I'll be direct. The only positive remark I can make about this hostel is that the location is great. You really couldn't ask for a better place from which to start exploring LA and Hollywood in particular. Orange Drive Hostel is located on a side street off Hollywood Boulevard and you can see Mann's Chinese Theatre from the walk way of the old house in which the hostel is based. (That's the place where celebs have signed their names and imprinted their hands and footprints in the cement of its forecourt, incase you weren't too sure.) The location sold it to me when I was trawling the internet for accommodation in LA. LA is such a huge and widespread city that we decided to stay in Hollywood and work our way out from there. On a side note, I would suggest Hollywood to others as a starting point as it is quite central, public transport is frequent and there's lots to do.
Back to the hostel.. We stayed here this week (Nov 17th 2007). When we arrived in the early evening, I was shocked to see how close to the action the hostel was. The taxi driver took us up Orange Drive and at first the hostel was difficult to spot. It was not well lit at all and was set back from the street. If I had been alone, I would have been trepidatious about walking up the street and up the hostel's walkway, I have to admit. Luckily, I was with my husband which eased my
scepticism, until he kindly pointed out that the old house in which the hostel is set looked exactly like the house from the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Freakily, it did!
The front door was old and plastered with notices from the management, saying "Please don't slam the door!" and "No smoking on front steps!" I immediately felt like I was being shouted at! Anyway, the manageress was on the front steps and took us inside. The foyer was big and you could sense the age of the house by the large staircase and wood panel walls. The decor was very basic, but it seemed clean enough. It took us about fifteen minutes to check in as the manageress was quite slow on the computer and had to go downstairs to get us change for our deposit, etc. It perhaps wouldn't have seemed so long if she had been a little more talkative and inviting. We didn't really feel welcome in the hostel at this point; in fact we were made to feel like small children when she started lecturing us about how to close the door properly without breaking the lock and how slamming it could cause damage. Not a nice welcome really.
Here's a little info before I go on to talk about the rooms. The advert says that prices start at $22 per person. From what I could tell, this was per person in a shared dorm with public bathroom. There were two floors of rooms, from singles to dorms sleeping four (single sex), but the rooms seemed to spread to the back of the house pretty far, so I would guess that the entire hostel sleeps approx. 40 people. We paid $36 each for a double room with private bathroom and there were only two or three private bath dorms available from what I could gather.
There was internet access downstairs, two kiosks with dirty chairs, where you could pay 10c a minute to access the web. We were informed that there was a small kitchen (microwave and fridge) for use by all guests, but I didn't have the pleasure of seeing that. And, I think a TV room was available but again, we didn't see it. There were also a dozen lockers available for 75c each.
Although we had reserved a double room, there was only a dorm room available for us, with four single beds. It wasn't the end of the world though and the manageress informed us that this was a nicer room than the original double. We were shown to our rooms which was a nice courtesy (we thought!) but it turns out that the manageress simply wanted to lecture us further on how to turn the lock, not to use the broken lock on our door (!) and how to switch the bathroom light on. I understand that they probably have some young and uncertain guests at the hostel sometimes, but I found the whole routine quite condescending by the end. When you get to your late 20s, you tend to know how to switch a light on and turn a key in a lock!
The room had wood flooring with stains all over it and a faded, dated rug. There was no dust and the bedding on my bed was clean and smelled fresh; the room seemed clean which made me feel better about the place. It showed that the manageress was so school-teacher-esque because she seemed to take pride in the place she had created. It was easy to get a good night's sleep in the room and the hostel itself was pretty quiet compared to others we had stayed in. My bed was clean and comfy, however, my husband had a more disturbed sleep. His bed slid across the wood floor; his pillow was covered with a plastic case of a sort; and his quilt had a less than desirable stain on it.
The bathroom was awful. Again, it was clean, but what use is a clean bathroom when the basics don't even work? The toilet had a delayed flush, meaning you'd flush it, it would fill to the brim (yuck!) and the water would go back down a few minutes later. The sight of the plunger next to the toilet should have explained some of the problems with the plumbing. When the shower taps were turned fully open, a trickle of cold water came out. It wasn't enough to shower under so we had to make do with washing over the sink basin, with the cold water from the one tap that had any water pressure, as the overflow grate in the basin oozed a worrying rust coloured streak in to the water.
We stayed the first night, as we had been travelling all day and were so tired that we would have put up with anything. Although we were originally booked in for three nights, we left after just one. In the cold misty light of LA morning, we realised just how bad the hostel was. We worried about leaving our belongings in our room when we went out for breakfast the next morning, because of the broken locks and warning signs. I read the "HOSTEL'S RULES" which were stuck on every wall in the house: No food or drink in the rooms (not even a bottle of water); You will lose your deposit if you do not close the front door; Do not put large amounts of paper down the toilet. Now there's rules to live by!
On our visit to Hollywood Boulevard, we made the decision that we were going to move to our next hotel a little earlier. I felt a little guilty (because that's the kind of person I am- I dislike complaining) but my guilt was soon pushed aside when we bumped in to the manageress on our return. She was walking up the steps as we unlocked the front door. My husband opened the door for her, said hi and asked how she was today. In reply, she scowled, put her head down further and marched ahead in silence. Her ignorance was enough to cement our decision to leave. One of the many signs in the hostel states that there will be no refunds and they definitely stick to their guns on that one. However, we were willing to leave without a refund just to get out of the place.
The location was great, but not worth it for the very poor customer service, non-functional bathroom and lack of security and safety. What a disappointment!
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Nov 20th, 2007
exceptional by (9%):
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