Cheap accomodation in Toronto for the 2013 Film Festival?

July 17, 2013 6:15 AM

I am visiting Toronto for the Tiff film festival on the 5th September, and can't find budget accomodation....

Hi Hive Mind;

I am visiting Toronto for the Tiff Film Festival this year, from 4th to 14th September.

Alas the usual budget accomodation options are already sold out - the Hi Toronto Youth Hostel, the Canadian Backpackers Inn - and I was wondering if any locals would not of any special secrets for the area? Downtown area preferable of course, but is there any other good accomodation options further out of town, with quick and easy travel routes so I can get into town for screenings? I'm covering the festival as freelance film critic...

Budget is really tight, and a ten night stay is of course quite a long time, so I'm really looking for the most basic of accomodation - a private room to myself (not feasible to share) which is clean, with a bed...

Many thanks in your advance local me-fies!!

Many

posted by Mintyblonde to Travel & Transportation around Toronto, ON (6 answers total)

Have you tried looking on air bnb?
posted by gursky at 6:23 AM on July 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

Same as gursky: Check in Sep 4, check out Sep 14 search
posted by waterandrock at 6:24 AM on July 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

Planet Traveler's is another solid hostel, at the edge of Kensington Market; have you tried there? Global Village is a little raucous, and the two or three other downtown hostels besides what you mention have a pretty shabby vibe.

Others will suggest airbnb, of which I know little (on preview, Hi, gursky!)

If you get really stuck, we have a guest room and could put you up for a night or three while you do some scouting on the ground; we are most of an hour outside of downtown, but pretty convenient to the commuter train.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:25 AM on July 17, 2013

Air bnb or couchsurfing.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 6:41 AM on July 17, 2013

I've had to take a few years off from the TIFF, but there are a whole crop of websites run by TIFF-goers, and I know there used to be at least one that had a forum where people would talk about their travel plans. I think I remember people used to sometimes arrange couchsurfing there, or give tips about good cheap hotels.

I'm sorry this is bordering on totally unhelpful since I don't have a link to give you - but if you're desperate you might look for TIFF websites, or search the #TIFF2013 hashtag on Twitter to see what websites people are talking about, and whether they have leads for you. (Or hell, tweet with that tag yourself and see if people can help you out. The TIFF twitter community used to be very helpful, I'd bet they still are.)

In general, though, this is late to be booking if you want to stay in one place the whole time. We used to book much earlier in the spring. If you decide to make this a regular thing, set yourself a spring reminder to start locking down cheap accomodations!
posted by Stacey at 8:33 AM on July 17, 2013

I came to say Planet Traveller as well. (If your reasons for needing a room to yourself are about needing space to work, there's quite a bit of space in the common areas. There are even little phone booths you can sit in if you're on Skype or something. If you can work in a coffee shop, you could work in the hostel.) The shared rooms are super small. I didn't see one of the private rooms. I expect they're the same size, which makes them small but reasonable.

(My criteria were good Hostelworld reviews, close to the University of Toronto and cheap.)
posted by hoyland at 9:56 AM on July 17, 2013