Couch surfing wipe out

July 16, 2007 10:20 PM

Hotel/Hostel/Motel needed THIS WEEKEND, money sort of an issue, Berkeley or San Francisco.

Ok, I have tickets to Daydream Nation on Thursday so a friend and I are flying down to the alma mater (UC Berkeley) and are making a long weekend of it. However, couch surfing plans have fallen through at the last minute!

Requirements: close to BART, safe, clean, Berkeley/North Oakland/San Fran, and hopefully less than $100 a night. Is this impossible?

I fear this will be my first AskMe question to come up dry. C'mon, MeFi, bail me out one last time...

posted by Slarty Bartfast to travel & transportation (8 comments total)

Try priceline.com
posted by Eringatang at 10:24 PM on July 16, 2007

I've always had a great time at the Green Tortoise in North Beach in SF..

http://www.greentortoise.com

http://www.hostels.com
posted by mrunderhill at 10:25 PM on July 16, 2007

I've stayed at the Berkeley City Club before, and it was pretty nice, though I don't recall how much it was. The rooms are spare, but clean.

http://www.berkeleycityclub.com/
posted by Mercaptan at 10:30 PM on July 16, 2007

Priceline and Hotels.com are good for Holiday Inn, etc. but doesn't help with the whole close to BART and cheap part of the equation. I am hoping someone has experience with some of the smaller places, for instance the Berkeley City Club which looked like it might be kinda dumpy so Mercaptan's experience is helpful.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:41 PM on July 16, 2007

I ended up not actually staying at the Adelaide Hostel in SF a while back, because they were full, but they seemed like a decent place to crash. I mean, they were sort of run-down in the way that I expect hostels to be, but the five minutes I spent in their lobby didn't give me a bad vibe or anything. They're a few blocks from the Powell St. BART station.
posted by hattifattener at 10:56 PM on July 16, 2007

adelaide is fine. hotel des artes has rooms with shared baths for $69, $99 regular rooms, but fills up early.

there are a dozen decent-enough hotels in downtown oakland for $80 a night or so. jack london has a couple too.
posted by luriete at 11:39 PM on July 16, 2007

Check out this recent question (cheap hotels near Union Square, SF).
posted by teleskiving at 1:35 AM on July 17, 2007

Priceline is great for last-minute hotels. You can't specify the exact hotel, but you can specify the part(s) of town where you're willing to stay. For example, any hotel in this area is probably close enough to BART.

Go to biddingfortravel.com to see how much to bid. I'm certain you can do this for less than $100.
posted by Dec One at 7:25 AM on July 17, 2007