Name: Fairbanks Extended Stay
Address: 4316 Birch Lane, College, College, College, 99709, United States of America
Rating: 5

Smoking areas

Ticket assistance

Garden

No elevators

Reception desk

General

Accessibility features

Wheelchair Accessible

Accessibility

Laundry

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Breakfast

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Barbecue grill(s)

Picnic area

Barbeque

Recreation

Parking

Pets allowed

Pets

Personal protection equipment for staff

Extra decontamination measures

Personal protection equipment for guests

Contactless check-in and/or check-out

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the hotel

University of Alaska Museum of the North

Fairbanks International Airport

Fairbanks Extended Stay

College

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

After being forced by my friend to camp for 3 freezing nights in Denali, I told him that I refused to camp in Fairbanks. He is on a limited budget and wanted to stay at a hostel to save money. I have no problem with that as I have stayed in dozens of hostels all over the world.

The Fairbanks International Hostel is hands down the worst hostel I have ever stayed at. If I could have given it a negative rating instead of 1 star, I would have. It is not easy to find. It’s located on a small street away from downtown and there is no sign out front. There are 2 other signs out front, one that says 7 Gables Inn and the other says Abbey Inn.

When we were shown our hostel accommodations, I was extremely surprised by the lack of quality of the accommodations. My friend was put in a rundown trailer that smelled of cigarette smoke and I was given a treehouse that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks. Neither have insulation or any real heating. There is a small radiator style space heater in the treehouse but it puts out just enough heat to take the chill out of the air. In no way does it warm the treehouse. After being in the treehouse for a while, I noticed that the roof is just slapped on top of the walls so there is a 3.5 inch gap all the way across on 2 sides where the 2x4 attach to the walls. They have tried to slow the escape of warm air by attaching some fabric to the gaps but many gaps were missing fabric. There are also lots of other smaller air gaps throughout the treehouse, like where the windows are and at the top of the door.

The treehouse has 2 levels. The downstairs has 1 bunkbed. The upper bunk is about 15 inches from the ceiling so one would have to slide along on the bed to avoid hitting their heads...and there is an electrical box that hangs down another 2 inches from the ceiling making that only 13 inches above the bed. The lower bunk is a trundle style bed that pulls out, but completely blocks the doorway. So anyone wanting to use the restroom (located across the yard in another building) in the middle of the night must wake the person sleeping in the lower bunk, make them get out of bed and push the bed in so they could get out the door...and vice versa to get back in.

The upstairs level of the treehouse has one bed; a 3 inch foam mattress on the floor. You get upstairs by climbing a ladder that is attached to the 2x4 framing on the walls so it is completely vertical which makes it virtually impossible to bring any luggage upstairs without someone handing things up to you. Plus the opening is not large enough to climb up with a decent sized backpack on. I had a small daypack on and could barely get thru the hole in the ceiling/floor.

That evening after showering, I came out of the only bathroom (meaning only 1 shower, 1 toilet and 1 sink) that is allocated to the hostel rooms and the owner was waiting in front of the door with another hostel goer. He said she would be bunking in the treehouse with me. She went to look at the treehouse and immediately decided to cancel her second night of stay. The only reason she was going to stay even 1 night was that it was late and she didn’t want to look for another place.

She came back to talk to the owner and since I was in the next room, I could hear their entire conversation. She said she didn’t like either bunk downstairs (I was in the upstairs bed) because one was too close to the ceiling and the other blocked the door. He told her that the lower bunk downstairs blocks the door for protection so no one can get in during the night. The treehouse door has no lock but there are a lot of other better ways to keep a door from opening than using someone's bunk. Then he said that the upstairs has 2 beds. When I heard this, I walked over to correct him. Again, he said that there were 2 beds. I said that I only saw 1 bed with 1 blanket and 1 pillow. Then he said that the treehouse is for 4 people, that the upstairs bed is large enough for 2 people and didn't we each have our own sleeping bags that we could use on top of the bed and what kind of backpackers stay in hostels that don't carry sleeping bags! Never have I been asked by any hostel in any county to share a bed with a complete stranger.

The next day, the owner told me that the girl bunking with me in the treehouse left at midnight, about two hours after she checked in. He said that she wanted to stay in the common room of the B&B for the night and he would not allow it, that the entire place with the exception of the bathroom was off limits to her.  Then he asked me about the space heater in the treehouse and where it was located. I said it was upstairs and he blamed me for making her leave and having to refund her money, then stormed out of the room.

I had tried to get her some heat by borrowing the space heater from my friend’s trailer…he likes it cold at night so he wasn’t going to use it. I brought the heater from his trailer into the treehouse and plugged it in but it was broken; we tried everything and couldn’t get any heat from it. Since the space heater that was upstairs had been on for a couple of hours already, there was no way to bring radiator style heater down the completely vertical ladder without both of us getting burned.

It was very cold that night and the treehouse is large enough to require at least 1 space heater for each level and for him to blame me for the inadequacies of his hostel is inexcusable. In fact, one of his employees apologized to me for his behavior. For an employee to apologize to a customer about her boss’ behavior is telling you something.

Apparently, the hotel rooms and B&B rooms are very nice as I heard many people wanting to extend their stay, but I also heard him telling some of them that the rates were higher than they had paid for their first night of stay because he had given then a better room than they had originally paid for. Not sure whether this was true or not but just something to watch out for if you stay in the hotel or B&B part of the place.

Whatever you do, DON'T stay in the hostel part of these properties…you will regret it if you do.

The worst hostel ever

After trying our luck with Billies Backpackers' Hostel we decided to go for somewhere less creepy. For the time of year we were there our options were limited. Winter is not a time you'll get a range of options in Fairbanks. After a brief search we came across this one. Initially shocked and pleased to find it, we chose to call in and make 100% sure it was as described before making the journey. The owner confirmed it would be $25 a head so we went on a hunt for the place. This proved in itself to be a task until we discovered that it was in the same premises as the Seven Gables Inn.
At first glance it was very pretty, especially covered in snow as it was. The front entrance was accessible through a poorly kept front greenhouse and there was a 'no shoes' rule, which I swallowed. The owner seemed nice, but a bit phony. He showed us to our room, which we were both pleasantly shocked at - comfy beds, flat screen TV, etc. The shared kitchens were adequate for a hostel, the living area was super outdated but top notch for a hostel. The trouble was, this wasn't a hostel. This was a B&B that wasn't doing great, so the owner obviously decided to try his hand at hosteling in an attempt to boost business.
After the first night my buddy left, which left me in the room by myself. By hostel terms my bed should still be $25, but the owner bumped the price up to $40. Clearly this dude had no idea about how to run a hostel. The thing is he wasn't great at running a B&B either. He was only friendly up to the point where the money was exchanged, then he went cold.
Overall the experience was ruined by bad manners and ridiculous inn keeping. Had I known the price would go up so much I'd have got my buddy to drop me back over at Billies Backpackers'.

As a B&B this place is unratable due to bad value for money and bad conditions. As a hostel it would be great....if the owner had a clue. Sadly he doesn't.
Too good for a hostel, not good enough for a B&B, badly run.

The school of bad Inn Keeping

We booked this place in June through hostelbookers.com and was charged 10% ($6) immediately. We called Fairbanks International Hostel a week later to request a date change for our stay. It was agreed without any questions. But when we arrive on 8/16, we were told the "1 Deluxe Private Room for 2" we reserved was non-existent since the hostel "was not able to get any contact with hostelbookers.com".

We were given 2 options: 1) a private room with 2 twin beds at a cost of $90/night, or 2) a tree-house that has to be shared with 2 occupants at a cost of $25/person. We told the guy it is not acceptable and he refused to accomodate any further.

We told him it is not our problem but they refused to accomodate. So we finally asked for our deposite back. It was denied without any hesitation.

So don't even think that tree-house could be your next romantic get-away place. You will have to climb up 2 vertical ladders to get into this tight place without smoke detectors, water or sewer.

Leave Fairbanks as early as you can. AK has much nicer places than this.

A scam, a sham, not fair and stay away from it!!!

This is not a typical hostel.  The sign out front says 7 Gables Inn.  It is a bed and breakfast with a very few hostel options.  The $25 beds are located out back in an unacceptable tree house accessible by long aluminum ladder or in an old RV.  The $65 hostel room is a twin bedded private room with a private bath down the hall and includes a full gourmet breakfast.   The $65 room is excellent with fresh towels each day, TV, phone.  There is use of a nice kitchen and a refrigerator for guests.  The  coin operated laundry is in back of the garage and very dirty.  The bed and breakfast areas were very clean.  The inn is located in a residental area but close to the Chena River and University of Fairbanks.  Once on campus, the free campus shuttle will pick you up if you phone them.  There is a nice restaurant on the banks of the Chena River a pleasant walk from the inn.  The public bus is a 1/2 mile walk.  Our stay turned out OK but we were shocked by what we encountered.

Not as expected

Firstly, I had a very hard time finding this place.  It's not marked, no sign--it's actually just another "venture" of the same couple who run the Seven Gables.  I had booked a private room ahead of time and when I showed up, they had no record of my reservation.  I was given the option to rent an apartment w/ kitchen and bath for much more than I had been quoted, or I could stay in their kids' old treehouse.  I went for the treehouse.  It was the most unique accommodation of my trip for sure--had to climb a ladder to get inside, then another to get up to the sleeping quarters.  It was far too hot to spend any time in there during the day, so keep that in mind.  Otherwise, it was comfy at night and held up to the rain showers.

Fairbanks Extended Stay

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