YMCA Hostel — Hotel in Waitematā

The Auckland city YMCA, sits proudly against the upper reaches of Pitt St, just down from the riotous carnality and variety that is Karangahape (K) Rd. There are a number of options in terms of room arrangements, though all effectively conform to the notion of a hostel - shared facilities, minimal accoutrements, affordable. I chose the most expensive, a single room, still a reasonable tariff I thought. Check in is at 2pm - one can leave luggage in a store room whilst waiting - and check out is at 10am. The staff are professional and approachable, though have that slightly clipped manner of those who must deal daily with hordes of opportunistic travelers. There is WiFi. My room; small, a single bunk, clean sheets, a rather aged looking quilt and a flattish pillow (which incidentally I prefer), sported a small desk and chair, a bar fridge (empty), and a wardrobe. Everything was utilitarian in the minimalist extreme. The building seemed to face North and South, my room on the north side of the building had warmed in the South Hemisphere sun to a baking redolence, there was a window for air conditioning, which when open to it's fullest was woefully inadequate for the late summer heat that had saturated the frieze block building (in contrast those rooms on the south face of the building seemed perpetually cool). My first evening there, a Saturday night, I lay atop my bed, window open, perspiring and wondering, as in the garden/BBQ area below me, the revels of my more exuberant co-residents continued until well after the witching hour, punctuated firstly by an assortment of sirens from the array of emergency vehicles that hastened past on one mission or another, and secondly by the local clutch of petrol-heads throttling their engines up the Pitt St rise in a lather of benzene assisted overcompensation. As an acoustic study in the mating rituals of antipodean hominids all it lacked was the unctuous voice of David Attenborough intoning those aspects of particular note. Sleep came but fitfully. The following morning I used the excellent gym, though was dismayed to learn that my tariff only covered one day, after which I would need to pay $10 a visit, still reasonable, but does seem to penalize those who stay longer. The facilities down the corridor from my room comprised a kitchen; well appointed with bilingual hortatory comments; use environmentally friendly detergent, don't block the drains, turn out the lights when you leave, that sort of thing. The shower block, tiled with a declivity in the middle of the room and no drain in floor (aside from those in the showers themselves), seemed cleverly designed to convert the main section of the room into a lake where one could paddle while brushing teeth and drying hair. The toilet block was again Spartan but clean. All in all come for the anthropological experience but perhaps keep...

Have stayed here on 3 different occasions all for 3 nights and with large group bookings due to coming from an organisation.

Every single stay I have had a bad experience in some sort of way. Though it is tolerable.

Cons: Staff/customer service. Staff are friendly depending who you get. But they are so unorganised no matter how many times they change managers. Due to being a large group booking we planned months and months in advance. Yet we arrive and rooms aren’t ready and I have to give them my own planning sheet because they can’t find who’s situated in what room. BUGS. Had people in my group complain that there were bugs everywhere in their room. Though i’ve seen complaints about bedbugs in some reviews luckily we did not find any but cockroaches yes! We were on the TOP floor and yet cockroaches got to the room. This shows that cleaning needs to turn into deep cleaning. DONT LOSE YOUR KEY. Due to a large group booking someone was bound to lose their key to one of the dorms. While yes that is our own fault. We were told a previous time we stayed that the lost key charge would cost $115 - which is understandable keeping in mind getting a new key cut + the electronic part to open the door. BUT this time round it became $250. Which is a large exaggeration on how much a replacement would actually cost. Breakfast also sucks. Grab and coffee + pastry across the road at Gusstops instead.

Pros: Bed is actually quite comfy Could fall asleep surprisingly easy even with city noise and nearby emergency services. Downstairs entertainment area (vending machine, pool table, ping pong, tv, etc.) Snack and drinks are affordable. Good location for being close to central like Queen St and Viaduct.

Notice how I put the cons first. Overall, while the place has good amenities and are somewhat accomodating, I hope I won’t be back but sometimes life gets you and it might not be in the budget for our organisations next event for better accommodation.

If you are a traveller/backpacker it is BEARABLE for a couple of nights. Don’t stay any longer. There’s other places for even $10 more...

小心，我所有的行李，在我外出时，被挪动过到了另外一个房间，没有经过我同意，我也不在现场，经理处理问题的态度非常恶劣。|||I stayed at this hostel for a week, everything was quite good except this terrifying experience.||One day I went outside of two hours and when I came back, the room was totally vacant and all my personal belongings disappeared, went down to the reception and asked why, found out because of the miscommunication, they thought I was in a group who were supposed to change room on that day, and the group didn’t check out in the morning,so they packed my things ( even packed my suitcase) , and delivered them to another room.|This is a terrifying experiences , I travel a lot and I have stayed at many hotels and hostels, this is the first time, moving my stuff without my acknowledgment.||I was more upset after talked to the management. I mentioned all my bank cards , cash and my passport was not in my room for 2 hours and I was worried so I had to cancel most of my bank cards, the manager thought this action by me is not necessary and he wouldn’t do that if he was in my situation, because he thinks every staff is really reliable . But , as the guest, how am I suppose to know about all this, and I cannot believe he didn’t think I should have canceled my bank cards. Does even respect customers way of handling bank cards! ||He also insisted it is lawful to check guests room everyday without getting customers acknowledgment . Yes I understand that, it’s not my first time staying at a hotel or hostel, but this is totally different scenario , all my personal belongings were removed, not just checked or touched!||I do not see any respects from this point. I asked for compensations cuz it’s at my risk in the future if any account stuffs go wrong , they only offered free breakfasts and WiFi as compensation.||With experiences like this, I would not consider staying there again...