Youth Shack Backpackers

The guy sleeping beside me said he would do harm to me if I couldn't stop sniffling. I told management about this and they still let this guy stay in the hostel scot-free. He's a bald Australian guy, likely mid-30s, his name is Myles. He is unpredictable and since hostel staff won't do anything to protect you, heed my warning: do not become friendly with this guy. Whole hostel is full of long-termers who think they're doing something cool by living in a hostel while working a construction job.

This was my fifth stay. As usual I expected fun vibes day and night and hostelmates partying together almost every night, led by a rep. This time, an owner or manager had had the very-not-bright idea to mix up the long-stay and short-stay rooms. As a result, my $110 private room was suddenly on the opposite wing of the L-shaped hostel building – right next to the pool and the back entry –, as opposed to where it always was, in Mitchell St, where you can’t hear the hostel noise at all. This meant music and general talking from the pool area was SO loud (there is zero insulation and basically gaps in the room windows) from about 1pm every day until 10:30pm (but talking went all night, eg ‘til 6am I could hear a conversation on the phone as if it was in my own room.) I have cancer and need recovery sleep in between partying (not that I should need to have cancer to need recovery sleep). So every day I’d be trying to have a small rest in my expensive private room, then Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays the DJ would started BLASTING from about 2pm (otherwise it was non-DJ music but still blasting quite loudly from about 1pm). Despite my heavy metal drummer-designed in-ear ear plugs AND white noise machine, sleep was then over whether I liked it or not. And when the DJs started BLASTING in the afternoon (or evening on weeknights) almost everyone left the bar/common area: you could even see it in their faces – ‘why tf is this music so loud, I just wanted to sunbathe’. Everyone was cliquey and already knew each other, but there was still almost no chance to try and mingle because the music was so loud people just had to yell 'sorry I can't hear you' and then LEAVE. Went to MOMs across the road the first night and it was still a bit unnecessarily loud but a LOT quieter (except for Saturday) so that you could also have conversations, so people stayed there, made friends and then went out to Mayberry or Monsoons based on the visiting promoters. WHAT YOUTH SHACK NEEDS TO FIX IMMEDIATELY • Youth Shack needs to put the private rooms back where they were. Let people who stay in the poolside rooms know they will hear everything and won’t be able to sleep except for during a few select hours. • Fix the non-insulated and partially open windows. • Turn the DJ music WAY downso that you can hear another human. The bass carries upwards, so perhaps generously DJs may not have realised how loud it sounded. But they would still have seen that when they always started the bar EMPTIED! Others agreed with my assessment that it was way louder than in previous years. Maybe equipment has gotten better in the last few years but I’m pretty volume buttons and bass adjusters exist. • Youth Shack also needs to reinstate a proper connection with Discovery so that people are encouraged to and taken there each night. There was zero effort made by Youth Shack/Discovery (Tues was the only night people eg from MOMs went to disco for bar choir). So no one at either hostel had even really heard of Discovery, even though it's the biggest club and was always amazing. • Also what happened to the Sunday pool party? It just wasn't happening. So, Sunday nights used to be epic with the party and Lost Arc but this time it was dead as a doornail, a few left mingling at a very quiet Mayberry. WHAT I DID AT THE TIME TO TRY IN VAIN TO RECTIFY THE SITUATION On my second night (I had already paid $110 per night for 10 nights in advance so was pretty stuck with my deafening room.) I provided 'feedback' (my word) to the woman on the Friday night desk. She said quote: 'I can't do anything about that but I'll write it down [fake writing motions] for the DJs'. Needless to say nothing changed. When already home I spoke to the owner on Instagram and he said he was going to inspect the following Friday night, to see what girl was on the desk and see if the music was too loud. That was obviously just to appease me, but they’re a fool if they don’t try to avoid going out of business. I was not offered another room or any money despite pre paying my entire stay Really, being moved to a quiet room or comped money when I first brought it up was the answer (I didn’t ask at the time for another room because the site claimed there were no other private rooms, and because I thought I thought my comments and the situation was so obvious they might actually listen). Instead I was told “there’s nothing we can do – I’ll write it down”. BASS IN THE GRASS FESTIVAL I also expected a big group of us to meet and go to Bass in the Grass like usually happens at Youth Shack with festivals, but it had been so hard to meet people all week (when I was pissed off in the morning that I was constantly woken up I wasn't inclined to chat yet, and then in the evening everyone was gone – I hadn't made friends at all, for the first time here [I made some at MOMs]). A few easy tweaks would have made Youth Shack amazing like it used to be, but it seemed like nobody actually cared about if guests were enjoying themselves or even mingling. Unfortunately I just found out that my last cancer treatment has stopped working, so that will have to be my last disappointing trip after many good ones.

Def a party hostel and only recommend it if that’s your thing or at least if you can tolerate it. A lot of backpackers stay here while working in Darwin, which creates a very social environment. Everyone I met was great even if they had their group of people. Cleanliness was aight. No complaints but it wasn’t above and beyond