Visiting Bend can be affordable — or expensive
The Bunk and Brew Historic Lucas House is a hostel that provides an affordable place for travelers to stay in Bend. It’s located off Hawthorne Avenue and just over two blocks from downtown.
It’s been open for about 1.5 years and gets more popular every month. The co-owners, Frankie Maduzia and J. Charles Griggs, said some of their values are offering affordability and a community space for outdoor adventure-seekers.
Guests share a living room, dining room and kitchen with other visitors staying in the hostel. Basic breakfast foods are provided, as well as laundry services, games and a backyard.
Both private and bunk bed rooms are offered. A bunk bed costs between $20 to $45 a night and a private room costs between $50 and $150, depending on the season.
“What we try to do is offer a lot for a low price, and we do that by focusing only on the things that our customer really wants,” Griggs said Wednesday. “We don’t worry about the things they don’t want or don’t need, and that way we can provide a high-quality product at a fairly low price.”
A map inside the hostel shows where each traveler is from. People have visited from as far and Greenland, Russia and New Zealand.
“You get to network, most importantly, getting that network aspect out of it,” Maduzia said. “You aren’t just stuck in a $150 motel room, flipping through channels. There is really little value there, and so here we break down those barriers.”
The hostel is located in one of the original brick buildings first built in Bend in 1910.
NewsChannel 21 also researched other hotels and Airbnb offerings in the area. Priceline revealed that on an average weekday, a one-night stay at many hotels in Bend is $150 to $500, depending on what hotel or motel it is.
Visit Bend CEO Kevney Dugan said the organization gets a variety of calls from people who want to see the area.
“One of the cool things about Bend is you do have a pretty big diversity, everything from unique B&Bs to the airbnb market to a variety of hotels,” said Dugan.” You see hotels play this game where during times like this their rates might go higher, especially during summer months, where the demand to come to Bend is much higher. So those hotels are able to charge a higher rate vs. wintertime, when those rates are going to be much lower to be more competitive.”
Dugan said hotels and Airbnbs change their prices based on the season. Over the past five years, the average daily rate for a hotel is higher than it was in 2013 in July.
If you would like to learn more about the hostel, you can visit their website listed below.
It’s also the topic of our current KTVZ.COM Poll: What do you think an average hotel room in Bend should cost during peak season? Find it halfway down the right side of our home page.
