Duo Housing — Hotel in Washington

My friend and I have never stayed in a hostel. We were going to a concert at the capital One Area (less than a mile away.) Hotels prices have skyrocketed to basically $500/night. We just needed a place to crash. It worked out just fine. The staff seemed nice enough but always seemed to be dealing with some drama. I was checked into the neighboring building which is not shoe-free and must be a bit better than the main building where most of the social areas are located. It was quieter for that reason. We were placed in a six person, three bunk, room that had little ventilation save a floor fan that was actually a lifesaver. There were outlets next to every bed so everyone had power for whatever was needed. Wifi had intermittent connections but was useless. There was one full bath in the room as you came in the door which oddly had a blind that was unmovable as far as I could see. It was directly in front of the toilet with plenty of windows from other buildings that could could see in. We didn’t shower, but it was all clean enough. I could smell bleach when we walked in. I wasn’t given a towel, though I could have asked for it. Beds were comfortable enough. As a bit of a recluse, staying in such small Quarters with other strangers was a slightly intimidating situation. To remedy this I brought a few things to make a “fort”. Our bed was positioned perfectly for my idea. I brought a tie-dyed king sheet and was able to hang it from lights and a window that went from ceiling to floor and covered both bunks entirely so we had our own little quarterers, with walls on all sides, so we could dress and such in bed without being seen. I’m sure it was an odd site for the other the travelers. There was a couple that we spoke to but they did not speak English much so it was hard to communicate. Another fellow was from Germany and was friendly and cool but we didn’t have time to talk to much of anyone really. Never saw the other person. I think if you go in with the attitude of this being a shared home and want to enjoy meeting new people, this is a great opportunity. Many people are very friendly. I am pretty local - I just live an hour and a half away, and we were only staying for one night so I could bring a lot of things to be extremely comfortable in my little fort as I waited for other people to do their thing in the morning. I had a small cooler and drinks and snacks. I felt like I should try to meet a few more people when I had time but I guess I was too shy and had a my cozy private area. If the bunk had been open like the others, I would have felt pressed to either hide and sleep or get up and explore. I’m not in my twenties anymore, but there were people of different ages from what I saw. I might try it again with a different intention. It seems like a great place to meet people and have enriching conversations. I should add, I called to get some details because we may have had a another traveler with us, but the reservation was for two so I called the front desk which promptly told me to email instead because it went right to the reservations and they could work things out for me. He said he had a huge line and could not help me at the time, which I understand. So I emailed and they ask for my name; I guess because I have a hyphenated name. I promptly responded. That was the last transmission I got even after emailing them two more times with the information and questions telling them that I needed an answer quickly as we were leaving that day. This was over three days, so customer service is definitely not the best. I sensed and unrest and frustration from the staff that I encountered although they were friendly. But they were distressed by unknown situations as the spoke to one another in dramatic hushed shouts about what to do. And helping guests was and added stressor. Very strange. But overall, it was a new and...

Upon arriving, you sign something saying you will be charged for any damage you are responsible. They take a credit card from you for such purposes. Trusting everything was on the up and up, I signed it.

My first morning, I stepped into the shower and went to close the shower door. The glass door exploded shattered glass all around me. I was trapped in the shower. Another hostel guest heard the explosion and went to get a manager.

I flipped the rug over to cover the glass covering the bathroom floor and pulled my dirty clothes back on my unshowered and bleeding body.

A young staff member came down and brought me some band aids. I was in shock for a couple hours. I was asked what happened and told I might be charged. I knew I had signed something, but I was still bleeding and in actual medical shock. I told the staff member I would need to know if they were planning on charging me because a large charge would be financially crippling for me and it was a freak accident that I didn't cause and shouldn't be charged for. I was assured that I would be told before I checked out if they intended to charge me. The manager never talked to me. The manager never came to see the bathroom before maintenance cleaned it up.

That afternoon as I was still in shock I was trying to figure out what happened, so I googled exploding shower doors. Story after story after story came up. It happens with regular frequency. Some doors have been recalled. Sometimes it is a manufacturing flaw, sometimes an installation flaw, sometimes a maintenance flaw. The tempered glass has been known to explode with no one around. The Consumer Safety Commission is actually tracking these incidents.

The next morning, I stopped by the front desk and asked to talk to a manager about the situation. I talked to a staff member about the door and told him about the information I had found. I told him I had been told I might be charged and I wanted to talk to somebody. The staff member told me I wouldn't be charged. Whoever told me that was wrong. Duo doesn't charge people for things that aren't intentionally damaged. I checked in with the staff member again before leaving. I was once again assured I would not be charged and that I was fine good to go. I didn't have to do anything else in order to check out.

Two hours later, I got an email from the manager, telling me I had been charged $350 for the damage. I called the hostel and asked to talk to the manager. I was told he was unavailable and I should email him. I emailed him, including many links to stories about the faulty glass doors. He did not return my email. I emailed again including more information and asking for him to call me. He didn't email or call me. I called again. I was again told he was unavailable, but the staff member would leave a message. I have never heard back from this manager. I am still finding small shards of glass embedded in my scalp. I have photos of the incident, that my consultants have agreed are consistent with faulty doors. They never corrected the charge they made to my account or addressed the potential danger of the doors. I am unhappy with what I feel was very dishonest communication and handling by the manager/staff, I am unhappy with paying almost $500 for two nights where I could barely sleep in a dorm room and never even got a shower and still have glass in my head, and I strongly distrust that they corrected the the bathroom doors...

I am an avid hostel goer and usually have good experiences. HOWEVER, this place is not even an ok hostel in my opinion except for the location. The second building anyway is just an old house that needs to be updated HARD that someone is just trying to pass off as a hostel.

My experience: After an eventful and wet bus ride to the hostel from the airport we were excited to get into the hostel and relax a minute. Instead we were made to take shoes off just to get into the locked office room to type our names into a contract on a computer.

The main room looked nice enough, there were people watching Star Wars in the living room and I was excited to be shown to our room. Then we were ushered back into the front "shoe room" to put our shoes back on. We walk three doors down to "the other building". Made to take our shoes off again. The furniture in the living room was old and broken and the kitchen is very small with no paper towels. We were told that we could put our luggage in a space under the stairs where "the cameras were watching" like that was any kind of security to us.

Walk up some cool old stairs into basically a very dark small dorm size room where there are two bunk beds and it looks like our very messy roommate had thrown all his belongings all over our closet room (both sides). Apparently that behavior was totally fine to the man showing us the hostel because nothing was said or done about it.

My BF and I were told that we were not permitted to sleep in the same bunk bed setup (which could have happened very easily if bed assignments were not completely random) In addition our room had no lock on the door and no safe place to lock up our things in our closet room. The very DIM light in our room had one lightswitch. NEAR THE BATHROOM IN THE HALLWAY. So guess how many times our light inside our room got turned on because people were trying to use the bathroom? TOO MANY TIMES.

The only "lockers" are in the large shared room across the hall on the second floor. Let me describe these "lockers". Laminated Walmart cabinet furniture with tiny eye hooks screwed into the doors for your padlock. Two of the "wood" doors already looked like they had been ripped off the hinges and then placed back like nothing had happened. When I inquired why we were being asked to trust very shotty cabinets with our things in someone else's room I was told that "We do have metal lockers....somewhere" I honestly felt like I was having a conversation with the highest man in the world. Maybe I was....

I went into the second floor bathroom to wash up in order to go out. The bottom edge of the shower and floor were very moldy and I did not take my socks off the entire time I was in the bathroom. (see image)

Oh and on the second day of rain the window next to my bed started leaking so much it started splashing my face while I was trying to sleep.

....at least If you decide to stay here it is located near a mezcal bar. You are...