I had an excellent stay at Minto Colonial Guest House. Clarry and his team are super easy to get along with, extremly fast in terms of communication and exceptionally friendly. Even my early morning arrival posed no problem and they made it possible for me to enter my room earlier given its availability. I would go back here any time.

The architecture of the house is absolutely amazing and it has a charmingly beautiful vintage interior. The house rules ensure that things among the residents work out smoothly. The kitchen is large, functionally and completely equipped incl. free coffee, tea and basic seasonings. There is also a laundry machine which can be used for 5 AUD, which is obviously cheaper than taking your stuff to a self-service laundry - certainly a big plus for those who travel longer. As for the location, its only a 10 Minutes walk to the major bar & restaurant street in West End, a 15 minutes walk from Minto to the city center & Botanical Gardens or South Bank, and there is a public bus leaving right in front of the house. The closest restaurants and a 24 hours market are only 2 minutes away. For all those beer or wine lovers, the next bottle shop is right across the street.

On this website wifi is advertised as being free, however when we checked in we were told free wifi is only for one night stays, so we had to pay $25 for a week for wifi. This was not what we had expected. We were able to use the wifi during the day, but after 9:30pm the wifi slowed down considerably, making it impossible to use any form of internet.

We were checked into Room 2, the smallest room I have ever seen, and quickly set about opening our windows to get some air. We then realised that either we had to prop open the large window thus putting our safety and security at risk, or we had to suffocate with a tiny window that could be opened, but still needed shutting overnight as there were no security measures in place, and it faced onto a main road. There was so little air the first night it made me physically sick, and gave me a migraine. We then spent most of the time with our door open to get some air. But again this meant we had no privacy or security.

The lounge room, which online is a huge light open room was nothing like the pictures. Barely any light or air got into the room, making it a very uncomfortable place to sit. We couldn't sit anywhere in our room though as the bunk beds were so low it was impossible to sit upright in them, and we didn't want to sit on the floor!

We were able to use the kitchen, as long as we were done by 9:30, which seems very early considering there were only enough pots and pans that one couple could cook at a time. We had to wait until other people had finished using the kitchen before we were able to cook. There were signs everywhere stating that even the taps were not too be used after 9:30pm. So we were not able to get drinking water to keep ourselves hydrated overnight in the stifling room. 

The bathroom was very small, only two bathrooms for 10 rooms (20+ people?!) with only 1 shower and 1 toilet in each. A couple of times during our 5 night stay there was no toilet roll in one bathroom. There were never any towels to dry your hands on, and the cold tap in the shower was so broken it had to be pulled apart to be able to turn it on. The bath was tilted so it became a slippery slope when it was wet, and would be very unsafe for anyone with balance issues.

We ended up leaving this hostel 2 nights early, as we did not feel happy, safe, or healthy being here. It felt as though a lovely old building had been split up by people only keen on getting as much money from the place as they could, not particularly concerned about the comfort or welfare of the paying guests.

The staff seem very aggressive and money hungry. When checking in the staff member was not particularly welcoming or friendly, and brushed off our concerns about the wifi. We did not see any staff for the whole of our stay, only noticed that one of the residents appeared to be cleaning? He may have been staff, but this was not apparent if so?! We have since contacted the hostel to ask about a refund on the nights we did not use, only to be shot down and left feeling as though it was our fault that we booked badly, and we should have known better! Do not believe the extremely enhanced photographs. This building is dark and stifling!

I am staying here for a month as I am going overseas and need short term accommodation. Clarey the owner has been very helpful, the placed it cleaned daily and the location is not far from the city. Plenty of on street parking. I have found it very quiet, especially at night, ask for a downstairs room if you need quiet. I will stay again when I get back!

My room is small but there are bigger ones, it is all I need.