167 Franklin Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Bus 220, 232 Tram 19, 57, 59, 68 Train Melbourne Central Tel (03) 9329 7525 Websitewww.hotelbakpak.com
BUG Review
This is a huge 650-bed hostel that has a good atmosphere and a good range of facilities including a cinema-style TV lounge with a huge projection screen and a rooftop barbecue area with great city views. There's also a brilliant basement lounge area called the 'Velvet Underground' with a bar, TV, pool table and table football plus a more raunchy backpackers' bar. The ground floor features a café, employment agency, travel agency and Internet Café.
Price Dorm bed $24-27 Single/double/twin room $75
Prices include breakfast Prices are in Australian dollars and are inclusive of all taxes.
Credit Cards MasterCard,Visa
Reception Open 24 hours
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Pros:
Location. Price.
Cons:
Bed bugs, filthy toilets, generally run-down
JNZ
saw things this way
Maintenance
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I recommend staying away from Hotel Discovery Backpackers.
Rooms and toilets were dirty and bed was infested with bed bugs that left us with very nasty bites for the week. Asked for the mattress to be changed on two separate occasions but nothing was ever done about it. Got transferred to another room and they put someone else in the infested bed!Toilets were almost always in a terrible state. It seems no money is reinvested back into maintaining the hostel, it needs serious work done.Access cards are always unreliable.
There are cheaper and better places to stay in Melbourne
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(Review ID: 7935)
Perhaps it was just having a bad day... but..., February 23, 2008
Reviewer: Popsie from Guildford, UK... but Canberra -woop woo- for 4 yrs
Pros:
It had rooms available
Cons:
The price, dead bird, bed bugs....
Popsie
saw things this way
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(2)
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Usually I am a very content person: happy to go with the flow I love hostels, and all the quirks associated with backpacking...
However, and perhaps it was just a bad day, but even so...Within the first 5 minutes of arriving at the hostel, whilst standing at reception:
- A bloke came up saying that nothing had been done about his BED BUGS for a week, although he said everyday... one does wonder why he bothered to stay though!
- A DEAD BIRD was reported in the internet cafe... now 11pm, it had been there since lunch - no joke.
- A lady said that the lost wallet that she had handed in was now MISSING FROM THE SAFE... mysterious...
- There was a DRUGS RAID in the next room, not the hostels fault, although it does add to the story!!Basically, although some of the staff were really cool - excluding this ferrel security guard who was flirting with all the drunk girls... the staff were totally beaten down from the constant abuse that was being hurled at them, reguarding the pitiful state of the hostel.I think my biggest problem is that considering the price of this hostel it is basically DAY LIGHT ROBBERY, as it seems none of the profits are being ploughed back into the business.
27bucks for a bed in a 16 person dorm... seriously.
Oh, but breakfast was included, free... the one piece of toast that you were allowed was clearly the cherry on the top!If you don't believe me, just walk into the reception... the first people who we met said it was a joke... they were right, although it does now rank as the worst hostel I've stayed at in Oz... and we all need one of those!!
Surely you aren't supposed to walk into a place and get the immediate sense of restless travellers who resent the fact that their credit card details are in the hands of a company who doesn't give a flying ... about their customers.Sorry, rubbish at condensing anything, but here goes:
no character, no sense of community, harassed staff, overpriced, nothingness.... hostels are meant to be an experience, hopefully, mainly, enjoyable. Although this was rubbish it can hardly be counted as an experience, more of a blotch on my trip to Melbourne...
27 bucks on a blotch. Shambolical!!
The main reason I chose this hostel was because of the free airport pick-up (and they drove me back a couple of days later), which saved me a lot of money. The staff is friendly, the security is good (hallway, room and bathroom key required). The rooms are cavernous and have no personality, but the bed are comfy, and there's lots of room to spread out your crap when packing. I would recommend this place for a short stay, but can't make any comments on long-term.
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(Review ID: 498)
This place is not what it's made out to be., September 27, 2006
Pros:
This place has alot to offer but it needs alot of work.
Cons:
It so god damn dirty and has a lot of kids running around.
travel_ozzie06
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Maintenance
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Unless you are a pot-head this is the place for you to goto. You just need to walk around level three(3) where the back-packers are placed and you can smell it coming out of rooms.... The rooms also have very bad smells coming from them. The staff here is great but the rooms need to be cleaned.... :(
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(Review ID: 525)
great hostel, needs a little work to help it along, June 24, 2006
Pros:
staff are wicked, good facilities and a great atmosphere
Cons:
in need of a bit of work, but seems to be happening
glenn
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hotel bakpak has some of the best staff ive come across in oz, the reptionists were really friendly. with something going on all the time. like tours, trips and parties (melbourne cup party was unreal). nice big kitchen plenty of cutlery and a cool cinema room aswell with some really cool movies to choose from, the bars good fun even if your up for just a quiet couple or if you want to get in a mess. ive had some wicked nights in there, to be honest i loved it and cant wait to get back there and party some more. oh yeah you want to check out one of the birds that works behind the desk, shes a bit of alright. polly you rock my world!
Pros:
The rooms are of a good size
Cons:
Kitchen was awful, tv room not signposted and locked.
TheBazatron
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I stayed here for week in Feb - prob 7 days too long as there are much nicer hostels within a mins walk of this one. The whole place is in need of a major revamp. I had particuar problems with the kitchen, along with the usual problems of big hostels (no pans, cutlary and crockary), the fridges were crap and kept nothing cold (due to their massive size and repetative opening - when will big hostels learn and just have more smaller fridges). The kitchen was always realy dirty and seamed to be infested by little birds flying in thru the window. The Tv room was a farce as it is hidden on a random floor with no directions about how to find it. Once it had been located there was the slight problem of actualy opening the door as it was always locked. The bar downstairs was ok but there are some much better bars elsewhere in Melbourne and prices wern't that cheep, the cafe is quite expensive. The only real good point was that rooms were of a good size and bathrooms were ok.
Pros:
near victoria market
Cons:
having to wash someone elses plates before you could eat
irishone
saw things this way
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i stayed for a week in january and found the hostel to be grim and needs a face lift. the bar is very dark and cinema room stinks. for security you have to leave your passport and when you need it for a night out you have to leave you room key and on your return you have to queue up with everyone fighting to get the security mans attention to get your key next.
