Washington International Student Center

The rooms were kept up well, and the kitchen and bathrooms were clean enough. It’s a handy spot for buses, with the subway not too far away. The neighborhood gets busy, though, and weekend bar music can come through the walls until around 2 a.m. Still, it’s a decent inexpensive place for a couple of nights.

The location worked well, but the place itself wasn’t good quality. There was no real breakfast, and nighttime noise carried on until 2 or 3 a.m. Our Booking.com reservation was canceled, so we had to book through the hotel’s own site at a substantially higher price.

The staff were easygoing, and if you just need a cheap place for a few nights, it may do the job. But some guests were completely wild, and the top manager handled things very unprofessionally. It left the stay feeling like a net negative. There isn’t much else in the way of cheap options, so expect some shenanigans.

The room was clean, the bunk bed comfortable, and the AC worked well. Bathrooms were roomy and clean too, and there’s a kitchen and shared living room to use. With bus stops close by and cafes and restaurants on the same street, it’s great value for the money. It didn’t have much of a social, meet-people feel compared with hostels I’ve stayed at elsewhere. That seemed fine for the guests there, many of whom were moving to DC rather than looking for company to explore the city. DC itself doesn’t really have that kind of vibe.