HN Explorer

Ask HN: Place to sleep in Mountain View

34 points by endlessvoid94 ↗ HN
I sold all my possessions except for what fits in my backpack and I've been in the bay area for 5 or 6 days now. I've been sleeping on friends' couches, but I worry that I may soon warm out my welcome.

I've seen hacker spaces, but other than that, are there any super cheap options to get a night's sleep in the area?

35 comments

[ 322 ms ] story [ 867 ms ] thread
endlessvoid94
Correction: I've seen that hacker spaces frown upon hackers sleeping there at night (which is fine). Am I wrong? Or is this correct? Any experience?
dannyr
With HackerDojo, it's not really allowed. You can take naps though.
carbocation
Have you considered hostels? I just Googled and it looks like there are some: http://www.google.com/search?q=mountain+view+ca+hostel
K3G
The hostel up near Hidden Villa is pretty nice, and you can often times pick up a ride with some of the volunteers who work there.

That and there's some awesome kittens running around right about now.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
seltzered
I'm bumping up for hostelling. I did it for a few days in Portland this year. As much as I love the couchsurfing concept, if I'm in a town to do work I'd rather pay for a service to let me sleep for cheap than feel compelled to entertain a couchsurfer host.

People usually recommended a Hostelling Internatonal hostel as you can usually expect them to be pretty clean and organized, although I haven't tried a non-HI hostel yet to justify this claim.

I'm considering working remotely soon, my plan is to hostel somewhere for a week or two at my destination, then hopefully find a good place to stay at for a few months.

benologist
I've stayed in loads of hostels in the US and other countries during my travels. The HI ones are generally better in my experience.
phreeza
I recommend http://www.couchsurfing.org/, a great way to sleep for free and meet people at the same time.

Edit: did a quick search and found at least 12 people with a couch to offer. Give it a shot, I travelled eastern europe with this, it was great.

herdrick
I think they only accept people who are touring, not those who want to work and settle.
guinness
Couchsurfing doesn't really set any guidelines for this, I've had people sleep on my couch who were moving, etc. It is really up to your host so make sure you mention this in the e-mail you send them. You might want to try couch surfing but shouldn't stay at someone's for more than 2-3 days.
endlessvoid94
Yeah, I've felt pretty guilty about asking friends to host me for more than a night. It gets old for them pretty fast, I guess.
phreeza
Yea i did just that when I moved to switzerland, surfed several peoples couches while searching for a permanent place to stay.
samratjp
There's a good chance you might find something on http://www.airbnb.com
endlessvoid94
good idea, i've found a bunch of places already. thanks :-)
samratjp
I'm glad to help. Just a random tidbit of advice if it helps: do something for your host that they value so much that they won't mind you staying there. One things that comes to mind is cooking. You could easily whip up something decent enough to thank your host when they get home or wake up or whatever. For inspiration and ideas, http://www.startcooking.com . Besides, I'm sure you could use some good food yourself.
endlessvoid94
Good tip. mostly with friends i've been buying them beer, but i guess that's too college-y...
iamwil
we've got a place on airbnb, if you're looking for a place in mountain view.

http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/11835

That's a stock photo of the living room though. It's just a couch and a coffee table, but a mighty comfy couch.

endlessvoid94
Cool, thanks. I might take you up on that. I've met Jared a few times actually, we went to the same school. I shall be in touch :-)
JMiao
how many nights do you need?
endlessvoid94
i'm here for the forseeable future. trying to get a startup off the ground with some other misc. income sources. not yet enough cash flow to afford an apartment :-)
snissn
good luck finding a good co-founder with a good enough couch!
grandalf
Have you checked Craiglist for "room for rent" ads? Maybe you could find one and negotiate a deal for the short time you'll be around. You might offer to clean the room and take a bunch of good pics of it and post a better CL add when you leave to help them find someone for a longer term.
zackattack
Congrats for selling all your possessions. Since I really spend 95% of the time using 5% of my stuff, I think I should do the same.
dannyr
If you need to network, check out HackerDojo. They are at 140 S Whisman.

Hit me up when you go, I can introduce you to the regulars there.

endlessvoid94
thanks alot, i was going to check that out on monday probably.
rradu
Knock on Google's door.
jasonlbaptiste
Hey there, I'm planning on moving back to the bay area soon. If you're looking for a roommate sometime soon, let me know. J@jasonlbaptiste.com
blahpro
There’s a Hacker News group on AirBnB, through which I found a couple of very welcoming hosts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Check out http://www.airbnb.com/groups/hackernews/.

I also met a lot of really friendly people at Hacker Dojo in Mountain View: http://hackerdojo.pbworks.com/. I’d recommend asking them for some advice — everyone I met there was helpful and welcoming.

Good luck!

endlessvoid94
Thanks for all your tips. I'm gonna be heading back to the city until the 17th and then I'll most likely be back down in this area.

We COULD have a big meetup...

mkramlich
Is this part of some grand plan or did you have a family/financial catastrophe? If it was part of a grand plan, I'd advise you to rethink it, consider other options.
endlessvoid94
Well I have no "grand plan", but it has nothing to do with a disaster either. It was simply a decision I made. What makes you say I should consider other options?
peteforde
I mean you zero ill-will, sir... but if I read this and saw you walking up my driveway I would sit quietly until I was confident you were long gone.

This post has "socially awkward dude that doesn't pick up on increasingly less-subtle hints" written all over it.

I'm sure you're a great guy, but you would be well advised to "start with why" on a post like this. What's your story? Why should people care that you need to invade their space?

endlessvoid94
Please understand, I wasn't asking for folks to host me here. I was merely asking if anyone had similar experiences and if they had any advice. I'm doing fine, I'm simply trying to plan out where I'm staying.

Thanks for your feedback, though, I guess.