European Hostel

OH MY GOD I wish I had read the reviews before booking this place. I would have been better off sleeping in Golden Gate Park. BED BUGS. SERIOUSLY. I got a bite while staying here and now I am absolutely covered. There is literally no other explanation for how I acquired bedbugs and this is ruining my life.
How is this place allowed to stay open?

I’m not sure why this place has gotten such terrible reviews.
My stay for one night on a Wednesday went perfectly fine without any real issues at all.
Front desk clerk was nice (& apparently shares the same birthday as me), the property itself wasn’t too shabby & the room was pretty nicely kept, there were only 2 others sharing the room along with me.
I did, however, wake up with a bug bite on the side of my forehead, but that’s mostly our fault for leaving the room’s window open for the night (I knew I heard the faint buzzing of a mosquito in the room).
As for the location; it’s really close to everything & actually made my trip easier to get around. A lot of people complain about the homeless «problem» in SF, but I honestly didn’t see anyone camped out or loitering on the street for that whole evening/​night, but if you are jumpy at the thought, entering from 9^th street makes the walk up to the hostel very short & safe. If anything, the street right behind Minna, Natoma, is the street to avoid.
Overall, a very decent stay, & for the low price of some $ 25, well worth it, I would say.
Note that there is a $ 10 (cash only) deposit for the key at check-​in, but you get it back during check-​out so long as you don’t lose the key & are able to return it.

Due to getting bed bug bites I have to one star.
Pro Tips:
–Leave your luggage in the car to avoid bed bugs spreading to your luggage and bringing them back home. I changed into my PJs by the locker and only brought myself and iphone into the room
–Check the mattress as soon as you get there and request a new bed if you spot any or any signs of them
–Bring your own towel, soap, shampoo, blow dryer, etc as this is not provided
–Lockers are provided but only small locks will fit the hole in the lockers. To give you an idea of how small, I’d say a lock that would fit the hole of a luggage zipper
–Size of locker is pretty decent. You could probably fit 2 backpacks squished in
–Sleeping situation: Labeled mixed dorm but from my experience it looks like they try to make it so it’s males in one room and females in another room.
–Contrary to what others have said I found the staff to be very nice and helpful
–Also contrary to what others have said I found the bathrooms to be quite decent. There are 2 – 3 bathrooms on each floor although the first floor only has 1.
–There is a community kitchen with 2 fridges if you care to bring/​buy groceries. There are cups, bowls, pans and all sorts of communal stuff. (I’d say wash anything before using. I wouldn’t trust the last person who used it to not be lazy. Lazy people just rinse with water)
Overall the place is a dump. As you walk up the stairs to your room you’ll think shit what did I get myself into. But if you’re on a budget sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

If you are on a budget, just need a place to sleep, and don’t care about anything else, give this place a try. Booked here last minute for Nye and I was just happy that I had a safe place to rest my head.

Well things started off shakey– the first room they gave me has some questionable stuff on the mattress. When I raised the issue they acted offended but gave me another room. Then I made a special trip to her cash for the key deposit which the guy at the counter took. I didn’t get a receipt which was my mistake. They handed me cash then accused me of not paying a deposit. It got ugly. Plus now I’m worried about bedbugs. Skip this place.

I am actually trying to give 0 stars if possible.
The staff is retarded, and so it is their filthy hotel. The bathrooms are enough to make them shut the activity down, and in all honesty that is precisely what they deserve. Clients are not animal, though it might look that they host animals, since it is full of rats, lice and bed bugs.
And no, they don’t do anything about it, they just change you the room, and yours — with rats and/​or bed bugs — will be someone else’s.
Worst place ever, if you owner are reading this message, I wish you nothing but bad things, bellend.

I only got a Unilocal to give a bad review to this place. But you get what you pay for! No wonder it was cheap. Freaking bed bugs and bums all over the area. I did meet some interesting people from different countries, but they have other beliefs in personal hygiene, and don’t apply deodorant making the whole room smell. The stupid front desk attendant who’s English is horrible kicked me out from the kitchen at 1 am saying it was «closed you have to get out.» Excuse me, learn your English and phrase your words. They do not provide towels! The restroom just smells like Clorox to seem to be clean. One of the freezer wasn’t working. I came for SF pride, it was very close to the event. Not more than 1 mile walk. And also close to the greyhound station where I took the bus. Location and price are convenient. You get what you pay for.

I have stayed at hostels all over the world, particularly in Europe, and this one is by far the worst. I always take other reviews with a grain of salt, because you never know what kinds of standards people have when they write about dirty hotels, etc. Let me tell you: my standards are pretty low, and this place didn’t even come close to a minimum level of satisfactory.
We booked a private room for our two night vacation to SF. We selected this hotel last minute because of its good location and cheap prices. Also, the website advertised free parking, so we thought that would save us lots of time and money.
As we drove up, we realized that the hotel was located in a shady middle street, with bums loitering around the hotel. The «free parking» was limited to one hour at a time, so we had to park our car far away and then walk back to the hotel. As we walked in, we noticed junk piled up in the corner of the reception area. We brought our own linens but were given additional linens from the staff free of charge, because they «recommend putting these linens on in addition.» That did not give me a comforting feeling about the state of the mattresses.
Our room was small and dingy, and the furniture consisted of a small side table with plastic covering, a mirror, a twin bunk bed, and a visibly dirty vintage style chair. I was scared to leave the hostel after dark, so we stayed in and hung out in the room. As I walked in the kitchen, I noticed that the other inhabitants were unlike your typical european hostel inhabitants, as they seemed like they were living in the hostel because they couldn’t afford to rent an actual house in San Francisco. Middle aged, unkempt, stared at me while I ate. The wifi didn’t work in our room, and when we went to the front desk to ask about it, the receptionist (wearing street clothes and a beanie hat) showed us his phone and said «the wifi works for me.» I have never before wanted to change my hotel reservation mid-​stay until we stayed here.
There is nothing european about this hotel, except the occasional german or british resident. It would have been worth it to shell out another $ 10 or $ 20 per night to stay somewhere else.

Alright so this review is going to have a grain of salt in it. Considering the rooms are cheap and you get what you pay for it was a good fit for us. I was a one girl with 4 boys group and we rented a private room and a 2 bunk bed room. The rooms we got were small, linens were old and pillows were hardly effective. We did really enjoy the location because we needed to use the civic center as a drop off and pick up location daily and since it’s a block away it was really optimal for that. There are some great café’s and eating spots close which was good. There are bums in the alleys and there was a couple of times when they were right by the door but, it’s San Francisco there are going to be bums get over it. We did have BED BUGS and that is pretty gross. The bathroom situation is only difficult if you are trying to use them in the morning and shower then. We showered at night and didn’t have any problem. I actually thought the bathrooms were kept very clean and they were actually pretty nice showers. HOT HOT HOT water constantly never ran out. The staff was pretty non existent and never hassled us, never gave us trouble about guests coming in or implemented a curfew which some hostels do. They advertise that they have a rooftop bar terrace but, it’s literally just a rooftop. No chairs up there or anything related to lounging on the roof. For the price and location you can’t beat it but, i would suggest bringing your own sheets and or spray with some type of bed bug spray before you lay down your linens.

Ok, this hostel *is* filthy and disgusting, the staff are rude and there’s no toilet roll, but it’s actually fine if you’re ok with that. I booked a mixed dorm room here before reading the reviews, and was terrified about my impending stay after reading them. I was worried it’d be full of pervs and mice. But it was fine! I shared a room with 3 lovely girls, had a good sleep and came out alive. Hurray!
In short, it is a shitehole, but if you need a cheap, central hostel that’s close to the Bart, and you aren’t too fussy about cleanliness or service, then you’ll be fine.

Absolutely awful. Booked a 4 bed room for girls ONLY, got a 6 bed room with two guys in there, both of whom were beyond fresh. NOT okay! We didn’t go to a hostel for a random hookup. And nowhere near standard enough for a $ 22 per person (it was definitely not clean). We had to leave because they couldn’t hold up their side, claiming it was a computer glitch! They kept our money and room key bond too. We asked to speak to a manager but were told that was impossible. Despite being three girls of three different nationalities, our email complaint requesting a refund was met with the accusation of being racist — apparently this is the only reason anyone would not want to share a room! — and despite the fact that none of us raised our voices and that there were no clientele around, we were accused of frightening their clientele when asking for a different type of room. There was no apology or acknowledgement of anything on their part.
In short, if I could give negative stars, I would. It was dusty, dirty, I SAW a mouse in the hallway, they wanted three girls to sleep in a room with two men who were into random hookups, and accused us of being racist because we didn’t want to, and they got our booking wrong. Um… we’re from New Zealand; one of us is part Maori, part Jewish; one is half Dutch, half Welsh; and one of us is of Native American descent. There is nothing European about this hostel.

I stayed here for a few days and met an interesting array of sociopathic characters with poor social skills (and 2 German girls).
Considering the whackjob clientele (one guy had been accused multiple times of sexual harassment in the dorms and one girl perpetually sat on facebook all day complaining she didn’t have any money or life) I didn’t think it would be a big deal on my last night to sneak another dude into my 6 person dorm to have rebound-​sex with.
Well, *apparently* this is frowned upon by management.
I eventually paid extra to indulge with him in my ‘prison style’ mattress, complete with scratchy sheets and poor quality blanket. (What exactly is a $ 3 ‘linen charge?’) Alas, I was forced to pay/​bribe an extra 30 of my hard earned dollars to the establishment for the opportunity to mack this perfect 10 for 8 hours. (The check out is 10am and this is vigorously enforced with roaming agents (of sorts) who will invade‘ your room to verify your status. Failure to depart in a tardy fashion will result in the business withholding your $ 10 key deposit.)
Several problems arose (none of which, thankfully, pertained to the German girls).
1) The springs supporting the ‘prison style’ mattress produced loud and irritating noises as we went down on each other. It is a scientifically proven fact that immediately following orgasm, excess noise can really kill the buzz. The squeaking of the springs surely irritated other guests, and this is something management must address post-​haste.
2) The door of my room did not lock adequately. I was unable to bar entrance to other guests who was residing in the dorm, for my privacy and for the privacy of whatever-​his-​name-​was. I appreciate that these guests had paid for a bed, but just go to another room for a while or something. Geez. Consequently, we had traffic going in and out of the room.
3) The hostel failed to provide condoms and water-​based lubricant. Promoting unsafe sex in this day and age is unacceptable, and this should be a top-​priority for the hostel to rectify. I have notified safe-​sex organizations that this business is failing to do their part to stop the spread of STD’s in the Bay Area.
4) I was due to check out that morning, and I wanted to stay another night. I don’t do 10am. I was told by the front desk that no such vacancies exist. Nonsense! I booked online after aforementioned sexual encounter and received a confirmation email. The establishment failed to honor it the following morning claiming it was a glitch in the computer system. I do not believe this.
5) I had to pay $ 30 for an extra bed to have sex with him. I feel like I’d hired a prostitute. No amount of local maps, low dorm rates, free wifi, or communal facilities can make up for this feeling.
6) Little to nothing was «European» about this hostel.
I hope for the confort of future travelers this hostel addresses these issues as soon as possible.

This place rocks. I came in here with some expectations and it definitely allow me to be. The front desk boys rock Anuj, Andy and Miki. They are über cool, I will show them a good time if they come and visit me anytime. And the cleaning girl Cindy is precious. Highly recommmend this love nest. Oh yes I did find the love of my life in this place

I’ve stayed in many hostels, all in Europe except for this one, and I can confidently say this was THE WORST HOSTEL I’VE EVER BEEN TO or even heard of.
AVOID THIS HOSTEL AT ALL COSTS! SERIOUSLY!
My girlfriend and I decided on European Hostel because we are on a budget, and they were charging about twenty bucks less per night for a private room than other hostels SanFran. This hostel was NOT WORTH THE SAVINGS. We would have been better off paying a little more so we could have a more comfortable environment.
The Room was about 6’x8’, just slightly bigger than the queen-​sized bed. It smelled bad (like feet), and the carpet was so dirty it was horrifying. There was a window that opened up to a walled-​in space of about five square feet, which let in very little light. There was nothing to hang our clothes and towels on. There was barely enough room for us to get dressed. The bed was clean enough, but uncomfortable, and the covers were several sizes too large, so we ended up getting tangled quite often. There was no table, which would have been useful, but then again there was no room for a table.
The bathroom on our floor had a broken lock and would not close properly without a fight. Every bathroom in the hostel had a serious mold problem, and they were not very clean. The thermostat on their water heater was set far too high and I got a severe and intensely painful burn when I washed my hands. The water must have been between 150 and 190 degrees.
And THE NOISE!!! Oh my god! The doors slam so incredibly loud in this hostel. It seriously sounds like someone shooting a gun right outside your door. We were woken up dozens of times during our stay by people allowing the bathroom door to slam behind them.
The Kitchen was filthy and in total disarray. The staff of the hostel do not clean the kitchen, and they excuse themselves from this responsibility by taping signs to the walls that say «you must clean up all dishes and cups after yourself or you will be charged a fee.»
The «common area/​lounge» consisted of a single broken couch. THERE WAS NOT ONE SINGLE ASPECT OF COMFORT OR RELAXATION AT THIS HOSTEL. It was a very uncomfortable, unwelcoming, and unclean environment.
The location was awful. There were homeless people everywhere. We couldn’t leave the hostel without having at least five bums confront us and try to get our money. The area felt VERY UNSAFE AT NIGHT. Because of this, after our first night we spent every night inside our little stinky room watching movies on my laptop. We were very uncomfortable going anywhere after the sun went down.
The staff provided no help. We were booked for seven days. On the third day we confronted staff and asked to cancel our final three days. Since our booking receipt said they require 48hours for cancellations, we at least expected to get a refund for our last two nights. NO SIR. The person at the desk said he couldn’t help us with that, and that we had to email the manager if we wanted to try to cancel our reservation. Of course the manager never responded to our email, so we were forced to pay for the full seven days even though we only ended up staying there for four nights.

mice run across the room, even when the lights are on. the beds have dust mites that bite. enough said?

WORST HOSTEL OF ALL TIME.
I wouldn’t really call this a hostel but more like a shelter. Let me start from the begining. the location is far from any parking. we had to park a block away in this sketchy parking lot behind a pizza parlor. there are bums all around that area, street, side walk, steps. I booked here since I had no other hostel available for my friends and I to stay at. When we got to the reception desk, the lady in there did not have our booking available. It was a good thing I took a copy of our booking. She then proceeded to add a bogus charge for linnens and $ 10 dollars for a key. when we were ready to pay she told us they didnt take anything but cash. they dont have an ATM so we had to walk down the block to get to an ATM in a liquor store. After asking her how early we could check out she said at no earlier than 8am and if we tried checking out before that she would charge us! We weren’t even trying to! WTF?
after trying to open the door for 2 minutes with their shitty keys and locks, we went into a tiny smelly (like stinky feet) room with six bunk beds without linnens and with trash everywhere. the booking was not well speciffied with us because when we got to the room there was a guy in one of the beds. turns out we had booked a six bed dorm room as opposed to the 5 bed private room. that was fine.
The kitchen and «activity» room had 3 middle-​aged people who were there all day all three days I stayed there and who didnt seem like guests but more like bums off the streets. some of the the restrooms where acceptable (no TP, but didn’t surprise me by then). The shower on our floor was basically a small closet converted into a shower with no room to shower! not to mention that the light switch shocked 3 of my friends when they would turn the light switch off.
Over the next 3 nights, some of my friends woke up with bug bites in their arms and back.
Let me put it like this, if you’re looking to book a hostel in San Francisco, let this be your absolute LAST option. It’s that bad.