I stayed at Chez JJ Menlo Park for a month (heck, I'm the one in the picture!) and while I agree with the other posters that $30/night for a shared room is not competitive, the reason I stayed so long was for the people. It was awesome to come home every night from my internship -- there was ALWAYS something going on. And I made some good friends.

Would I do it long-term? Probably not. Did it work for me? Absolutely.