Europa Hotel

At $69 a night through booking.com, it’s cheap, and some things were good: the receptionist was polite, the bathrooms felt very clean, the location was great, and the price was low. One day a guest left shaving hairs in a sink, but that was on them. Still, if you want more comfort from a hotel, I’d pay more. If your standards aren’t high, it can be a good way to save. My room smelled like urine when I arrived, possibly because there was a sink in it that previous guests may have used as a toilet. Leaving the windows open for six days helped, though rooms may differ. The staircase smelled like old onions near the entrance, but the smell cleared further up. My room had black and grey walls and looked nothing like the booking.com pictures. The blanket felt itchy, had small holes, and I don’t know when it was last washed. Two loose sheets barely stayed around it, so I often ended up touching the blanket directly. Doors closing nearby made my room vibrate. Rooms with shared bathrooms are on the street side. It wasn’t as loud as some reviews suggested, though Friday was noisier than Sunday through Thursday. I wore earplugs to be safe. Nobody cleaned my room during my six night stay, which is what I expected at that price.

This is my usual place when I’m in the city. It’s at Columbus and Broadway, right by North Beach, my favorite part of town. Washington Square, Little Italy, lots of food, and clubs are all nearby. It’s a great spot, and for the price in San Francisco, I highly recommend it. There’s an SFPD main substation close by, and the area feels very safe, with very little crime, if any. Officers patrol on foot during the day and night.

I’d put this hostel second from the bottom compared with the two or three I’ve stayed at in Ireland, one in Nob Hill, SF, and a low budget one in Bali. The customer service was okay to good. The morning front desk person was especially nice, and we were able to leave our luggage around 1-2 p.m. We paid $95 a night in late October 2025 for a private room with one bed and an en suite bathroom. Dorms would definitely cost less. For its location, the rate seemed fair. I booked through my credit card portal for points, and the desk was able to find the reservation without any trouble. There are carpeted stairs to the front desk that curve inward and need a lot of maintenance by my standards. I was disappointed that the coffee station was being renovated. I agree this is more of an inn than a hostel, since there are no community rooms. I was fine getting hot chocolate from neighboring businesses instead. My sister could hear people in other rooms and didn’t sleep well. I slept okay with earplugs, and liked the blackout curtains. You have to ask the front desk for a hair dryer. The shower stalls are quite tight, even in private rooms, and I might have bumped into things when turning around.

It was a terrible experience. The place was dirty, there was no parking, and I would have had to share a bathroom. I couldn’t stay and had to find somewhere else straight away.