Mission Beach Retreat — Hotel in Mission Beach

Good access to beach, otherwise would NOT stay again. Rude owners/staff. Mission Beach Retreat is a run of the mill accommodation, and is in no way “boutique” as they advertise. The location is good; only short walk through the neighboring carpark/bush to the shore, and close to the center of Mission beach. There is private parking and wifi. As three (3) guests we had booked two types of rooms. One private double and a bed in a 3 bed mixed dorm. The private room was ok, kind of dated, but livable. There’s a bed with a thin sheet supplied, and not much else. A\C worked but was bit loud. There were some ants and bush cockroaches as well, but I am born and raised in North Queensland so honestly they get in anywhere no matter what, it didn’t worry me. Our other guest said the same about his mixed dorm, basic but fine to sleep in. Shower and toilets are hostel standard, and since there aren’t all that many you may need to wait/walk across the complex to get to one. What really disappointed us were the interactions with our “Hosts”. Once checked in I went and had a shower and got changed. I am quite fair, so I try and take precautions no matter the time of day. I had on a pair of jean shorts, a spaghetti strap top, and a light, long sleeved cotton shirt over the top (and a lot of sunscreen). I had to walk through the reception/common area after to get back to our room. The two “owners” (a middle aged pair) at the reception made a comment about why I was so covered up. I just smiled and said we’re going for a walk. They laughed and asked again why I had “dressed that way” as it was so hot. I was taken aback and mentioned about being sun safe since my family has a history of aggressive skin cancer. The man rolled his eyes and motioned outside and said “the suns almost gone, love”. His partner piped in then and asked what I would wear going out to a bar if I didn’t want to wear a bikini to the beach (??). Honestly, this all happened in full view of the whole common area and I was feeling extremely uncomfortable so I mumbled an “excuse” about being a mole rat that probably should live in a cave and the owners agreed with me while laughing. My husband told me that while he and our other visitor were waiting for me to finish in the shower he approached the reception and asked if there was instant coffee or tea for the hostel guests to use. The male owner then went on a rant at my husband about how entitled people are, and if “we” (the guests) wanted free stuff we should be paying them at least $100 a night for a private room. A simple “No, we don’t” would have done. (We paid $60, and for comparison we stayed in a private room at an AMAZING hostel in Cairns the next few nights for $69 and had a TV, AC and Fridge in our room, plus coffee and tea, and basic cooking ingredients like flour, rice and pasta included...

Mission Beach Retreat is a run of the mill accommodation, and is in no way “boutique” as they advertise.||The location is good; only short walk through the neighboring carpark/bush to the shore, and close to the center of Mission beach. There is private parking and wifi. ||As three (3) guests we had booked two types of rooms. One private double and a bed in a 3 bed mixed dorm. The private room was ok, kind of dated, but livable. There’s a bed with a thin sheet supplied, and not much else. A\C worked but was bit loud. There were some ants and bush cockroaches as well, but I am born and raised in North Queensland so honestly they get in anywhere no matter what, it didn’t worry me. Our other guest said the same about his mixed dorm, basic but fine to sleep in. Shower and toilets are hostel standard, and since there aren’t all that many you may need to wait/walk across the complex to get to one. ||What really disappointed us were the interactions with our “Hosts”. Once checked in I went and had a shower and got changed. I am quite fair, so I try and take precautions no matter the time of day. I had on a pair of jean shorts, a spaghetti strap top, and a light, long sleeved cotton shirt over the top (and a lot of sunscreen). I had to walk through the reception/common area after to get back to our room. The two “owners” (a middle aged pair) at the reception made a comment about why I was so covered up. I just smiled and said we’re going for a walk. They laughed and asked again why I had “dressed that way” as it was so hot. I was taken aback and mentioned about being sun safe since my family has a history of aggressive skin cancer. The man rolled his eyes and motioned outside and said “the suns almost gone, love”. His partner piped in then and asked what I would wear going out to a bar if I didn’t want to wear a bikini to the beach (??). Honestly, this all happened in full view of the whole common area and I was feeling extremely uncomfortable so I mumbled an “excuse” about being a mole rat that probably should live in a cave and the owners agreed with me while laughing. ||My husband told me that while he and our other visitor were waiting for me to finish in the shower he approached the reception and asked if there was instant coffee or tea for the hostel guests to use. The male owner then went on a rant at my husband about how entitled people are, and if “we” (the guests) wanted free stuff we should be paying them at least $100 a night for a private room. (We paid $60, and for comparison we stayed in a private room at an AMAZING hostel in Cairns the next few nights for $69 and had a TV, AC and Fridge in our room, plus coffee and tea, and basic cooking ingredients like flour, rice and pasta included...

Stayed here from December 2017 - March 2018 completing my farm work. My overall experience on the farm was awesome but the hostel management was not.

During my time here I saw countless people turn up for work after being told they were starting immediately, but soooooooooooo many ended up waiting from 1 week - 5 weeks! One lad was told he had work and needed to get here the next day. On his first day at the farm our worker said he didn’t ask for him and was sent him home. The hostel told him it was just a misunderstanding and he would be working there ASAP. 5 weeks on he still had no work, I asked our worker at the farm and he said he never asked for him and has no plan on hiring him so the hostel was lying..

Those working at the hostel would have regular meetings with the staff and sometimes owners because of partying. I don’t drink alcohol and was never part of the group partying but the receptionist told me I had to attend but none of it was to do with me. The owners son said at a meeting - if we had any issues to just ask him and he’ll sort us out.

So I decided to mention the whole situation of telling people they had work when they didn’t, and I also asked why we were told before arriving here that we would be paying non-working hostel rates which is $150 a week but they left out that it’s actually $200 a week when working on the phone. SO when I brought up what had happened he got really angry saying I was lying and so was the farmer, and tells me “if you don’t like it you can leave”. Very un-professional and also a conformation that what I was saying was true because of his defensive response.

The sister hostel owned by the same people (Scotty’s) was exactly the same. 5 months after finishing here I was in Cairns and two German lads from the hostel were told they had farm work via Scotty’s hostel. They came back on the same day because the manager told them there was no work????? Didn’t even bother to contact the guys. This is one of the many working hostels in Australia that lies to backpackers about work. Be very careful if you are low on money and have been told you have work, you could be waiting here for up to 5 weeks.. Win win for them because you either pay for a bed whilst you wait or if you run out of money they will offer you to work for accommodation. No honesty...