Bondi Beach Backpackers — Hotel in Sydney

Do yourself a favor and stay FAR away from this place. There are plenty of better options out there in Bondi – don't waste your money or your patience on this! Over 4 years I've stayed in hostels all over the world and I can confidently say I have never hated a hostel so much. This was the WORST experience ever. If you wanna lose your money, this is the place to go.

This place is filthy, a lot of flies in the kitchen, the toilets run out of paper on the evening, and the air conditioning doesn’t work. The staff are incredibly rude, especially Elle and Rich.

I needed to stay one extra night because of my flight. They told me that I had to extend my stay through reception and couldn’t book online. So I did as they said, only to find out they charged me much more than the online price. When I pointed this out, they didn’t care at all and refused to do anything about it. They refused to refund the difference, offering only a single can of soda as “compensation.”... lost $20 for nothing. Felt completely scammed.

At the end, the man at reception just started acting aggressively and yelling and tried to claim that this is "normal in hostels." I can confidently say—both from my own experience when travelling all around the world and from what other backpackers told me—that this is a complete lie. They’ll probably try to make excuses, but I just want to tell others so no one else has to go through the same experience.

Also the staff were too busy doing laundry instead of actually running the reception?? The whole experience felt unprofessional and unreliable. In most hostels, reception runs smoothly and efficiently, but here, everything was disorganized.

We also spoke with other guests, and they told us they had experienced really rude behavior as well. Just like many other reviews have mentioned here, the man in reception is sooo rude. Don’t fall for this "cheap" place as we did and now regretting it. They have very poor reviews in hostelworld.com, check it out….

EDIT: As you can see and I guessed this is how he will respond to feedback. He doesn’t care, he won’t take responsibility for his horrible behavior that many many people have reported. (called him and asked for help, but he didn’t help at all — he only made things worse with his yelling) He was just irresponsible and all in all, horrible place. Go check out the Tripadvisor reviews. I and many other reviewers on Tripadvisor are not wrong about how horrible his...

This has been my worst experience of a hostel yet, and I would not stay here again/ recommend to others who want a friendly and chilled environment. This place is constantly noisy with music on and very busy with people. The ‘quiet hours’ are supposedly between 10pm and 10am however ridiculously loud music was being played until past this time and people were then shouting and running around the place right outside the rooms including the staff who live there. Hoovering woke us up at 7am also which doesn’t adhere to the ‘quiet times’ so you can’t even get a good 8 hours sleep in this place. There are condescending and rude signs up all over the hostel in the kitchen/ bathroom etc which can be interpreted as intimidating. The staff are very bolshy and rude telling a customer to ‘f**k off’ on the phone when they had some queries in-front of lots of us checking in, which doesn’t set a good precedence for the place. I was also filling my water bottle at the sink when an employee was stood right over me and became impatient, taking the tap away from me to use it herself without asking first. The kitchen was filthy, and they charge a hidden $2 per night per person to do your washing up, but you still have to wash all pots/ pans etc and for free pasta / rice which we were told is left from people at the hostel anyway. You’re also charged $100 for your room key incase you lose it (and I’m sure a tiny key doesn’t cost $100, so it’s another sneaky money making scheme). We also booked an 8 person dorm at a higher cost, however when we got to our room this was a 10 person dorm and we had been put in. When queried we were told only 8 people were going to be in there but more people kept coming in. When we queried this the staff member was very rude and blamed the fact she was hungover and said ‘that’s the owner for you, he’s a business man’. Very odd attitude at this place and no one has respect for anyone else. When checking out, we asked to leave our bags for the day which is pretty standard at hostels and no trouble, however we were told there’s a fee unless we left a review on ‘how much we liked the place’. We were therefore bribed into leaving a good review in-front of the owner in exchange for ‘free’ baggage storage so don’t be fooled by good reviews. Only good thing was the bed was comfortable enough (although no curtains around them so absolutely no privacy) and it was close...

I stayed at Bondi Beach Backpackers for two nights. The location is great, and they offer a range of facilities, although you pay for them through your deposit. The beds were not the most comfortable, bathrooms and rooms were clean, which was appreciated. However, I personally wouldn’t return to this hostel. There were a few indoor cockroaches, and the shuttle service to the airport—advertised on the website—was not available. The biggest issue, though, was the manager, Rich. There was a problem with the refund of my deposit due to an error in my account details. Instead of handling it professionally, he acted insulted and not onlt treated me like a burden for taking up his time but also told me so. His attitude is unpleasant and creates a tense atmosphere at the hostel, making the place feel anything but relaxed. He also verbally mistreats both guests and his staff, with no regard for customer service. His arrogance and condescending manner make it rare to encounter such poor service.

While he seemed eager for reviews, it's clear that his efforts to appear helpful are just an act. There is no genuine service here.

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Just a respond to your reply Thank you for your feedback. I’d like to clarify that there was no intention to act improperly, as I used my brother’s card with his permission. In fact, you spoke directly with my brother, who confirmed that he had indeed paid for my stay. I understand this situation created extra work, but I believe it could have been avoided if the check-in procedure had been correctly followed. You mentioned yourself that the card should have been verified upon check-in, which was not done when I checked in the following morning.

If it’s part of your booking policy that the guest checking in should match the cardholder’s name, then it’s the hostel’s responsibility to ensure this at check-in. I also find it unfortunate and unprofessional to be accused of ‘illegal actions,’ as I acted in good faith.

This response only underscores the unprofessional and dismissive attitude I experienced during my stay, which I hope can be addressed to improve future guest...