Rented in a hostel

The landlord is running a hostel out of several apartments in the building. I wish I knew that before I signed the lease and payed the fee to the broker, as having crowds of strangers in the building was not exactly the same experience as my expectation of having just 7 neighbors. I also had a constant problem with stolen newspapers and packages. I stayed in the building for several years and every year the landlord increased the rent by ~7-8%, so when she tried to do it again I moved out. Given my experience, I'm wondering how other people do their research on the buildings before singing a lease?