I arrived in Melbourne at the end of February this year to stay for a few days.i had intended
to stay at the St Arnaud as it looked very nice on the internet.However I was soon disappointed.The room was beautiful though it was quite a walk to the bathroom,
and the shower was DANGEROUSLY HOT.I nearly scalded myself badly.
The caretaker was unbelievably rude to me,so I did my best to avoid him during my
stay there.I was astounded the way he spoke to me and very nearly complained to
the manager.The one positive thing was the gusthouse was on the tram route to town,
and is close to the central city. shops,drycleaners etc and Toorak which is a nice area,and the Manager was very polite to me.

We booked 2 tripple rooms for 4 nights there. The room we stayed has stale and very unpleasant smell. Looks like the bedsheet is not changed as it did not smell fresh. The wall there is no sound proof. The shower rooms there only 1 with hot water. The rest are cold water. Very noisy! You could hear people open and close the door, perhaps to the toilet or there rooms. The kitchen only open at 7am and most of the time we need to leave early before 7am, either to join the Day Tour or to catch our flight. So we could not have the breakfast at all for the 4 days stay there. We asked the staff if we could prepare our breakfast which we entitled to the night before. She just brush us off and said rules are rules, she cannot change it!!

Australian, stayed 5-6 times from countryside, most economic priced singlerooms, while working 2 days a week in Melbourne.

Location good (for work), near Botanical gardens, No. 8 tram bw city and Toorak, looks old wordly and charming, single rooms ok'ish, bathrooms average (often long walk).

My real issue was bed bugs once, and "attitude" of manager/owner (maybe tired of hospitality industry....) after mix upon reservation (very condescending), yes as comment said, English backpacker working on reception, cold as a fish, but an Australian and an Asian international student working there were fine (maybe saving grace).

Breakfast very average compared to main competitor on Toorak Rd., had to pay for wifi, and in winter rooms bit cool, i.e. small heaters not adequate.....

Was a bit worried about staying at the hostel after reading some of the reviews and if you are looking for a flashy hostel with all the trimmings then this isn't the one for you. If however, you are looking for a hostel with a bit of charm and character then this is it. Stayed 2 nights and the free internet, free breakfast, free rice and pasta made up for the fact that it is slightly out of town although the city centre is only a 35 min walk away or you can hop on a tram (there's a stop 2 min walk from the hostel). St Arnaud is in a quiet area and the building it self is like a big old house. The rooms are large and there are two TV areas, one with seating for dinner and a smaller, quieter one with sofas which is a nice area to sit and read or just chill out. The bathrooms are old and could do with updating but they were clean. The bed mattress wasn't brilliant but Ive slept in worse. Overall, a pretty good experience