VANCOUVER HOSTEL INTERNATIONAL
1114 Burnaby St
Good
> Location is very quiet.
> Strong hot water.
> Well equipped kitchen.
> Free wifi, even in rooms.
> Free breakfast (toast, raisin bread, muffins, bagels, rolls, choice of spreads, fresh fruit, cereal, juice).
> Social events in evening - but I can't comment as I didn't attend any.
> Towels and sheets included.
> Lockers in each bed in the dorm and bed and locker number match to save arguments
> Lock can be bought for $4 at the desk, and you can resell them for $3 at the end of your visit. Effectively you have hired one for $1. I didn't need to do this as (of course) I travel with my own padlock.
> Very clean overall.
> Herb garden growing that can be used for your meals if you want.
> Fridges monitored every day for food left behind and either thrown out or made available to all.
Bad
> Cleaning starts during peak times of getting ready in the morning - shouldn't start until after check-out time, considering you can't check in until 2pm.
> Four bed dorms are very squashy. No more than one person could sort out their luggage at the one time.
> One small light in the room, that is directly over one bed, but is blocked from shedding much light to the rest of the room.
> Only one teeny, tiny, small window in the room, so it might be cosy in winter, but in warmer weather (like now) it is very stuffy. Particularly so if the one person in the dorm right by the window decides it needs to be shut - like last night.
> Also because there is only one small window and the door is shut all the time, the room constantly has that smelly shoe smell.
> The door to the dorm needed to be oiled as it disturbed sleeping bodies (both late at night and in the morning) whenever anyone used it. No creeping in or out possible.
> Was told that I couldn't check in until 2pm, but the next day noticed they allowed a cute and younger person to check in at 11am. And when I did get checked in, found that it wasn't even that they needed to wait for someone to check out before I could get in. So possibly a subtle case of age-ism?
