I'm from Seattle, and was so excited to finally stay at the Panama Hotel!
My partner and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We love the part of town that Japan town is located, and were excited to be staying there for a couple of nights.
Communication with the hosts was great- before and during our stay. We had an event starting right at the normal check-in time, so they accommodated us to check in early and give us time to get ready.
A couple of important things to note-
- Shared bathrooms/showers (this is listed in the advertisement, but important to take into account!)
- The international district in seattle is a busy, loud place! Old, original windows from the 1910 building don't keep a ton of sound out at night.
- Furniture in the rooms (or at least ours) was as close to original as possible. This meant a big brass bed frame with springs, and a bouncy mattress. Really cool, but a tad uncomfortable after the 2nd night. Keep this in mind if your stay is a few days or if you are particular about your bed.
- Mornings until approx. noon, you can't get into the building unless you call the host and they let you in. We didn't realize this until I was stuck outside with our breakfast one morning! Plan ahead :)
- Overall, it's an old building with a ton of history. Our impression is that it was worth the stay, but it could use some fixing up and a bit of cleaning. For example, there was cardboard under our mattress (for some unknown reason?) that kept falling out during our stay. High touch areas like paint around door knobs or the wall up against the bed looked kinda grime-y. We were unsure if it was actually dirty or just stained from years of hosting guests.
All in all, we liked our experience. Definitely not the spot if you like higher end hotels. We stay in a lot of places like this so many of the things were to be expected. We've now had our experience at the Panama Hotel and are thankful to the hosts for making it a nice weekend!