curtains that open and close to give full privacy rather than the lack of any privacy whatsoever at Gaslamp. Hostel person suggested I use sheets to cover opening although did not give me one to do it so I used the one on my bed which was unmade with sheet lying folded on mattress. Guests there are expected to make their own beds. All bunkbeds in other hostels have a shelf with a light The light at this place is blue for some reason so not enough to read by while elsewhere it is bright enough to see everything one wants. At no time in the several days there did anyone say they heard my phone making it clear it was never too loud. Guests in shared situations are never shy of speaking to roommates.

As to my age, reading above is what is termed ageism. I don't want to be younger again. I am happy being my age and grateful for each year. The hostel person here comes across as amateur judging her guests on two counts like she writes as well as telling several lies about me. At no time was I given any paper to register, to read, or asked to sign anything. That is common practice in hostels and hotels nowadays especially as people pay online everywhere.

As to my Son, about who she unkindly remarks although she has never met him, he lives in New York City while the hostel is in California so my staying with him as she suggests makes zero sense. Paying by phone, he told them it was not for him, but for me, giving them my name, which apparently confused them as one day they said I had to leave as I was not registered although they welcomed me by name when I originally arrived and had been there a few days with money paid for longer. They backed that up saying I had to leave as they wanted to clean the room. I was surprised having traveled extensively in other countries and other states where at no place throughout a number of years and in a wide variety of hostels and hotels including three others here in San Diego has anyone said guests must vacate so they could clean.

My son gifted me the week at the hostel which is why he paid from New York where, again, he resides. With the transaction being online, he was not given anything to sign either. I was there because hostel of choice was booked. They know me at Found where I have stayed for several weeks at a time.

I would not have had any interest in writing a review of this place except that Google asked me to and many people use reviews including Yelp for helpful information. Reading so much misinformation, not to say lies, from the hostel person encouraged me to write the asked for review. No one else should have a negative experience when they...

I arrived with my mom to check in at this worst San Diego hostel at 1am...ridiculously exhausted. My mom had just paid to park 2 blocks away and we carried armfuls of belongings with us to the hostel. When we arrived, the clerk was like, "Reservation?" like my mom was speaking Greek. She said nothing and just walked away. Minute later the owner came in and told my mom that I was not allowed to stay there because I'm under 18. She was talking to my mom like a bully. My mom explained to the owner that our room was already paid for, that she had booked it thru hotels.com as a minor + adult, and that it was 1am already...we're exhausted and where else are we gonna get a room at that hour. I kept falling asleep on their staircase during this time because I was so tired. The lady was arguing with my mom about their rules. Meanwhile, the clerk keeps saying to my mom, "She's just trying to help you." That's a lie. If they wanted to help, they could have...but they did not. After a heated conversation, the owner says she will allow me to stay. I was relieved. Then 3 seconds later I just heard her tell my mom, "Nevermind. I don't like your attitude. You need to get off my property." WTH Really? This mean lady was gaslighting my mom, bullying her, and was mad at us for just for walking thru the door. She could have approached my mom saying, "Hi, I'm So-and-So, the owner. It looks like there is a discrepancy with your booking. Because we have shared bathrooms here, we don't allow children. I know it's 1am, and hearing this is really stressful, but let's see what we can do to figure this out. Would you be able to accompany your daughter to the bathroom?" Instead she treated my mom really bad like she had done something wrong. We've stayed at plenty of hostels. None of them had a policy saying I could not be there. I was starting to feel really scared that I would not have a place to sleep since I heard my mom on the phone trying to find a new hotel. They were all full or $300. This Gaslamp Hostel owner is anti-children, anti-family, and made me feel like I had caused my mom so much hassle :-( After we wasted an hour trying to check in and get our money back, I tried to cheer my mom up. I was hugging her while she sat on the phone with hotels.com. I told her I could sleep in the car so she would not have to spend more money or be more stressed, but my mom said it's not safe to sleep in the car, and she didn't know where we could park to do that anyway. My mom was crying when we left. We ended up sleeping in a gross motel smoking room. I saw a bug on the table when we walked in. The owner of this cheap San Diego hotel is not a human being. All the next day, my mom was depressed and sad. This occurrence really ruined our entire weekend. Gaslamp Hostel reviews San Diego. Worst San Diego hostel. Downtown San Diego hostel nightmare. NOT the best San Diego hostel--total nightmare. Disaster. Horror story. TripAdvisor Gaslamp Hostel sucks. Do not stay at this affordable San Diego hotel because the owner is an bad person who hurts and scares kids. Who turns a kid out onto the street at 2am in downtown? Affordable San Diego...

It's really hard to me to give a fair rating because my expectations were somewhat different and I'm not the typical hostel-goer. I can mainly just reiterate what other people already said. To start with the not-so-good things/caveats: 1. The entrance of the hostel is somewhat hidden from plain sight (single pink door right between two food places), and it's in the second and third floor, with no elevators. 2. Soundproofing is - let's say - suboptimal. 3. There are rooms without windows. I was in one of those, and it was actually pretty dark in there. I didn't really mind for the rather short time I was there, but if you do maybe ask the staff to give you one that has one (mind you the street can get kinda loud in the evening). 4. Breakfast is very simple; especially considering that there are several breakfast places in the Gaslamp Quarter, it's not really an argument that speaks for choosing this hostel over another place. 5. Reception hours were kind of useless to me. They only open at 10am. If you need something before that that's not an "emergency," you'll have to find a staff member in the house to take care of it. 6. My mattress was pretty worn. I could feel the springs inside of it when lying down. I know the last two years were difficult for this business (as for many), but it's still something I need to say. Finally, another point that is not a negative but that you should consider: The hostel offers parking for (currently) $15 a night, which is a typical price for the area, plus a $25 deposit. Parking is located in a building very close to the hostel, and parking spaces there are nice and big. However, you need the card for exiting the parking lot, too. This means that when you give back the parking card, you'll need to stop your car somewhere else in the meantime, and parking spaces in the area are rare or expensive. In my book, the parking card service is very convenient but only really worthwhile if you stay somewhat longer (I had the parking pass for just one night, so in retrospect I would have probably just used one of the other commercial lots in the area). I know this is getting very long, but hold on, there's also positives. First of all, the hostel was clean and staff was often seen cleaning up surfaces, e.g. in the bathroom. There are laundry facilities, an ATM, and vending machines located near the reception. While I couldn't manage to go to one of the activities, they offer several throughout the week and they all look pretty fun. The location was great, with a plethora of shops and eateries around the hostel, proximity to public transit, and Balboa Park and the San Diego Bay are also nearby. Lastly, all the staff members I interacted me were great, always nice and friendly and very helpful. In short, if you are okay with the caveats stated above (and none of them are really killer criteria) this is a clean and safe place to stay in the heart of the city with competitive rates. Thanks for...