Lantana Lodge - BBH — Hotel in Waitematā

I left one night early as I wasn't getting enough sleep, and I was not given a refund for that last night.||||But to start with the positives: The hostel itself is pretty good. Great location in a peaceful spot but still close to things. You may or may not get a park on the street, depends how lucky you are. French market on weekend is nice and very close. Upstairs bathroom is quite new, and everything seems pretty clean. Bed was comfortable. You have to pay for a towel though, and I had to ask for a top sheet as you are only given a blanket and a bottom sheet.||||The cleaners and the 3 long term residents in my room were the problem for me. I was having late nights and needed a good nights sleep when I did get to bed. I tried to sneak into bed quietly to avoid disturbing anyone in my dorm, but they did not show the same consideration, as one of them turned on the light at 3am for no apparent reason one night while we were all sleeping, and the other two had a conversation early in the morning the next night. They treat it like their home, so they always left the door wedged open to stop it locking - make sure you have a padlock to keep any valuables in the locker. And take an eye mask as I did not have one and the light from the hallway filled the room all night since the door wasn't fully shut.||||And then the cleaners came in to the room at 10am in the morning while people were still sleeping, plugged in the vacuum cleaner, did a halfhearted few passes with the vacuum cleaner, and then left again. I honestly don't know what the point of that was, as there were people's belongings covering a lot of the floor, none of us were checking out that morning, and they didn't even thoroughly vacuum the exposed few square metres of carpet. They should have just waited until I checked out after 3 nights and vacuumed then, when there would be more floor space available.||||They also knocked on the door while I was in the shower and then again while I was getting dressed, and told me the second time that they needed to get in to clean - very rude. And I tried to blowdry my hair in the bathroom so as not to wake up my roomates, but was told to stay out even though she wasn't cleaning that part of the bathroom, so I did it awkwardly in the hallway instead. They have their cleaning schedule, and they will stick to it at all costs,...

I stayed here a while ago and ended up leaving in the middle of the night (out of fear). Let me pre-empt this by saying that I have given countless reviews and most are five stars (I don't really like to give low reviews). I have travelled to nearly sixty countries, hundreds of cities and different types of accommodation, and this is by far the worst I have ever stayed in. I have no agenda as I don't even know anyone who lives in New Zealand , let alone Parnell, Auckland. ||||The hostel as I understand is being run by a couple. I researched the reviews to make sure that I wasn't alone and can see by the bad reviews that I most definitely am not.||||Items of mine kept going missing when I was backpacking a while ago (of little importance but my belongings nonetheless - gloves, shower-gel etc) three times a row I asked about them and they ended up in lost property. On the third time I asked if there was anything else of mine in lost property that I hadn't thought to miss yet - the answer was a sharp no and I thought nothing of it. ||||Later that evening when I was in the shower I heard loud scary bangs on the door - I didn't answer (I was in the shower) and then it went away. I then went to sleep and in the middle of the night the wife let herself into MY ROOM! shook me awake and said if I wasn't gone by the morning then she would throw me out and smash up my backpack. As I was in bed and half asleep I was blindsided and unprepared and a little frightened.||||Alongside this I saw the husband really shout at a female guest who then left in the middle of the day - it didn't seem like she had done anything wrong. It was nasty and scary - I felt really bad for her.||||The next morning I went to the Auckland tourism place downtown to complain - they apologised and said this isn't the first time they have had these complaints and that they had already stopped...

This is the first time in four years traveling that I feel the need to write a review.|I've never had such a bad experience in a hostel in all my life. |The staff is so rude. They don't say hi and they treat you like animals. |They don't have interest in their guests. Sometimes they might ask you if you are actually staying in the hostel, happened to a friend I made there more than once in a week.|Let's keep on on the staff, the receptionist is an absolute horrible woman. She's yelling at people for no reason and keep asking you if you can leave a positive review online ( ho yeah, I will). One night she throw all my food in the garbage because it was expired food. It was food I bought a day before and it was worth 30 dollars. When I complained at her, she threaten to check me out from my room without any refund.|The cleaning staff is also terrible, they will vacuum in the room very early, even if you're still sleeping. And they will change your sheets, even if you are actually sleeping in the bed! Never seen that....||You can be outside after 9pm, when I say outside, I mean just in front of the hostel. If you do they threaten you with a 20 dollars fine, which I'm sure it's completely illegal.|Because of this rule, there is absolutely no social life in the hostel. People are like zombies on their phone, nobody say hi, complete silence.|Careful for the moment, there is a woman with mental troubles staying there for long term and she will hunt you if you dare to speak to someone at night, she did it to me a couple of times.||Showers are really dirty.||Anyway, worst experience. Don't go there, plenty of really nice and beautiful...