Big Backpackers Hostel — Hotel in Sydney

I stayed at the hostel for 3 nights April 2019 I am very please with the Big Hostel. The hostel is in the perfect location. Just a five minutes walk to the Central station. Not far from the Hyde Park. The staff members ROCK!!! I met many nice travelers and staff members at the BH . Steve the front desk receptionist is really a great guy very helpful!! The TV room is really nice. It attach to the Kitchen and tables there to enjoy breakfast with other fellows. Kitchen open up around the clock so you can enjoy getting your mid night snack stored in the food shelf or refrigerator. There is a roof top available to enjoy the fresh air and chit chat with travelers.

I had an 8 bed dormitory which was fine with me. There also a locker available you just need to buy your own lock. you can buy a small combination number lock at the front desk. If you want a lock with a key you need to get it at the "Convience store" for $5AU. same price for the combination lock. I prefer the lock with key type so it easier to open and close especially at night when there others sleeping at night so, you do not have to worry using the flash light to look at the number on the combination lock. When checking in they provide you a clean sheet and pillow case you put on by your self and remove the sheet and pillow case before check out. I had a hard time putting sheet on on the top bunk bed.

As far as for breakfast, Food are totally alternative. What you get is bread for toast, cereal, tea and coffee. The Kitchen have a lot of ample space for cooking and storing your food.

There is a computer available if you get tired of using your laptop or your phone of courses.

Location is about 98 walk score. There a 7-11 store, Convience store, Yok Yok Thai restaurant just two blocks very good thai food. Spicy I am is another Thai restaurant. Vietnamese restaurant I did not dry. Sash Japanese restaurant just one block is $$$ expensive it basically a shared type of food I had small taco sushi for $9 I had two of them total of $18 plus surchage total of $20.00 the waitress are very friendly, chef is great.

Laudnry is available to do a load is $8.00 total. cup of soap $1.00 Wash is $4.00 Dry is $4.00 Totalis $9.00

Very clean Very friendly totally secure Location is great

Next time I stay at the big hostel I want to get a 4 bed dormitory type with a private bathroom disabled access.

I would recommend this hostel to...

The worst customer service ever. I booked and stayed here for 1 night in a single ensuite and to the worst nightmare I experienced bed bugs in my bed. I talked to a guy at the reception and he was nice and he said I’d wait for his manager to come. I waited from 10am to 2pm for a rude lady yes their assistant manager to come. She checked my marks on my body and I told her the marks got better since 2am. I took Panadol to relieve the itchiness and she said she couldn’t do anything. I told her the cleanliness is the worst and she defended herself. Instead of listening to customers she ranted off how good and clean the hostel is. I told her to shut up but she didn’t listen to customers. I stayed here before in the twin sharing room and was only me in that room and didn’t experience bud bugs but this time, it was shit. The location is good close to central station but considering the customer service, it’s the worst amongst of the hostels in Sydney. Stay away from this place everyone. The guy at the reception is friendly and this rude assistant manager should be fired. Not even apologies to customers and this lady should know that no customers no business. The basic thing that she should have learnt when in charge of the business. I suggest her to go back to school to learn the basic stuff. The worst of the worst. Indian lady I think

Update - After talking to Agoda customer support as I booked through Agoda, they’ve successfully resolved my issue. Not only did they listen to customers and apologise on this hostel’s behalf for its appalling service, Agoda has also refunded me. At least I know there are still good providers out there who know how to treat customers with respect and listen to customers instead of defending for their mistakes. Thank you Agoda. You should remove this hostel...

Pros: Big Hostel was in a really great location in the city, with bus and train routes nearby, and walking distance to Chinatown and Surry Hills, and even up to the harbor if you’re okay walking 25-30 minutes. Staff was friendly enough, had fairly minimal interaction though. Room was fairly good sized and totally fine. Common space has a lot of potential as well… Cons: The entrance room and common room were both not very well kept, from the floors to the couches to the stale, sweaty smell of the whole area. The kitchen was unfathomably rough, from the the overflowing dry food storage with no room for anyone to put or find anything, to the fridges which had even less space and wreaked of rotting food which likely came from the depths of someone’s bag long forgotten and never removed. The surfaces weren’t terrible, but both sinks were full of dirty dishes at pretty much all times which just continued the dirty cycle of people not doing their own dishes and drying them to put away I guess. Rooftop could be a nice touch however the ground was covered with cigarette ash etc. to the point where bare feet were turned black after walking around the area, and it just didn’t have a feel of a place that invited you to stay and hangout. Finally, despite there being plenty of people staying and a couple staff on site throughout the day, it felt very antisocial as far as any sort of offerings or social oriented activities that are often a part of each day at hostels. Not sure if it was just hard hit by COVID and is lacking staff and some new energy to clean the place up, but personally for the price I wouldn’t stay again unless some changes/updates were made as the space itself has so...