Welcome to the 'hood
Great news for the city, the neighborhood, and anyone wanting to visit without spending an arm and a leg: Cleveland's first hostel has opened on West 25th Street.
The folks behind this new budget accommodation first planned to put it in a big house on Franklin Avenue. They came to our neighborhood block club with the idea and met some resistance from people who lived nearby. They were concerned that local homeless people might take advantage of the cheap rooms.
I was discouraged by the negativity even though I shared at least some of the concerns about how the place would be managed. At the end of the meeting we'd agreed on a set of issues we hoped the planners would address at a future meeting. As far as I know that didn't happen. But now I think we did them a favor. The new location is much better for everyone.
West 25th Street, to my surprise, has become a hotbed of restaurants, bars and small shops. The West Side Market on the corner of Lorain Avenue has been revitalized and more good things are in the works. So opening a hostel just a block away, also a block from the West 25th St. Rapid Transit station, puts it smack dab in the middle of the action.
Looks good
As Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (far left) would agree, the view from the hostel's rooftop deck is fantastic. We were there for today's Grand Opening and came away impressed.
I didn't get a photo of a typical room, but they are standard hostel fare: a plain, simple dorm-style bunk beds in most cases. There are a few individual and/or family rooms with queen-size beds. Bathrooms and showers are down the hall in all but a couple of cases.
For this basic but clean place to sleep you'll pay about $25 a night, or about $75 for an individual or family room.
While the individual rooms are very plain, the common areas, including the rooftop deck and the kitchen/dining area you see here, are very nice. This fits the hosteling philosophy of travel as a way to meet people, not just see sights.
Joanne and I have stayed in hostels in many countries, most recently Dublin, Ireland in 2010, and I'd say the Cleveland Hostel is near the top of the heap in terms of location and style.
As of today there's only one review on Yelp, but it's a rave. I hope it's a huge success.
