Fox Glacier Inn & Pod Hostel - Fox Glacier Inn & Pod Hostel 39 Sullivan Road

Extremely friendly check-in, we arrived the night of the Halloween party at the attached restaurant, which was pretty fun! You get a 5% discount at the resistant too, which was nice. The room was accessed through a sliding glass door, which was a little odd. Room was reasonably spacious, the bathroom very similar to other hostels(tiny sink, shower insert with curtain, no shelf space). We were reasonably happy with the stay, only odd things were a slight urine smell coming from the bathroom sometimes(solved by keeping the door closed and bathroom window open); a build up of humidity when we weren't in the room, so it was warm and muggy when we came back from our excursions, even when the day was cool(solved by leaving the sliding door open for a bit upon our return); and that there wasn't an outlet near the bed, so our tech was all charging away from where we spent the majority of our time and we ended up sitting on the floor with our phones/laptops lol. TLDR; Good room, nice people, quiet methods, good budget stay with some quirks that were easily remedied.

Worst 90 Nzd I've ever spent on an accommodation. I have stayed at many backpackers but none of them have been as bad as this one. The kitchen was dirty and uncleaned most of the times, our plates sticked to the surface of the tables in the dining rooms. The hosts burped at the dining table as we were eating next to them. As soon as we sat down on the couch, we felt bad itching immediately. Most of the windows were mouldy in the edges. Dish washing liquid has been laced with water for ages. The gents showers and toilets were covered with water and dried piss. It's noisy as well as there's a bar in the same building and rooms go as close to the bar as 3 meters. The first night people were partying to 12pm, the second one at least till 2pm, when I finally fell asleep. Loud talking party folks stroll outside the building at night talking loudly and smoking. The second night we stayed here, partying got unbearably loud, so I complained to one of the barkeepers. He answered disrespectfully and said "check out now if you want" ; "you should have checked before" ; "I'm not going to stop the party" . Eventually we did get a room further away from the bar, I woke up with a bed bug bite though. After the big party, which seemed to be everything the hosts cared about, the hallway had a vomit smell. The carpet looks like it hasn't been vacuumed for centuries and under the beds is littered with trash. Camp out in the woods. Or sleep in your car. But don't stay at this place.

Summary: Varun, the manager is extremely rude and physically pushed me out of the restaurant when asked to turn down music because you can’t sleep in the hostel. Do not go here unless you support such behavior. We stayed in the sister hostel to the restaurant, owned presumably by the same person. Everything started off okay. The check in was easy and room was clean. The food at the restaurant was okay quality. However, we then asked 4 times for the “free soup” which they neglected to bring us until we asked the fourth time. There is also no free popcorn as advertised. Further, you are suppose to receive a discount to the sister restaurant, Bigfoot bar, which they never gave us even when we asked. The WiFi also did not work past 4pm, but there was no one on duty to fix it as the restaurant opened then. False advertisement at its fines, but still it was tolerable. However, after 10pm it turned out to be absolutely horrible if you want to sleep. The hostel rules state to be quiet after 10pm. The restaurant is connected via a thin wall and we believe owned by the same person as the hostel. We went to kindly ask the restaurant to turn down the music as we could not sleep with earplugs in and Varun, the manager on duty, along with his staff, said no they will continue to play it loudly till 12am. Varun said it was his business and he will do what he wants. The guests of the bar saw there was an issue and agreed it was very loud and we could turn it down, however Varun did not and continued to ignore our requests. He eventually started shouting for us to leave and that we aren’t welcomed there. He said we can call the emergency number on the hostel door which ironically went to his cell phone which was off. He started to repeatedly shove me out of the bar while his employee told my boyfriend to remove me from the situation, as if woman have no rights. We proceeded to call the police, who referred us to the city council, who referred us to the emergency number for the council. Unfortunately the police didn’t take responsibility in the situation, however we will now file a complaint against the restaurant as they clearly have no understanding of how to be respectful with a license to play music. We hope they learn how to treat others with respect if they continue to operate.

Really like it here. We're in a double ensuite. It is clean. Lots of hooks & shelves to put things on. Tea & coffee making in the room. Location is great, although the town isn't large anyway. Restaurant here serves good food at a reasonable price. Everywhere in the town is of similar price.

Rooms were very clean and easy to locate. The staff are very friendly and there is a bar/restaurant attached making it easy to eat all meals there when required. The shared rooms are very small and not well ventilated, I wouldn’t recommend the shared rooms if you have any issues with climbing up and down as the beds are bunk beds. There are only 2 shared showers.

After having a particularly comfortable night in this hostel (great clean pods with power-points, curtains and a nice thick mattress) , we decided to re-book for another night. For what it is I'd say it's a little overpriced...the kitchen was a little drab and under-stocked..however it served our needs and the restaurant and car parking were a plus. However, on the second night the fire alarm went off unscheduled at about midnight. All of the guests evacuated themselves to the car park and waited...and waited... There were no staff on the premises or nearby, meaning no direction as what to do in this situation. Whilst (thankfully) there was no fire..a hostel that's accommodating people overnight surely should have better safety measures than this? At at least a clear system of what to do should you need to contact staff at night whether it's an emergency or not. One of the guests ended up calling the local authorities and a phone number left in the window of the reception which notified the owner and about 15 minutes later help arrived to deactivate the alarm and clear the site for re-entry. Nonetheless, this should not be the guests' responsibility, and the hostel needs to take more responsibility for their guests' safety.

Rooms and bathrooms were pretty clean all things considered. It was nice to have curtains on each individual bed. Doors didn't lock though.

I booked a private room, and was pleasantly surprised to be put in the adjacent motel. Nice room, good shower, heating. It's a tiny town so you're less than five minutes walk from everywhere. The hostel owner and manager are really good people and the attached bar does good quality pub grub till around 9pm.