Name: Sydney Central Backpackers
Address: 16 Orwell St Kings Cross, Sydney
Telephone: +61-370-732-900

Good

Liked: The hostel has an amazing price-performance ratio. The big highlight is that they provide you with food twice a day - dinner even gets cooked freshly every single day!The hostel is located very close by to the botanical gardens and it takes only around 30 minutes to walk to the opera house. It is a very social hostel, most of the guests stay for long-term because they are doing work and travel. Overall it has a really friendly atmosphere.
Disliked: I stayed there in winter and it felt like it was freezing cold in the hostel 24/7. They also only provide you with thin blankets instead of a warm duvet. They also ventilate the hostel most of the time which made it even colder. I stayed there for almost two weeks and caught a cold because I was freezing so much.Another minus point is the security. Not only that the front door of the hostel was broken and just stayed open even during night time but they also put the PIN code for the dorm rooms on the OUTSIDE of the dorm door after they had changed it. My friend felt really unsafe because of this and when we confronted the staff they firstly seemed to not care about it and only when we stayed consistent agreed to change the code one more time. So we didn’t feel as they would take our safety concerns seriously.And you should not be afraid of cockroaches when you stay in this hostel. Although the hostel and all the dorms get cleaned daily, you will come across cockroaches not only on the rooftop but also in the dorms and the kitchen area.

Disappointing

Exceptional

Liked: Great experience, good service, staff

Exceptional

Fine for two nights but...

Liked: The hostel is located in a good location and interactions with the staff were overall friendly. The curtains and pod-style design of the beds provide ample privacy.
Disliked: There are serious problems with the cleanliness and overall design of the bathrooms. While they do exist, the power outlets and lamps at least two of the beds in our 8 bed dorm did not function at all. We had to wait almost half an hour before someone came to the reception to check us in (this was at 5pm). A large percentage of the guests appearing to be working-holiday backpackers were residing there longterm, resulting in a lack of the typical hostel atmosphere where you can meet like minded travelers as many of them just sleep there after delivering for Uber eats etc.

Unexpected are very much have...

Liked: Silver service
Disliked: serviceS in little bathrooms and toilet

All in all you should...

Liked: Good location, comfortable bed, decent dinner, good view from the rooftop
Disliked: It wasn’t clean because of the huge groups of long term Spanish and French speaking people, who were pretty messy and dirty, although the stuff cleaned the facilities everyday, which is pretty disrespectful to the people who work there. This made it also difficult to socialize. There was not enough cutlery for everyone and not enough space in the dining area for the amount of people. Moreover, the front door was always open, which makes it unsafe because everyone could enter the building, even at night, in an area which is not the best. Furthermore, the dorm rooms on the ground floor were pretty loud especially at night when people were sitting in the kitchen, even at 3 or 4 am.