Venice Beach Hostel
It’s time for the last hostel review of the trip. This time it’s the Venice Beach Cotel, which is located right on the beach in Venice, California.
What is a cotel you ask? That’s a good question. I stayed there for two nights and still have no idea. My only guess is that it is some sort of cross between a condo and a hotel. However, this place describes itself as a youth hostel according to the flyer so that doesn’t make sense.
Enough with the name, it’s time for the review.
Location
The Venice Beach hostel has hands down one of the best locations available. Especially if you are looking for a place to crash on the beach. The building is located right on Venice Beach, directly next to the boardwalk. A quick glance out our bedroom window shows how good of view the place has:
View From Our Bedroom
The location near the beach made it really easy to get around during the day. The boardwalk was pretty cool (and creepy) and there were tons of shops and vendors selling everything from sunglasses to false dreams and hopes.
The only downside to the location was the night scene. Venice is literally a ghost town once it gets dark outside. Luckily Santa Monica is pretty happening at night and it is only a 2 mile taxi ride down the street (about 12 bucks).
The Building
The downside to this hostel was the fact that the hostel is REALLY old. The building has been around forever. It does make for a cool looking building but the inside is really musty and dirty. The carpet in the rooms is pretty “sticky,” which made accidentally stepping on it barefoot a frightening experience. Make sure to bring some slippers or sandals along if you plan on walking around a lot.
The other thing I did not like about the building was the layout. The hostel is setup a lot more like a typical hotel than some of the hostels I have stayed at. It has a bunch of long hallways with doors leading to the rooms and lacks any open space (like the San Diego hostel). Here is a picture looking down one of the hallways:
A View Of The Hallway
The lounge was also really small but it did have a bring your own beer lounge after 8 pm which is cool. The hostel also had a kitchen where you can keep your food and cook when you feel like it. It did not have any free breakfast which was a downer but oh well.
The People
The people at this hostel were also much different than the other hostels. First off, the staff usually consisted of one person working the front desk and that’s it. The other hostel I stayed at had a team that way always willing to help with different things.
The actual guests staying in the hostel were also much different than I have seen at other hostels. The age difference amongst the guests was pretty large as I saw some old people as well as some really young people (18 perhaps). The guests were not nearly as outgoing as the ones in San Diego and we did not talk to any of them the whole stay. Even our roommates kept quiet and came and went without a sound. Very odd.
The Price
Besides the location of this hostel, the next best thing was the price. A bed in a 4 person dorm-style room is only 22 bucks a night. If you’re lucky, they might even upgrade you to a 6 person room (with only 4 people in it and a private bathroom) if they are having problems with your room.
That’s exactly what happened to us. The front desk clerk said “we are having problems with your room and cannot use it until a construction crew comes.” That really left us guessing what had happened in there. My only guess was the toilet flooded or one of the bunk beds collapsed and crushed the person below it.
Either way, the price is very reasonable for the location. They also have 1 bed private rooms available for $60 bucks a night which is still a good bargain for staying on the beach in California.
Overall, the place was not bad for the price. I would recommend it to anyone looking to stay in Venice along the beach. If you are looking for something more happening at night, you might want to check out some of the Santa Monica hostels.
Published on March 11th, 2009. And don't forget to check out my book, Life After the Cubicle.
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I have to say, this place sucked except for the location. That was the only good thing about it. Would I stay there again? No way, I’d much rather stay in Santa Monica next time
I have stayed in both Venice and Santa Monica areas. This place rocks and has the most unusual people.
I know this building and had no idea it was a “cotel.” In fact, I hope you had time to visit the Graffiti walls that are a stones throw away……………:)
I did! They were right behind this place on the beach. It’s pretty cool how they allow people to paint on the walls.
I’ve stayed here, but next time you might want to check out the Hosteling International location in Santa Monica … it’s right off the Promonade and a quick walk to the SM Pier. Not the world’s best hostel, but much better than the Venice locale.
When you’re staying at these hostels, how do you keep your laptop, camera, etc. safe? Do they hostels have personal safes or lockers somewhere, or are you just that trusting of the other people there?
Maybe it’s just my theft-paranoia from when/where I grew up but I’d be real sketched out to leave my stuff in a room with strangers, especially since I’m a deep sleeper (you could literally demolish a house next to my face and I’d keep sleeping right through it). Think it’d make for a interesting post to let us know how you keep your stuff safe.
Most of them give you lockers which makes it a lot easier to keep your stuff safe. That’s a great idea about making a post on how to keep your stuff safe while staying in hostels.
Look for it over the next week or so…
I’m bringing a netbook and two digital cameras an upcoming trip. I’m also freaked out about having my stuff stolen.
I’m thinking of buying one of those “pacsafe” bags that are covered in wire mesh and have locking cables.
Thanks for the review. Reading that and the first comment makes it clear to me that my fiancé would HATE it (so would I for that matter). He is a very light sleeper and wakes up even when I’m as quiet as possible. “Dirty” anything is also a deal breaker. It would be really cool to visit the beach though!
Looks like everyone asked what I was going to ask.
Thanks for the study It would be real coolheaded to communicate the beach though!
There’s hostels and then there’s hostels with sticky floors, or costels
At least the location was good.
Nice review mate, I’m actually planning my trip at the moment and was looking into this hostel, might give it a miss.
Is $22 a good price for Venice?
Yeah I think somewhere around 20 bucks is a decent price for Venice. Just keep in mind there is hardly ANYTHING to do there at night. We ended up heading up to Santa Monica both nights.
I know exactly where that hostel is. Yeah it may not be a very lavish hostel, but you’re really paying for that location. Parking is a pain and very expensive, this hostel lets you stay right where everybody wants to be. Overall, when you go to Venice, or any other vacation spot, you’re paying for the place and not necessarily the room. I would recommend this hostel to anybody interested to traveling to Venice from out of town, save yourself the stress, time and money in finding a parking space.
I agree, the location could not have been better. It was easy to walk along the boardwalk and hang out on the beach since it’s literally right there.
Well it’s true that you get what you pay for. Personally I prefer location over a nice room. If you’re away somewhere new, you want to spend as little time in your room as possible! You just need a place to crash at the end of a day.
On keeping your stuff safe — I’m quite paranoid about theft myself. I think most people are actually trustworthy, and taking a few small precautions you’re probably fine. I recommend you get some little combination locks to secure the zippers on your bag so they can’t be opened. With these locks you can also secure your bag to your bed in various ways. When you’re sleeping, you can put the straps around your arm (with the bag in bed with you), so that you’ll probably be awoken if anyone tries to steal it. Another way to handle it — If you mostly just have clothes, you can just have smaller bag with your super-valuables that you keep on you at all times. Obviously, these are all just deterrents, but they seem to work just fine for 99% of situations.
great research bro