Backpackers By The Bay — Hotel in Airlie Beach

This hostel is in serious need of a full renovation and refurbishment. It is extremely shabby and in a derelict way. The walls in the dorm room were filthy and need desperate painting. The curtain was mouldy, threadbare and dirty and needs immediate replacing. The aircon unit was so old I didn't dare touch it. The only plug sockets were extension leads attached to the wall and nowhere near the beds. No individual reading light by the bed. A small metal box is provided (attached to a shelf) that you can lock small items in but it didn't look very sturdy or secure. The bathrooms reminded me of 90s UK school PE changing rooms and smelt like them too! Actually, the whole hostel smelt musty and of sweaty feet. Didn't look like any cleaning took place during my stay. The floors and carpets were filthy. Common areas too small for amount of people and the kitchen was disgusting. I wouldn't cook anything there. Fridges full to bursting so nowhere to store your items. The outside area was always full of smokers or full ashtrays so not pleasant to sit outside. The benches are falling apart and need to be replaced. The pool is so tiny you wouldn't be able to actually swim in it and there's no space around it to relax. Plus needs a good clean. Staff, though friendly, were all just backpackers with no knowledge of how to run a hostel and more interested in partying. Which happened very loudly in the common area until midnight. Lots of people living in the hostel long-term who seemed to dominate the hostel. Unfortunately the only other hostels in Airlie Beach are even worse! This hostel has great potential if only someone invested a bit of money into it and seriously renovated it to modern standards. It felt very overpriced to stay here given the facilities and the fact that it seems no...

This was my first time staying in a hostel as a cheap option to hotels and a way to save money. I initially booked a shared room online but upon arrival was told I was in a double room which cost me another $300 on top of the accommodation I’d already paid. Was too tired to dispute this at arrival so I paid and sorted it out later (didn’t get my money back because of “no show” policies but what the hell. Overall my stay was great for a first time solo, I could only stay 3 nights and had to move to a more expensive hostel in town. The communal kitchen and bathrooms were kept clean and tidy despite the number of people that used them, the lady at reception was cleaning them almost every morning I went in there). My room however you could tell hadn’t been cleaned thoroughly in a while as there was dust on top of the fan and under the bed, there was also something sticky on the floor so I had to wear shoes while I was in the room. The other guests are nice and most of them long term stayers so I found it hard to talk too people as they already had a group and all that. Also if you’re looking to get a good nights sleep, even in a private room its not really going to be possible because even though there are signs to say some areas are not in use after a certain time people will still use those areas and chat quiet loudly, play guitar and sing (which was honestly a nice addition, this being a hostel it was expected). Overall it was a good stay but loses the 1.5 stars for a few mishaps, would probably stay here again if I was coming up to Airlie beach. Note on the location, its fantastic if you’re looking to travel to the Marina a fair bit but does lack when you need to go to town as it’s a 15 minute walk and hard if you have heavy luggage or...

BED BUGS, DIRT AND UNAPOLOGETIC STAFF.

A group of us stayed in this hostel for 4 days. On the second night I found one bedbug on my pillow on the top bunk of a bed that was located below an air con system. Upon research I found that bed bugs tend to live in electricity outlets including sockets and air conditioning units.

I did not tell my group as a didn't want to cause hysteria within a clean and hyper conscientious cohort. We chose this hostel on the basis that the other more popular and better rated hostels in the town were booked out.

Upon checking out myself and the main guest made the incident aware to a member of staff followed by management. We received no apology for this and in fact were blamed for potentially bringing this infestation on site. We presented to the management the fact that we had just begun our travels and had purchased new suitcases and clothing specifically for our trip. But of course we shouldn't have had to prove ourselves to a staff member. Bearing in mind there were dirty socks left outside our "deep cleaned" room upon our arrival.

As someone that has worked in high end customer service and hospitality roles for many years, I am familiar with the procedures that should follow when a client comes to you with a query and a complaint. Rule number one is to be apologetic. We asked for compensation and were kindly provided with money to thoroughly wash all of our belongings which we were very grateful for. But sadly we didn't receive an apology for the occurrence and no ownership for the the incident was taken by the staff on site. When looking through reviews online after the matter this clear lack of empathy and unprofessional approach is apparent in the rude responses to...