Hostel Habibi Hostel

Tax evasion, illegal labor practices, drug sakes, cheap shotty overpriced rooms, drug dealing staff, you may want to stay elsewhere if you enjoy a clean, friendly accommodations. You've been warned…

Nice place. Can be a bit rough and finding a parking spot can be a chore. But fun. Plenty of bars and restaurants nearby. Very in the heart of a lively neighborhood.

It's great neighborhood if you want hipster, best places to eat, real san Diego, real Californians, not the fake tourist stuff you get downtown and on the beach. The hostel is not the same as the beach hostels full of sex in bunk European woman. But it's still good because the beach hostels can get on your nerves if you expect to sleep at all.

If I could give less than 1 star I most definitely would. I would NEVER stay at this place again and will advise all smart travelers to do the same. They scammed me out of a deposit and the reasoning was the owner was suppose to tell us to take the sheets/pillow cases off the bed and put them in a storage spot. So if the owner DIDNT say anything and now that we have checked out they're saying he was suppose to tell you… whose fault is that?! But thank you to Sheila or Shea for helping rectify this situation.

The sign in the kitchen sums up the attitude of the proprietor perfectly: "Maybe it's not home sweet home. Adjust ". Dirty, no privacy, showers are visible from the kitchen with nowhere to store your clothing in cubicle. Had to sign a waiver that it's OK for the staff to throw us off the building to our death.

Only stay here if you are desperate & have absolutely no where else to stay. Super hot, no AC in summer. Very uncomfortable to say the least. You definitely get what you pay for.

Ghetto hostel in a ghetto neighborhood. Bed sheets had stains on them. Small and cluttered. Absolutely won't stay here again.

If I could give it zero stars I would. Dirty and bugs everywhere. Staff isn't trained. They take a deposit and dont return it. Also they completely screw up reservations to try to steal even more money. Had to contest charges on my card with bank. You cant ger mail delivered even though staff says you can. I arrived and after 15 phone calls and 8 hours of waiting for someone to open the place I was helped to my dirty room. I was shown where the bathrooms are which is connected to the kitchen. The owner is some kind of fraud and so is his business. A lot of drugs and alcoholics staying here. Run far far away. Never stay here. Many other great options in the area. Gives a bad name to the name hostel. This place is a real piece of work.

Bad experience about managing teams. Odd hostile behaviors and insisting to leave deposit and pay by card so as to refuse to refund it back. Unprofessional thefty behaviors rarely to be expexted! Not recommend it.

Wonderful Experience all around. Hoping to come back to this hostel soon to make the transition to move back to San Diego. Hillcrest is a fun area and the woman at the front desk was so nice and friendly! Room was perfectly clean and the bed was super comfortable. They made me feel very welcome and the property made me feel safe. Thanks Hostel Habibi!

Dirty Dirty Dirty. This place doesn't even do the bare minimum in terms of cleaning. I am not exaggerating. It's like they are purposefully trying to live up to the sleazy, nasty, dirty stereotype hostels get. It really comes down to just not giving an (expletive) about their guests and pure laziness. We got your money and you can't get a refund, so F off. That's the mission statement of this place. We are talking about taking 5 min to clean a room. They don't even do that. That should tell you all you need to know about the con artist scammer that owns this dump. It's set up to trick people into paying money for something that is nothing like it's represented to be and having a ZERO refunds ever policy no matter what. The whole thing is a sham and should be shut down. This place is small. There are only a few rooms. What are the employees doing all day? The health department should inspect places like this and there should be better recourse for people to get a refund when they book a room based on deceptive online photos. It's illegal to advertise a shiny new TV and then give customers a crappy old one. But when booking a room they can show photos from 50 years ago and you're stuck even after you see it's nothing like promised. The private room and bathroom are filthy. The dust bunnies are the size of small rodents. The carpet had not been vacuumed in months. Everything was just dirty.

Nice employees. Treat customers good.

I posted a comment on here a few days ago that I have just deleted and am now writing a new one. I had said previously that I loved the place and the staff was very friendly. I am now taking that back! The only friendly staff members are the 2 females and the bald gentleman. The others are not friendly at all, INCLUDING THE OWNER!

The staff is friendly, and the place is usually pretty quiet. I will definitely stay here again!

Staff here are the best. Very helpfull and nice. Clean, fun and very comfy. Love it.

Great hostel to stay at. Great location too.

Chill, cozy, nice neighborhood if you've never been to San Diego. Hostel is rather small, but has everything one needs: showers, full kitchen, beds.

This is a REALLY BAD hostel. I was supposed to stay there on June 27th through July 1st. They STOLE my bag. I am not kidding. They actually did. I am Regional Director who has a travelling job so I come to San Diego for work purposes. I gave them my bag, it was the owner, Vaughn, to whom I gave my bag in the morning on the day of check-in because I ended up coming very early and their check-in wouldn't start until later. So, I asked if he could keep my bag in a safe place so that I don't have to carry it with me while I go to do my job. He agreed to do so, and when I came back in the evening at around 5 pm, I asked for my bag while checking in and the front desk person said they accidentally gave the bag to somebody else. When I asked them who this person was, the guy said they have no information for the guy because it was a walk-in check-in and they had some sort of confrontation with this guy and they end up kicking him out and gave my bag to him? I still don't understand how this happened or what makes sense over here. Why wouldn't a responsible boarding place have any information about who is booking their hostel? Do they just let anybody into their hostel, which in itself is so dangerous and creates potential for your things to be stolen. And they offered no compensation for this terrible mistake. I lost more than 500 dollars worth of clothes, shoes, shaving kits, and medicines.

I have stayed at many hostels, have worked at several, and was looking forward to my stay at Hostel Habibi (especially considering the strong support of minority groups via various paraphernalia). do not stay here. I was harassed in my room, informed the management of this with ample time for them to appropriately follow-up, and received no response of either concern or care. I requested a full refund for my stay and was ignored, completely. That's not a way to treat a paying customer, moreover someone who single-handedly had to deal with being harassed in a place that should otherwise have safe mechanisms in place. This incident was poorly handled in multiple ways. The tenant/victim shouldn't be left alone to address a forced conflict (where I ended up calling the police and waiting outside the location until they arrived). Moreover, if an incident is happening while other tenants are present in the room, to the degree they are awakened by the incident, they should sign some form of document when they enter complying to reporting immediately rather than acting in complacence. Two fellow female tenants informed me of their previous discomfort by the presence of the removed individual. How are Hostel Habibi employees unable to recognize these open warning signs in such close quarters?

If I could give zero stars I would have done it. Our plane was delayed so we couldn't be there on time and because of that we had to sleep at the airport. The next day we came at the hostel and they told us we would not have a refund for it. Not cool! Besides that we had to pay 10 dollars each for security reasons and they would give it back when we would check out. Guess what, we didn't got it back. Doing the laundry is expensive and the staff was not realize responding or trying to help us when we approached them with our issues. So basically we payed a lot more then we were supposed to and that's no fun especially when you are treveling and low on money.

The staff were very friendly and provided good service with explaining the process of how things work. My roommates were amazing and we all went walking around the neighborhoods. One was even from France! The bathroom was very clean and the beds were comfortable. My overall experience was so great that I booked a second room the next day instead of trying to find a different hotel. Great quality for an inexpensive price.

Wow, so disappointed. Unprofessional staff, unorganized and poorly ran. Drug deals being done right outside the door. Sad.

Don't let the Yelp Reviews throw you! While it might not be The Ritz, One Word Sums Hostel Habibi up for me — Character! Tucked quietly in the center of Hillcrest this was once the exact location of a Tattoo and Piercing Salon (the very same one where my ink was done as a matter of fact) which has been repurposed to accommodate a "Backpackers Hostel", and doing a very darn good job of it in my opinion! … Salon and office bays have given way to "pod bay like" arrangements of sleeping options, including Bunks, Couple, and 4 person accommodations with very attractive nightly pricing starting at, or under, $25 per night (plus a $10 property deposit), with PayPal cheerfully accepted! A tastefully appointed common kitchen, shower and hygiene area, and media room are available to all, while the "Beehive Suite" includes it's own kitchen, shower area, television, and digital fireplace. This is a welcome change from our local bath house, provides a family atmosphere, and where "Quiet hours" are observed 11pm to 8am so you can actually get some sleep, while being far more cost effective!

Stayed 2 nights. Would have gladly given 4 stars had it not been for some plumbing issue last night there that resulted in me not being able to shower next morning when I woke up. Staff is friendly and definitely good company to hang out, chat or even hit one of the local spots with. Very good location. Within walking distance to great dining and bars and less than 20 minutes to a lot of popular beaches. The reason I wouldn't give 5 stars is paying for parking. You have to find a meter, paid parking lot or park a few blocks away to avoid paying anything. Not too much of an inconvenience but it is something that should be stated. The kitchen is open to the showers and bathrooms. A large curtain or low wall would be great for privacy. The hostel is not a hotel and a great place if you're looking for somewhere clean to rest your head for a night without paying a lot and want to chat and meet different walks of life. It's in the heart of a great LGBT community and very friendly locals. I was in town for business and it worked very well for my needs and would return. Thanks Hostel Habibi for some great memories!

The owner himself has no customer service professionalism. He broke my back by choking me then throwing me dow a flight of stairs the very next day after one of his guest/friends assulted me do to being high on crystal meth. One of his staff plays his xbox rudely while guest maybe in the room or even watching TV and the service is very underlining just as his profile says if your running from the police this isnt the place to come that being the header in his profile tells me and as a witness hes use to that kinda atmosphere.

The worst customer service I have ever experienced at a hostel anywhere in the world. Without question. The staff is nearly invisible. In the morning I had to ask around and wonder where they were. Not to mention they messed up my booking and canceled my reservation for the second day. Luckily as a result I found a much better place to stay. Same price basically and with a pool and jaccuzi!

I stayed for just a night and I had the most amazing stay. Staff was absolutely amazing, so spiritually uplifting. Before my stay here I was having the worst week. If you're a kind spirit, like to talk and have an open mind I definitely recommend this hostel! Such great people to be around and with all necessities available, it makes to be the perfect place for your stay. Thanks so much Hostel Habibi crew, you guys are the real mvp.

First of all, this is not "Gay only hostel", its for everybody, they just respect Gay ppl and love to be proud :) Really nice shower, and restrooms. One of the people that works there was very rude when I came back late at night. I didnt make that much noise, he was just rude. But its ok if you want to come ine the middle of the night just respect the others :)