The Parkdale Hostellerie

I stayed at this hostel recently for three weeks while transitioning to longer-term accommodation. The Indian front desk clerk Shalini (who is also the manager) turns out to be unprofessional, aggressively unintelligent, actively rude, AND racist. That's a rare combination that clearly took years to develop and hone. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of guests are positive-vibration humans who make human connections with each other (often while cooking in the kitchen or hanging out in the common area/living room). And ALL the other staff are normal human beings who are good at their job. I tried both the private rooms and the dorm, had no problems with the actual accommodation itself (the queen bed in the private room on the second floor is simply amazing). Laundry is expensive at $12 to wash and dry one load. Wifi is a garbage fire, always phasing in and out of the third dimension. Not sure where it goes when it leaves Yes there are bedbugs - in the private rooms. If you have the type of blood bedbugs prefer (which I do)… you may have a bad time. There are a ton of great restaurants just footsteps away, from authentic Korean (Daol) to Tibetan (Shambala Kitchen) to Middle Eastern. Grocery around the corner, and the rest of Queen West easily accessible by streetcar outside. Amazing bars right outside too! Great Mexican place practically next door with outdoor patio - excellent food and cocktails. EDIT: this hostel caters to the weird and the out-of-sorts. Your local homeless-due-to-being-a-weirdo-the-husband-kicked-out, your neighborhood functional drug user, etc. This is their niche and about 30% of their clientele. Not relevant if you plan to use the hostel only for sleeping. Maybe relevant if you plan to stay for more than 2 weeks. In short: value for $$ is good, beds are comfy, people are nice, location and surrounding amenities are great. But if you are a black or a brown (i.e. non-Indian) person, think twice about booking here, because..... Shalini

The one time I did stay previously, it took the clerk half an hour to check us in. They did not allow food or drinks in the rooms and the floors were all filthy and damaged. This time when I tried to book, my payment bounced and they instructed me to call them. I did and was greeted by an AI answering machine that couldn't even pronounce the name of the place correctly, kept looping through the menu selection options and would not patch me through to the front desk. I ended up having to cancel my reservation and did not get my money back. At the very least, it is right next to the club I was going to. That's the ONLY reason I booked it again, but I'm never coming back.

The employees were cleaning rooms every day so nothing bad on that side. Did not see bed bugs or ants like other reviewers. The people in our dorm definitely seemed to be long term residents and I feel like they should put them all in the same room because two of them verbally fought at 1 am and another one (I felt like it was drug related talking) was telling who knows who to get up and fight him… the only reason i felt somewhat safe is because I had friends with me. If I was alone… would’ve ran. I know what to expect from a hostel but that was worse

I was abandoned by the hostel staff for no reason and they canceled my pre-paid accommodation with 4 days left before my trip. Don't go to this hostel. The service is horrible and the staff is rude and doesn't care about your well-being. I definitely don't recommend it.

After being quoted a price of $102 for a 2 night stay on their 3rd party booking site my credit card was charged $328. When I called the phone number for the 3rd party site their AI answering machine told me to contact the Parkdale directly. That's hard to do since I don't live in Toronto and the Parkdale has chosen to keep their phone number a secret.

They really should work on their entrance/exterior. It looks like a place where you go to get butchered. My Uber driver was concerned about it too. Interior...

This hostel was only okay. It was very loud and the people didn't seem to understand the consideration of others that should go into staying in a hostel....