Lucky D’s Hostel

Let’s get down to it
THIS IS THE REVIEW TO READ FROM A 15 YEAR HOTEL VETERAN.
This is definitely a hostel. If you have any qualms about that, don’t bother.
If you are a hotel goer, don’t switch. Trust me, you won’t like it here. If you are cool for both, than this place will work.
If you want quiet, which really isn’t their thing, stay on the 4^th floor. There’s no common room areas up there except for the computer room.
Hostel wise, it’s awesome. There is a giant kitchen and utensils/​pots pans etc. Also a big fridge. There is a common room for hanging out, a computer room, and a reading room.
The staff is friendly. The place is clean. Now remember, as there are no private bathrooms, someone may have gotten in to one of the bathrooms/​showers and it may still be a little messy. Hard to say, however they clean like a madman and you can see the 8 – 15 times per 24hr shift that they check on their cleanliness sheets. These are showers and restrooms with locks for single or double occ… not like a public restroom.
I saw NOT ONE BUG OR CRITTER, AND TRUST ME, I CHECK. Also, my linen was fine and the bed was comfy.
One thing for management, placing silencers on your doorgaps would be nice so you don’t get woke up at 6am by the live in guy next to me with a CLANG!
Remember, if you are a hotel goer with those set of expectations, i wouldn’t go here. But if you are single or a couple and want to be able to stay in downtown for a decent rate, check it out.

This is one of those places where– after quickly glancing through the reviews– I’m torn in reconciling the two extremes I see. The place wasn’t clean, exactly, but is a hostel ever clean? The roommates were weirdos to be sure, but isn’t that fun than normal straight-​laced vanilla people? This was a true hostel experience, which is what I came for. That said, the staff was a little cold and a lot of expectations I’d had going in fell flat. When I’d booked, I’d been looking forward to free wifi, a meal, the ability to have a few drinks, park somewhere nearby, but still have that hostel experience.
Well, this place let me down on a lot of that. It was dirty and loud, as I’d expected. But I guess I missed out on the wifi and drinks or even food. That’s okay, too. The socializing wasn’t there at all, either– other than a single person I was in the room with, everyone seemed ready to get out of this place.
You’ll also find weird signs all over the place that… make me worry. But they add to the ambiance of this being a crazy crazy hostel:
«PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB OUT OF THE WINDOW AND UP THE WALLS.»
«PLEASE DO NOT PUT SHOT GLASSES ON CEILING FAN BLADES.»
«IF YOU USE BATHROOM IN SHOWER, PLEASE CLEAN UP.»
«PLEASE, NO PARTY IN HALLWAY.»
So, if you want insanity: 5 stars.
If you’re picky or value cleanliness, find somewhere else.

I stayed at Lucky D’s this past weekend. We arrived late on Friday evening and smoothly checked in. However, we were greeted with an awful odor all throughout the hostel and unbearable music from the bar next door. Just so many smells… all gross. The room was fine, albeit the Windows were barely covered with tacky curtains. The beds are very squeaky but overall comfortable. The bathrooms were clean but reeked. This place is old and stained and just smelled — we couldn’t get over the noise and smell. NOT WORTH SAVING MONEY TO STAY HERE. If you need to be here for six hours to sleep, great. If not, spend the extra cash and get a hotel room.

I chose this hostel because of the funky atmosphere, lots of really great art on the walls, and the building itself just has so much character. Unfortunately, we found the staff to be horribly rude. We arrived late in the evening (around 8pm) checked in and left our bags in our room before heading to the kitchen to make something to eat, as we had just gotten off a long plane ride. We were finishing up our meal around 9 when a staff member barked at us that every one had to «get the fuck out» because the kitchen was now closed and he and the other staff wanted to go to the pub. We packed up our food and put it in the fridge (marked with our room# names and check out date) only to discover the next morning that someone had eaten it :(the same staff member also kicked us out of the common room later that night saying it was closed. are any rooms ever open!!! we couldn’t sleep due to the hostel being right above a club and the music can be very clearly heard in the rooms and the bass shakes the beds. They really should let ppl know that before they book rooms. Also, I’d like to confirm other Unilocal reviews that said that place smelled like poop. It is an old building so it’s not really their fault but if you book there be prepared. I have two stars because closer to the end of our stay we did meet a couple of lovely staff and they do make breakfast in the morning which is nice. After we checked out we discovers ocean beach hostel which was 100x better than lucky ds. If you’re looking for a real san diego experience I’d suggest going there instead.

Very convenient location, housekeepers are mostly volunteers, kitchen is nice with bar-​style dinner table, staffs play their own music very loud, they should encourage everyone to play their music if they like to while doing cooking, otherwise, sometime it could be annoying by that, because there’s also a tv (some people might be watching news, but anyway, at the kitchen, basically only the staffs, I guess every other guests find that inconveninece), there’s another reason you will hate to use the kitchen, because you have to wait in line to wash your dishes/​cups that you just used, there’s only one Little tiny sink at the corner, and sometime it stacked with staff’s used dishes/​plates/​etc for whole day (there was once during my staying, I wanted to cook something in the afternoon, by the kitchen was so messy, I couldn’t use the sink to wash anything, it was piled with bowls/​plates in dirty water, so i decided to go out for lunch, when i came back around 8pm, it hasn’t been cleaned yet, i had to go out for dinner again…), and basically DON’T EXPECT for those staffs to take you guys (guests) as priority! (some staffs will even remind you if there’s your used cup/​plate, and suggest you to clean it right away), you are mostly like a invader to them… the only friendly housekeeper i know so far is Jackie, she’s very very nice, Ashley is nice too… and a volunteer from Netherland, a tall pretty girl, she’s so friendly and nice, she’s the only one who would tell & invite other guests to events of the hostel! (but she left), nobody else will introduce you what’s going on tonight, when/​what for free meal, free breakfast, in the kitchen, the staffs might warn you some not to (not to touch their stuffs) instead of telling you friendly like you can use this or that, (just not so comfortable to use the kitchen, cuz, you don’t know what’s free to use in the kitchen, nobody will tell you. They should at least label that («for all guests»), when you get your hand in the kitchen, maybe you will be told not to touch something, while being warned by staffs like that, the staffs won’t introduce you the things you can use in the kitchen) so learn it yourself on the wall when you walked in, or never mind. They stop serving free Breakfast at 10:30am, there was once i arrived at kitchen right by that time, the staff looked at like i was so annoying, and just couldn’t wait to put everything away, I was sorry about that, but, seriously? because, during my staying, sometime they expanded the breakfast time when there were other staffs were also late for the breakfast… also, it’s annoying if someone in your room about to check out today, they will send more than just one guy to knock on the door and come in to look for you, despite if that will wake up someone else in the room, they will wake any others and ask if other people in room if they have seen him (sometimes, you don’t even know you’ve got a new roommate in a hostel, how could you know where he’s been to?), couldn’t they just leave a note on the door? if only me experienced this, then gotta said, it’s because I am Asian? hope Asian are welcome here, yeah, some staffs’ve told me there are not much Asian guests… but I heard from Jackie, that the owner wanted her hostel to be very international with more diversity, they should be careful of picking the volunteers. or maybe have a rule to give each volunteer the maximum of volunteering, so other people could also has the chance to do that, that’s the DIVERSITY! of course, by doing this, it could be more helpful for the hostel to keep the best, more friendly staffs, and, as long as they want to have them, someone like Jackie. ;) those days when Jackie on duty on the floor I stayed, my room always get swept every-​time, the others, oh no, never, and only looked at you, like you are annoying dirty people, I wonder if some people hated to do that, then why bother to volunteer? I guess then, it’s just some people want to take the advantage of the hostel, that’s why the rating/​reviews for this hostel is not always excellent, only those who want to stay for free will give the fake best reviews by only saying the good things, and of course, they just said that, they didn’t do that to prove and imporve the venue, during their volunteering.
and, one more thing, if you are going to check in this hostel, another thing you should know, at the front-​desk, always different volunteers on duty, and different staff might give different prices. during the weekdays, some staffs might charge you $ 25/​night, some might charge more than $ 27/​night, weekend is higher, but still different from who’s on duty, they were never on one same page… and lazy to explain the rate (difference between week days & weekend, thanks for that, the manager gave me the same price for the weekend during my staying, cuz, i have only been told the daily rate, never mentioned they raise price on weekend, the owner’s lost…), but anyway, so far, this place is just Okay

This place is fucking sick !!! I’ve never been to a hostel and this place seemed pretty nice to what i have heard a hostel is like and it was until we came back to our room at 12 am and tried to get tucked into bed … As soon as we laid I bed we saw this disgusting blood stain on our bed sheet !!! Nobody wants to see that shit we have a picture of it and all luckily we have family out here but if not we would’ve been fuckred ! Literally the most disgusting shit I’ve ever seen!!! So gross !!! Don’t recommend anyone here !!! We better get our money back in the morning !!!

Stinky as hell! Our «delux» room was no more than a hamster cage. Not the mention the noise from the ac motor outside our window… We ran out of there after one night! Good thing was that they were fair enough to give us our money back without any problem.

Cons: I smelled a pervasive odor of poo throughout the entire building. The beds were squeaky, and I was very uncomfortable. As I had to be out the door early, I tried to use the kitchen to make my own breakfast at 6 am. A member of staff barked that the kitchen wasn’t open and only begrudgingly let me get my food out of the fridge. The hostel is also located next door to a very loud outdoor bar, so I could only bear the insane noise level by sleeping with ear plugs.
Pros: The front desk staff is helpful and accommodating. The location, directly in the middle of the Gaslight District, can’t be beat; supermarkets, restaurants, transit are in your backyard. Other guests were friendly and fun. Facilities are functional and clean, if old.
IMO, the location is not worth the cons. Caveat emptor.

Great décor, always good service and a amazing stay. Only complaint is the heat, the common room on the second floor seems to be the only air conditioned room in the whole place. They had 2 fans and a ceiling fan in my room, and one of the fans was broken and still left in the room. Not like it matters because they were bad quality fans that you could only feel 1 foot away. Could barely sleep

Lucky D’s is a great, fun place for young travelers to stay on a budget. The location is almost unbeatable being a few blocks from Petco Park, in the bustling Gaslamp District. The building interior is decorated with endless art. The have a fully stocked kitchen, and their overall cleanliness is well kept, especially considering their clientele base. We stayed in a private room with a queen bed and it was a steal for the price we paid in the location that Lucky D’s is in.
My only complaint is with one of the girls working the front desk the morning we checked out (Saturday ⁸⁄₀₉). She was watching Netflix, and seemed «inconvenienced» to pause her show and answer our questions. We also saw her roll her eyes at someone else when they interrupted her to ask a question. She was just not very friendly, in a place and title that I believe should require a friendly, helpful ambassador to all the travelers visiting your city.
But overall I would highly recommend Lucky D’s as a fun place to stay and socialize with other young travelers.

I have never written a review before but I had to for this hostel. It’s a real cool place. Bruno, guy from Brazil that works there is super cool and friendly as well as real helpful about the city, invited me to a get-​together at his friends place downtown. It’s refreshing to meet nice genuine people especially while traveling, makes things feel a bit more like home!

This place goes out of its way to be awesome.
* Clean. They clean their facilities 3 – 4 times a day and it shows.
* Lockers in the rooms, rooms are secured with key-​cards
* Bike facilities INSIDE the hostel
* Inexpensive, $ 60 during SDCC when they could charge so, so much more.
* Free Dinner of roast chicken the night I stayed
* Free Breakfast, stuff for sandwiches, waffles, cereal (Cookie Crisp! Nobody carries Cookie Crisp!)
* Fun staff who are helpful and relaxed
* Arranged pub crawls
* Discounts on Zoo and Seaworld tickets
* Comfy clean beds.
* Location a few blocks from Petco and Convention Center
I cannot understand how anyone could think this place is less than 5 stars. Some people are complaining about construction that has nothing to do with Lucky Ds. Others are complaining the street outside is loud. NEITHER OF THESE THINGS HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH LUCKY Ds SERVICE!
Good for Lucky D’s, they’re going beyond the call of duty.

Got a room while visiting for the Stones concert at Petco Park.
First of all, isn’t «Petco Park» a dumb name? Whatever happened to «RFK Stadium» or something that wasn’t sold out? I must be getting old…
Anyway, the location to the stadium was stellar, and there was plenty to do in the area before and after the concert. The decoration inside the hostel is always entertaining. The folks we were in contact with were friendly. Only downside is finding parking during an event that won’t make you cry (the lot on the corner wanted $ 40 for the day, but we found Sunday street parking that carried us into Memorial day for free!).
Wouldn’t hesitate going back if I find myself in SD…

Location pretty hard to beat its right near everything in the gas lamp district. Right underneath it is a really cool bar and next door to that is another really cool bar. Plenty of places nearby to get food. The Staff really cool also joked around were friendly and it was easy to check in and out. That was the good stuff.
The hostel itself was under construction maybe 5 of the rooms where being redone. Which is great for whomever gets to stay here when the construction is done but for the foreseeable future of next few months or more its a mess. Even the road outside of the hostel had construction going on which ment a nice big truck pulls up at around 7am and leaves a huge ton of construction material then just proceeds to back up the street for the next 2 hours. I am assuming it was just doing circles or going really slow.
I believe once the construction is finished this hostel again will be a really cool place to stay but until then find another one in San Diego.
Also Price for a private room is really fair.

The whole feel of this place is like a fun east coast punk rock house that has great shows in its basement. I can’t find a better compliment.
This is THE BEST thing I found in San Diego. It has style, it’s affordable, perfect location, it’s COMFORTABLE, it smells great in the morning during breakfast, they play GREAT music, and it’s fun to be in.
The «find it where you can get it» parking is a bit of a pain but I would gladly do it over again to stay here.

I would stay here every single time I come to SD. Soooo much character, so much fun, and just a really cool vibe. It’s right in the middle of the Gaslamp district and you can walk to everything. I came here with a group of 4, we had two bunkbeds, which just made it much more fun than an average hotel room. A lot of the people there are international students that are living there for a few months.
Anyway, I think it was $ 75 – 100 for 4 people on a Friday night. Not too bad because it was such a fun experience. They offer breakfast on the 3^rd floor — cereal, waffles, thats pretty much it. They have a hypoallergenic mattress, and when you check out you have to strip the bed of its sheet, duvet cover, and pillow slip and bring it to the front desk with you — on the plus side, at least you know they wash their stuff!
PS, the artwork is so fun!!! AND they have a commons room!

Great hostel with incredible artwork, so much character, centrally located in the heart of historical gas lamp district. A short walk to Balboa park and the zoo, a 20 min drive to the beach, best value for your money and attentive staff and wonderful management !
If you are traveling to San Diego, stay at LUcky D’s.

We had a wonderful experience at this hostel. The staff was friendly, everything was very clean, and our private room on the 4^th floor was a great place to come home to after a day of exploring San Diego. They provided free breakfast every morning, coffee throughout the day and there was someone always staffed at the front desk to answer any questions. Our stay was in October and the whole entrance stairwell was covered with Halloween décor; this was a great first impression!
Definitely a young crowd that enjoys partying but we were slightly removed from that option, which was just what my boyfriend and I wanted.
The location was AWESOME. Just a few blocks from Petco Park and only two blocks over from the heart of Gaslamp district, it was convenient to everything we wanted to do.
Our experience with Lucky D’s was ideal, we definitely will stay here again next time we’re in town.

I definitely hate this place the staff was so rude to me and I didn’t appreciated that they act with an attitude to me and the room was smelling so bad there’s no Ace but the most thing who hurt me it’s the attitude I can’t understand how they can be like that against a customer I believe they are racist and I hope to never come back to this hostel

This place is awesome:) its clean, decorated well, and all members of the staff were super sweet and helpful.
I love that they offer breakfast and themed dinners! Theres a tv room and a computer room, AND its within walking distance from all of the bars in the gaslamp district:):)
Definitely going back