Secret Garden Backpackers Sydney

Pleasant
Traveller Type: with friends
  : very friendly staff, felt personal and welcomed clean room with sink
  : only one bathroom with 3 showers and toilets, very small, especially for male and female not much room.. showers were often too hot or too cold

Good
Traveller Type: solo traveller

Fair
Traveller Type: solo traveller

Wonderful
Traveller Type: young couple
  : Good kitchen, staff lovely and helpful, showers and toilets clean.
  : Only had a (very loud) fan in the dorm room

Good
Traveller Type: young couple
  : The location was great, less than a 10 minute walk from the train station. Bed was comfy and facilities were great however, not the cleanest! Staff were so kind and helpful!
  : There was only 1 bathroom upstairs and the other two were on the ground floor which was a bit inconvenient. The shared kitchen was great to have but not very clean, this was from the other guests cooking though so nothing to do with the staff or hostel itself. Also because it was winter the room was freezing cold and there were no heaters but we just wore our hoodies to bed.

Very Good
Traveller Type: group

Poor
Traveller Type: with friends
  : The location
  : You can expect hostels to be a little cramped or busy in a major city but this hostel was taking the piss. The facilities could barely support 20 guests never mind 50, one shower and one toilet between about 5 dorms is ridiculous and with only one table actually inside, when it’s raining you can expect to eat standing up. The hostel has atrocious facilities for the volume of guests it is crammed with, which appears to make some (a minority) of the staff rude and exceptionally difficult. With an atmosphere reminiscent of an all-girls school you better make sure your room is spotless (nothing on the floor, the fireplace, the windowsill or locker), less Matron catch you during room inspection, leave a ‘warning’ on your door and confiscate your biscuits. I can understand the importance of keeping the room tidy but we ended up coming home to our belongings lumped in a bin bag on the floor and had to pay for the privilege. The only thing I could say was the location was good so save yourself some money and sleep on the floor of central instead the facilities would be better there anyway. Ps. The ‘secret’ to the garden is its swarming with rats.

Very Poor
Traveller Type: solo traveller
  : Booking told that I’ll be refund but they don’t want to pay me back

Fair
Traveller Type: young couple

Fair
Traveller Type: solo traveller
  : Good location close to the train
  : I let reception know that I would be checking in late which they approved. When I got there I spent about half an hour trying to get a hold of someone to get inside and checked in.