Painted Turtle Guesthouse

Location: Highly praised for being central, near the ocean, restaurants, and nightlife.(based on 1 review)

I’ve been to Painted turtle many times but not for a while (since 2020). In March 2025, we came for a one night stay after a visit on Gabriola island. The quality went a lot down and the price increased a lot since my last visit. It was the first time for my girlfriend and I was embarrassed cause it used to be not a bad place. I paid more than 100$ for a filthy “private” bed room with no bathroom. The nearest bathroom had no paper towel and was really dirty. I can say the same for the bed room. There was a really bad smell in the room and lots of dusts. The very few furnitures and surfaces were absolutely not dusted and even the bedding that we were expected at least to be decent had like a used smell and we found a bunch of hairs in it which made us thinking that eventually the housekeeping didn’t even changed the bedding ?! We both had a bad night due to the smelly and dusty environment and by the fact that we were able to hear the streets discussions all night from the our thin windows glasses. We came by car to this hostel situated in downtown and surprise… no free parking at the hotel. Don’t expect a breakfast as well like most of backpacker hostel do nowadays , nothing is included. For the price spent (more than 100$ for one night) and the service and quality of the room and cleanliness of the whole place it is not acceptable. I was shocked by what this location became and by what kind of hostel the young visitors and travelers of Nanaimo are welcomed.