Crash Palace Backpackers & Rotorua Group Accommodations — Hotel in North Island

I have stayed in many Backpackers across New Zealand and this is by far the worst I have ever been too. After arriving we made to wait for 20 minutes before being given the keys to our rooms. We understood the place was under renovation but overall tidiness of the place was unacceptable and we went somewhere else within one hour. The owner was arrogant and seemed much more concerned about his precious bar than anything else. ||||The most disturbing part of the experience began when we got to our rooms. He warned us there some rubbish in the hallway but did not mention the large wet patches on the floor and the smell of vomit. After taking my shoes off my socks became rather soaked. Chris tried to defend this by saying the room has just been steam mopped at 5.30pm which is well after our check-in time. I proceeded down the hallway to find the only set off bathrooms for the dorm rooms. Once I opened the door, I was horrified to find vomit on the floor and a bathmat and toilet paper in the shower. We took a photo as we were truly appalled by the state of the room. There was a mop in the room, so the place clearly knew of the mess but had no priority to clean it up. Chris would likely have had the arrogance to ask his guests to clean the place.||||Lastly, we asked for a refund as we felt that this was not to an acceptable quality. He said “You think it is bad today, You should have seen it yesterday, there were mouldy sandwiches in the rooms”. The discussion got a little heated before Chris said NO REFUNDS and walk away as if everything was our fault. ||||The place advertises trips to Hobbiton but at this backpackers you can get the experience of living in Golems Cave! ||||DO NOT...

I booked the hostel in September, prior to my stay in the end of November, and had confirmation from hostelworld that the booking had gone through, so i had no reason to be suspicious that anything would be wrong. However, on arrival in November, the place was deserted. ||The front door was wide open and there was still an iMac and card machine on at the desk, but no one there. There was a sign on the desk saying to press the button for assistance.. but no button. I called out several times, and there was no one, only piles of rubbish strewn everywhere. I went through to the bar side as the door was open and again called out but to no avail, only more rubbish.||||After 15 minutes I simply left and went to Planet Backpackers instead, luckily they had a room. They informed me that Crash Palace had changed hands recently, which explained why no one was there, which is fair enough. But the fact no one emailed me from the hostel, even after the booking had been confirmed and a reminder from Hostelworld had been sent, is completely unacceptable. If you are open to take bookings, you need to be ready to receive guests, and if you are not, you cannot allow bookings to be taken, or at least cancel and sent an email to booked guests. I'm sure the hostel once was, and will be, a nice place to stay, but I cannot give a positive review for somewhere that was not hospitable to stay in, despite me booking (and paying a deposit for) a 2 night stay, with no prior warning...

I thoroughly enjoyed this super cute hostel. Bastin gave me a warm welcome, showed me around the place and spent a long time answering all of my questions and recommending things to do. Initially, I had only planned to spend one night in Rotorua. After speaking with Bastin about the activities and places he recommended, I changed my plans, cancelled my reservation at Hot Water Beach and spent two nights here. I paid for sharing a room with two bunks, four beds. I was surprised that I had the room to myself for both nights. I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful cat, Blakely, who always enjoyed being petted. Bailey also helped me recommend places based on my interest and amount of money I had to spend on my last day. She even shared some milk for my hot tea with me. This is the only hostel that I stayed at who provided laundry detergent to wash your clothes. You pay to use the washer and dryer and they have powdered laundry detergent available. All of their staff was very helpful and friendly with anything you need. I highly recommend staying here...