Nomads Queenstown Hostel — Hotel in South Island

If you want a good night of sleep, don’t stay here. The bars across the street blast music so loud it feels like your attending the party in your room. It doesn’t stop until after 2 AM.

Most of the hostels I’ve stayed in have backpackers working for accommodation and usually that’s not a problem, but this hostel is just so unprofessional. It’s a dry hostel, so no alcohol allowed. They will take your alcohol. Meanwhile, I saw the staff carrying in their own grocery bags with beers, so there appears to be a double standard. The hostel is pretty gross as well. I saw staff cleaning and they just don’t put any effort in it whatsoever. Toilet on 1st floor had a blood stain on the door that was still there after a week. Shower in our room had mold/black stains that looked like it had been there for a while. There are hundreds of people staying in the hostel and the kitchen is so small. There is not enough storage in the fridge or dry storage so everyone just leaves their stuff everywhere. There are literally 3 chopping bords and 5 pans for 400 people. Every night during breakfast and dinner time there are no forks or knives left. There are 4 big tables in the common room and two of them where literally reserved for staff, by putting a sign on them saying: ‘reserved for nomads staff Christmas dinner’, so no one else had room to sit. The couches in the common room are WRECKED. I’ve seen some worn down furniture in hostels, but this one takes the cake.

Also, the hostel literally has NOTHING planned for the holidays (apart for their own staff dinner). We stayed for 7 nights during Christmas and there was no decorations, no Christmas music, no vibe in the common room, nothing organized. I asked if we could do something for Christmas and the staff at reception literally told me it’s to big of a hostel to do anything. I’ve stayed at huge hostels in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington and even NYC and they all have had at least something small planned like a Christmas breakfast, BYO bbq on the beach, a pub crawl on Christmas Eve, a Christmas movie, Christmas song karaoke, a pub crawl or free walking tour. It doesn’t have to be costly or involve a lot of planning. We are very outgoing people and usually find it very easy to meet people, but this hostel did not do anything to promote any sort of socializing and for some reason this hostel just lacked atmosphere.

Lastly, the terms and conditions of Hostelworld state you pay upon arrival. Hostelworld specifically confirmed that the price has everything included. Meanwhile the hostel charged my card fully in advance, charging $20 to much. When I asked them about the overcharging, they said it was a transaction fee for using a European creditcard. I know that a transaction fee is common in NZ, but normally you consent with it and can choose the way you pay. By falsely charging my card in advance instead of waiting for me to pay upon arrival, they robbed me of the chance to pay with a local card or cash, so I think they had no right charging the fee on my creditcard in advance.

Some very easy adjustment that would make this hostel better: a shelf for the top bunks to put your personal belongings on A qualified manager making sure the working holiday staff actually do their jobs properly A deep clean of the bathrooms Replace the broken beds Organise something to do for the guests every once in a while, even if it’s just a movie running on repeat throughout the day Upgrade the common room so it at least have enough seating and people are more inclined to hang out there, so it’s easier to meet people Put an extra kitchen or upgrade the kitchen with an oven, 2 or 3 extra fridges and enough utensils/pots and pans etc. to accommodate the amount of people staying there no overcharging and just ask a reasonable price for your rooms. We payed NZD880 + transaction fee for a dorm room for two people for a week, which is absolutely not...

My partner and I had an incredibly disappointing experience at Nomad's Hostel this winter. We booked a private room for 3 nights, and dearly regretted spending the money on this room almost immediately. Firstly, the kitchen was disgusting. The fridges had heaps of grocery bags thrown haphazardly on top of one another, with no structure whatsoever. In addition to this the entire kitchen smelled of rotting food, due to the refrigerators (which did not seem to have been cleaned in weeks). We ended up eating out or prepping our food in our rooms, as the kitchen was just in a shocking state.

We were also unable to get clean towels throughout the entirety of our 3 night stay. Each morning we would ask on our way out for the day, and each time we were greeted by a seemingly unconcerned staff member who would tell us that they had no towels as their entire supply were at the laundromat.

This hostel is also extremely loud. We could hear people screaming and playing music until very late into the night. We love to have a good time and then hit the slopes the next day, but the noise that carried through the halls of this hostel ensured we were bleary eyed and exhausted each morning on our way to the ski fields.

Finally, and most concerning of all, we were woken on our first night by someone entering our room at 3 o'clock a.m. There are no deadbolts or interior locks that you can control yourself, only an electronic lock that is operated by an app or key-card. In the morning when we reported this entry to the front desk, we were told that other rooms had been broken into as well, as a master key-card had been stolen from the front desk, which is left unattended at night. These master keys were left at the desk, not locked away, and were accessible to anyone who had the mind to investigate the front desk. After speaking with the front desk, we were offered a giftcard to a local restaurant (which was never followed through on) and were not followed up with by anyone except the single staff person who we had spoken to about the incident. We were issued no apologies or refunds.

I'll just end by saying that there are plenty of great places to stay in Queenstown. We had hoped to meet fun people our age, whom we could explore the area with, but instead ended up feeling unsafe in our room at night and quite disgusted by the facilities in general. If you are coming to visit Queenstown, do yourself the favour of staying well clear of Nomad's Hostel. Its prime location downtown does not make up for the basic lack of service that...

We were very disappointed with our stay here. We booked a week planning to use the as a base for a weeks skiing. This hostel feel significantly short of expectations. First of all the kitchen area is woefully insignificant given the number of people staying in the building. The were very few dishes available and when you found them there was a fair chance they needed a good clean. The floor was caked in dirt from previous users. The fridges were absolutely packed with peoples shopping bags such that there was no space left. There were about 30 bags of peoples food hung on hooks in the corner with a further 40 odd thrown in front on the floor.

Up in our room the bathroom was in need of a deep clean with mold around the seals in the shower. The balcony was filthy with the remains of a previous guests sauce that hadn't been cleaned off. It had clearly been there a day or two. The beds were adequate but the mattresses were hardly comfortable as many have already pointed out the springs dig in. The deluxe room we had was advertised with towels however we had to ask to get them. No bathmatt or hand towel was supplied. Then have tried to go up to the minute with a really shoddy app that takes an age to work and spams you with unwanted notifications. The only alternative they offered was a 6 digit pin number which was very disappointing when all the doors were fitted with reliable RFID readers.

As we started to eat our dinner that we bought out as cooking in the kitchen was a health risk the couple in the room next door started blaring music at an unreasonable volume.

Later on downstairs I stood in a queue for about 15minutes while the lone staff member tried her best to check people in and solve other peoples issues. During this time afew people came through who were obviously drinking despite the hostels no drinking in the common areas policy.

In the end we cut our visit down to one night and moved to a place that was far closer to expectations. The team was at least understanding of our issues and refunded us for the remainder of our booking. As others have said there are far better places available in Queenstown, many of them also very central. Shop around there are far better...