Depending on the city/hostel, they might not allow a city resident to stay in their hostel. Aside from that, in dealing with a difficult situation like the parent comment mentions I don’t think many people would enjoy being in a many-person bunk room with zero privacy. Anecdotally, I’ve had to stay in a hostel due to relationship issues and it was awful, more expensive than an airbnb, but was the only thing I could find last minute.

I'll second the hostels, and don't dismiss them just because apparently in the US they imply bunk beds in large rooms. I've stayed in hostels quite a bit, and every one had places rented by the room, not by bed, and plenty of single and double rooms.

Hostels, at least in (most of?) Europe, are essentially cheaper hotels, usually without a minibar and with much less upselling. Or, in terms I know from US cinema, they're like motels without the car culture aspect.

From my experience in Europe: hostels imply a bunk bed in shared room here too. I just made a quick search on booking.com for a hostel in Warsaw and nearly all of the offers were shared dormitories.

Interesting. Could be that booking.com uses the US meaning of the term?

I must have stayed in something like 30 different hostels in Poland over the course of last decade; it was always in single bed or two-bed rooms, with the whole room rented for me. I never used booking.com, though, but always did a Google search for "hostele w $city", and reserved room via phone or web form.

hostelworld.com is based out of Ireland and they specialise in allowing you to search for shared dorm type hostels.