Nomads Airlie Beach Hostel — Restaurant in Airlie Beach

We are torn between whether to give this place a 1 or 2 star rating. But for $300 for 2 nights it deserves a 1

We booked this place in October and the photos looked promising. Upon arrival on NYE, we were shocked as to the condition that this place was in. The slums of The Whitsundays. Now, I understand that a lot of backpackers have probably been living in their cars and travelling for some time. And this place is a great 'Base' to stay at and see the sights around Airlie, especially as a place to stay during New Years. However let me discuss my issues with this 'backpacker resort' Upon arrival, we were told that they do not allow guests to bring any alcohol onsite, and any that is found would be confiscated. Not a very warm welcome to be told you can't drink your own alcohol in the privacy of your own roo. We were told to park in the onsite carpark however this place appeared overbooked and we could not find anywhere to park, so we had to just pull up where we could. One broken and rotten step on the staircase going up to our room. Quite dangerous especially with the wet weather we have had. Needs to be fixed before someone seriously injures themselves. No facilities in the kitchen with the exception of a kettle and a rusty old toaster, 2 mugs and a spoon. No chairs in the room with the exception of 2 bar stools. Somewhere comfortable to sit in your room would be good. No curtain/screen on the shower, so the bathroom became wet and slippery with every use. Water pressure was dreadful and it took about 5 minutes to even get hot water. A lot of water wasted. Only one sheet on the bed, so we had to use our own blanket. No fly screens on any of the windows. Also, 2 locks broken on the windows, one of which could have easily been accessed from the outside. I found 2 long brown hairs in the kitchen area. Nowhere to hang our wet towels. The toilet is due for replacement, it would constantly make a hissing sound and struggle to refill after every flush. We had to open the back of the toilet (which was filthy) to fiddle with it after every flush to get it to refill for the next use. Light did not work on the balcony ANTS! Ants everywhere...

The grounds of this place are overall quite untidy. Understandably, it had been raining and therefore it was a bit muddy, that cannot be helped. However as a 'backpacker resort', one would assume that the gardens would be attended to, lawns would be mowed, and railings and stairs would not be broken/dilapidated/rotten.

Overall, this place needs quite a bit of money spent to bring it up to standard. There were mould stains and dirty marks throughout our room. It was not a pleasant place to be in any longer than needed. As said, for a backpacker just looking for a place to sleep so they could go out and about through the day, it's great. But a lot of travellers don't have a lot of money, and for $150 per night, it was highly undesirable. If you are a looking for a nice weekend away in Airlie Beach, stay...

The staff were good and the kitchen facilities were good though I didnt really use them. I liked boaties right next door and the deals they have together, but I didnt have a great time with my room. It's a very big area that nomads and base share together, I saw the nomads buildings and they were quite nice though there was a leak in the roof onto my friend's bed, (they moved him to a new building). My building ended up being the farthest one away from reception.. i dont know if that's why there was such behavior (cause they wouldnt get caught?) the first night was pretty good, my roomies were smoking weed outside the door but it was blowing in through the windows, I mentioned it to the staff and they handled it. The second night there was people having sex in the room. When I came back later there was so much drama and 2 girls were in the bathroom crying, this is after midnight and I just wanted a shower and to go to bed, another guy had enough and took his bag and left. The third and final night there was a firetruck near our building and there was a problem with a power line or something, our power as well as a couple others were turned off for safety reasons. So our hostel was very hot through the night. The people's behavior is not the hostels fault, I get that and nobody can plan for a problem with a line but it still ruined my experience with them, I didnt look forward to going back to the hostel at the end of each night. This was over Australia day weekend so they were fully booked and I was unable...

The Kitchen: It was never clean when I was in it. There was about 5 forks to share between everyone in the hostel so at times your waiting on someone to finish their food so you can eat. No cups or mugs. 1 glass. 1 dirty sponge between 3 sinks to wash up so your waiting on someone to finish washing up so you can, despite there being 2 free sinks. Couldnt dry dishes in kitchen as the towels there are soaking wet with bits of food on them. Nowhere to hang towels anyway so I can understand why they are soaking wet. Have to pre wash everything before using as there is food still stuck to things. One of hobs on cooker not working. No room in kitchen eating area to eat most of time. Not enough fridge space, mountains of bags stacked on top of each other You do see some similarities in other hostals but not to this extreme, other hostals have staff look over the kitchens but this one I dont think any staff have been in there in a long time.

Our room: Had cockroaches and ants, reception got us bug spray to help (they allowed us to store bags for free as compensation while we were away on whitsundays). Musty damp smell in room. Bad lighting on long walk to room, very dangerous. See through curtains from the outside.

Other: The Base pool was filthy, Couldnt use it. Not enough staff at reception at check in/out times, waiting in queue for long period of times. The staff seemed to take a long time checking everyone in too, maybe they need a new system to...