bon paul and sharkeys: not very friendly hostel in asheville
by julianne2saw
4 days last october 2008. Very unfriendly and unsafe, door wide open when i arrived and no one in charge available but it was late so i just went to sleep and paid up the next day. Told there was virtually NO crime but my walkabout didnt support that concept (it is a city after all) Hired person at first refused me an extra blanket when weather turned cooler on fourth day. She was nasty in both meanings. A few other unfriendly and uninterested in hospitality moments so i will not return, may try some other ones in general area. Am considering relocation to general area from n georgia mountains to as far possibly as Mount Airy extreme north west north carolina. Would gladly trade my florida homestead for comparable in that area. Would have stayed there another two weeks as i liked some of what i saw in the general area but was so disgusted with the poor management and safety concerns. Am going back soon to try again but this time in campgrounds or the knoxville hostel i hear was very friendly and decent.
Nice city location, near major pentacostal style church with saturday very reasonable and good quality thrift shop which was helpful. Near health food store, and restaurants in haywood road area. Owner or manager, he would not say, trying to deal with drought with rain barrels and nice little garden. Clean enough with plastic covered sheets and rule of not bringing in your own blankets, (which i noticed was broken by others and i did have new blankets in my truck). A woman who works in china left behind a wire from her laptop and the manager refused to mail it to her, luckily, we got along well and I was able to mail it to her, she was very grateful. Paid helper made herself very scarce and i checked in four tired motorcycle guys and got them the info on local restaurants. persons working there didnt seem to know much about local area or attractions, hadnt been to cherokee, knew nothing at all about local nightspots. Luckily, local papers were stocked. Kitchen very clean with day crew, a mess with night crew. General unhelpful attitudes.
