Braemar House - B&B and YHA Hostel Whanganui — Hotel in North Island

In response to your response: There is no need to defend children. That is a bold statement to make when the complaint did not have to do with the children themselves. That was made extremely clear and it is appalling that you are trying to change the issue to that... simply to look good. My partner and I grew up playing completive sports at a national level.

Review: I am an experienced backpacker and hotel management professional, and to be honest, I am quite surprised by the star rating of this hostel.

After a few nights of a negative experience, I decided to respectfully share my concerns with the owners (their moment of truth), however they jumped to defensive mode & showed no sympathy. This told me right away how much they actually care about their guests. See story below if interested.

My partner and I stayed for 6 nights. The first three nights were okay - the room is very basic but that’s fine for us. It’s a know ‘joke’ between guests that the low quality pots & pans will burn your food and set the fire alarm off.

Our experience went downhill the last three nights. A children’s hockey team showed up, and essentially we were sharing the small space with approx 15 7-12 year olds. I am 100% for kids and extracurricular activities & travelling, but we would have appreciated a heads up from the owners. It felt as though the entire space should have been blocked off for the team.

We were woken up each morning of the weekend at 7am by kids screaming outside our door (kids will be kids), the two washrooms were rarely available for use, the team decided to make the kitchen their own, and didn’t provide space & cleanliness for us to use. I think anyone could anticipate this would have affected our experience.

I wanted to be open with the owners to see if they could assist us in anyway. These are some of the comments I received (quoted as well as I can remember):

“You can go sleep at a motel tonight if you want”

“$65 is the cheapest thing you will find in NZ” and “ you know this is a hostel right?” I took from this - we should expect low quality when staying at a hostel.

“It’s not my responsibility to let guests know about a large group coming”

The list goes on. Much of this was said with a smirk. I will note, the owners did offer us a different room, but at this point I didn’t want to take it because I was so appalled by their lack of customer service.

Hospitality 101 - treat people as if they were guests in your own home. A small act of kindness, compassion & understanding...

It's a cute hostel with a small common area and small kitchen. I wasn't aware of the fact the bathroom is only accessible via an outside entrance, which wasn't comfortable during the cold nights and mornings. Also, there was only 1 bathroom for 4 rooms. If you stay in a dorm, at least there's a bathroom inside.

Everything was clean. The owners are very friendly and knowledgeable about the area. They provided kids toys for our kids. There's no freezer, but there's a fridge. Also, there a friendly dog and cat running around the property.

If the weather is warm, the garden is a big plus.

PLEASE NOTE When you're staying at the YHA hostel part of the house, not everything you see on the pictures are accessible. The lovely common room, hall way and fancy bedrooms are part of the bed and breakfast. If you're staying in the double bedroom which is located in a separate building, there's only 1 bathroom for 4 rooms. The bathroom has access from the outside, so keep this in mind...

We stayed in the dorm rooms of YHA hostel. Rooms are tiny (6 beds for women and 4 beds for men - next door), but clean (when we arrived the duvets were freshly washed, because "we had a group staying longer, so I thought to wash them to be extra clean" - amazing! - never had that experience and I always feel a bit doubtful of cleanliness of some hostels and their "sleeping gear") and tidy. Shared areas include well equipped kitchen, lounge and outside sitting. Everything is well organized and the hosts and all the staff if very welcoming, helpful and friendly. Lots of places are walking distance (supermarkets, fastfoods, galleries, etc.). Also, there is a free wifi and it works...