The Rusty Railway Hostel

This is a fraudulent Unilocal listing by Conor McLaughlin, also known as «Scooter», the fraud behind other fake hostel listings and this one for his illegal unlicensed «Rusty Railway Hostel», in his filthy home, far from downtown, next to a loud railroad. Scoot past his drama to avoid this bait-​and-​switch. Warning: not 420-​friendly.

The Rusty Railway is in an apartment complex. It is not a free standing business.
in wanting to shave a few dollars off my hostel experience, i found an ad on craigslist and called this monymous (one-​named) «scooter». one thing i should mention. scooter told me he had my phone number already in his phone from calls i’ve made to him. i told him that each time i tried to contact another advertised hostel, he would call me leaving a message for «the rusty railway». i didn’t know what was up and i was skeeved out. he said that’s his guerrilla marketing. whatever, it’s bull. with all the false advertising/​bait and switch he does, it doesn’t produce any results. what i will say is that any CLEAN hostel offering a legit daily room price of $ 22, with free breakfast, and linen with NO TAX is a good deal. This was absolutely not the case.
the main issues i have with scooter is that he wants to meet guests off premises to ‘gauge’ their level of crazy. it is ironic that he should use that word because he looks and behaves what he describes as «crazy». he was swaying, had unfocused vision, described his utopian philosophy, un-​natural scent, anti-​corporation. that’s not particularly crazy. but he wanted to create some communal living experience where people wanted to beautify the grounds. i told him i wasn’t interested in any manual labor and i couldn’t be relied on to participate in anything. that’s not something you spring on someone. i feel like he wanted to promote some type of urban farming. however, since i had a friend who stayed with him several times, i wanted to give scooter the benefit of the doubt (FTR, i recommended said friend to Drifter Jack’s Hostel).
he comes up to me at the summer moon café (i mentioned i don’t shake hands with men because i am muslim) and goes in to two-​hand touch my shoulders. i said, no, i don’t touch or allow men to touch me unless your my hair stylist or it’s medically necessary. he says, «that’s okay, i’m dirty from working in the garden anyway». uh, say what? again, i wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. as stupid as that was and seemed, i agreed to go to the hostel.
on the drive to the apartment complex, he says he believes in the principles of hostel living and is against corporatization that after seeing his disillusionment, i realize he passive aggressively is looking for some type of bartering of work, in addition to live in the facility. i was upfront about not having any interest in assisting in his handiwork or manual labor projects, but i saw an eye twitch. upon arriving at the house and seeing the disarray, i believe it is because he needs the money and will accept nearly anything. he had the neighborhood children using diggers and shovels to clear out the dirt in this dour vision of a garden.
the hostel had no guests in any of the rooms. this was a split level town home. there were bunk beads without any bedding, and no window treatments. you can literally see through the entire home from either side of the building. i left immediately. for those who want to trust their gut and try temporarily living in this situation, i tell you what, with all the travelers coming in and out of austin, it’s no surprise to ME that he has NO occupants. goes to show that even if you can get past his eccentricity, the place is almost to par with a shelter. anyways, happy hunting!