Bridge Backpackers

I found dead bed bugs, i had nothing but it's like they deal with it... some days they put the heater in some rooms to kill them

Found bed bugs on the sheets and blankets The sheets hasn't been washed

Got bitten all over my body with bed bugs, On my head, legs face arms, there where to many bits for it to have been just a small infestation. Beware as they spread so could be in other rooms, Have email the place and told them, Also asked for a refund as i had to visit Pharmacy for medication at a high cost, as of writing this no refund. This is a crap way to finish my South Island trip

I can’t stress enough that you should not stay at this hostel. If you scroll down through other reviews you can see they have been having a significant bed bug problem for quite sometime and I can confirm they are not taking adequate measures to get rid of them. We had the unfortunate experience of booking one night in the hostel before doing the heaphy track and hadn’t checked reviews until we were on our way and then was horrified to scroll through review after review of bed bug tales. I naively thought maybe they had sorted it out since the last bed bug review one week ago. But they did not. I did a thorough inspection of our room and although I couldn’t see anything immediately you could see how old the mattresses and pillows are. From previous experience, when there’s such a bad beg bug infestation they usually have to destroy these kinds of things. But can confirm those bad boys are dire. Bed bugs aside they should be replaced because they’re actually quite gross. One of the girls had the experience of another dorm member have a bed bug crawl across his laptop, to which they alerted hostel staff who could do what at that time but bless him he came up anyway and attempted to search for bed bugs lol not sure what he would have done when he actually found them. I woke up the next morning and was covered in bed bug bites. I react quite badly to them so looked pretty horrific and there were so many. We tried to get a refund but the hostel is now refusing to give refunds because they must realise they would go out of business having to refund everyone. Moral of the story, don’t stay here until they’ve properly closed down the hostel to fumigate and also just burned all the mattresses.

We booked 2 nights in a dorm and stayed 0. The common area looks quite nice and the kitchen is clean. But we discovered lots of bed bugs in our room!!! The mattress was covered in black stains on the underside and we saw them on the bedstead. don't go There!!!!!! Bed Bugs!!!!!!

My partner got eaten alive by bedbugs. Avoid at all costs.

BEDBUGS!!! we had heard about a bedbug problem and they had closed rooms to contain them only to find them in our bed! kitchen was dirty with 5 saucepans to stretch around all of the people staying here! blood specks on sheets from bedbugs and extremely hot rooms. dirty toilets with poo on some of the toilet seats!

Bed bugs still or again. The bottom of the mattresses are stained black from bed bugs. Since the rooms are usually fully booked there isn't a really acceptable solution for staying the night.

Got bitten by bedbugs, very inconsiderate guests, loud music in the dining room , people not using their earphones, having face time calls while others are trying to watch a movie in the tv room, great showers though nowhere to put your soap and gear , it's a growing trend, clean rooms, very tidy,

May be bed bug or flies or something like that. We have itchy rash on our necks, backs, hands and legs

Bedbugs in 13 private room, stay there for a week and receive multiple bites. There have been many claims from past 4 months and still have this pest there. Manager says is not their fault and that they don't have nothing to do (should close for a month and fumigate!). I've cancelled 6 days before my booking and they don't refund me the week that I don't stay there. also, bathroom smells ugly from day one, fan was noisy, fridge wasn't enough for everybody...

BEDBUGS!!! No cleaning in private rooms, noisy fan when you switch on the light in the bathroom, that it's also smelly from the first day. Only good thing it's the big kitchen usually clean. Update 20/05/2023: the manager look for the case and offer me to change another room but they don't have prívate abailability now, also check the room where they don't found any bedbugs but they believe me because of the bites . As I'm staying just one more night and not until May 26 they clean the room for me inmediatly to stay tonight, they don't refund if you cancelled for any reason.

MASSIVE BEDBUGS! All in all it was really bad as the room was smelly & loud the atmosphere weird + the staff didn’t do anything against the bedbugs. No refund no apology. Worst hostel in NZ!

Booked due to all good reviews but ended up super disappointed. “The amazing staff” was very unfriendly, didn’t help with nothing and didn’t care about anything at all either. Talk friendly only to those who stay long period of time. Extra fee if you call them after 18! The room had bed bugs I got bites all over my body, got no refund and plus no parking around so if you have a car need to be awake early morning to drive out not to pay any fine. Got some stupid roommates who took my blanket from my bed while I had all my stuff in there saying “they didn’t know I’m coming” what the hell. Super noisy around, paper walls… very disappointing stay that I would not recommend at all.

I got mosquito bites. Not sure if it's from the room or from outside. No bed bugs though. The bathroom is noisy with the fan. Can't disable this as it comes with the lighting in the bathroom.

Die Küche und der Aufenthaltsraum also die common area waren super! Aber leider ist das Hostel von Bed Bugs befallen!!! Daher leider nicht empfehlenswert!

BED BUGS!! Eaten alive in room 9. 42 bites from head to toe. Woke up at 3 itching all over, spotted bugs in the bed so was forced out of bed to try and sleep on the tv room floor. Staff not too bothered, apparently not their fault as its a busy place where people come and go. Room supposedly sectioned off to be treated but proceed with caution obviously a pretty big infestation. I would recommend elsewhere. An otherwise pleasant weekend ruined spent trying not to tear my skin off!

I arrived at noon, a while before checkout, to drop off my bags before exploring the city. I walked around in town, visited the library, and had a nice dinner. I come back at 8PM to find my luggage has been locked away in the office. The doors are closed. The cleaning staff on location do not have the key. I have to call a number (presumably the manager), which shifts all the blame on me, demands money to unlock it, is not helpful at all, and cuts off the conversation after a while. "You were definitely informed" "You decide, it's 20 NZD now and 50 NZD after 9PM" "I don't work for free" "I'm not going to argue with you on the phone" I will admit that I did not ask until what time my luggage would be accessible. I expected to be told it would be locked away from a certain time onward if that would be the case, or called to ask what I would want, as they have my contact info and could easily have called me. I did not consent to my luggage being locked away. I would not have minded it sitting in the hall or a corner of the hostel until I returned had they just asked. Instead, I get gaslit, blamed for my luggage getting locked, and extorted. Rooms are alright, but with the reputation of bedbugs & the corners of the frame being dusty & dirty I didn't want to risk it, especially after reading the other reviews that mentioned them. Edit: Turns out, the guy literally lives right behind the office. 50 NZD to walk into the next room and open a door lmao

This hostel has bed bugs! We stayed there twice, and each time anyone from our group stayed in the dorm rooms, they had fresh bed bug bites the next morning. There were blood stains on the sheets and dark mould spots underneath the bed which is a sign of a severe infection. Cheekily, the owners and staff said that travellers bring bed bugs back from Abel Tasman (even though we stayed at the hostel and found bed bugs there BEFORE we visited Abel Tasman). I don't think the hostel is invested in actually getting rid of the bed bugs. They claimed they steam heated the room - either they didn't do it or they didn't do it well. Can only imagine how many other poor travellers this affected. Added one extra star since they refunded me for my stay - but it's not worth the trouble and expense of dealing with the bedbugs.

Too many things went wrong with this hostel unfortunately. The price was good but I wouldn’t stay again. The manager was really helpful and she tried to sort everything out, sadly can’t say the same of the rest of the staff. Reception often opened late and closed early (one day at 9:20 and then gone before 5:45). Cleaning was at odd times, bathrooms at 9-10pm, also vacuuming at 10 or 10:30 pm (very loud). You need your key everywhere to the point where it’s almost impractical but the security still doesn’t work as staff don’t really know what they’re doing. (A stranger had a key to our room and a girl’s backpack was stolen out of the room yet the staff couldn’t find who they’d given the key to?). The bed had bedbugs and they are very tall without any rails. Downstairs area is nice but bedrooms and bathrooms are lacking + don’t live up to the “recently refurbished” expectation

This hostel does not know how to deal with bed bugs properly. After finding bed bugs in my bed, they tried to deal with the problem, but simply could not get rid of them. The staff did move my personal belongings without asking into an infested room and wanted me to sleep in there. Only after me complaining again and having to stay the whole night in the TV room, I could move to another hostel. Would never go there again!

The hostel was clean and nice, but we had bed bugs. We understand that bed bugs aren't the fault of the hostel, however we are unhappy with how we were treated. We were told the room had been cleaned, we found more bed bugs as soon as we walked in. We never expected to be refunded for the bed bugs the first night, we did expect at least a partial refund for having to sleep on the couch in the TV room the 2nd night. We didn't feel looked after at all in this situation as young travellers.

WARNING: HOSTEL HAS BED BUGS Summary: got 100+ bites from bed bugs at this hostel, causing a bacterial infection that I had to take antibiotics for. I stayed at the hostel a day before heading to Abel Tasman and the day after returning (both days in the Women’s dorm in room 4). I received 3-4 patches of bed bug like bites after the first stay, called the hostel to let them know and decided to stay afterwards as they said they heat treated the room. On my return stay, I received over 100 bed bug bites over one night. The front desk staff wasn’t very friendly and implied I may have brought in the bed bugs (I had been monitoring for more bites after the first night, so highly unlikely). The number of bites I received makes me believe it was unlikely to be a new infestation (however, I have no proof that they did not heat treat the room). Some pros: - they refunded us for the stay - The kitchen is nice

Sadly they have a problem with bedbugs. They did refund us but to be honest it doesn't go as far as covering the hassle of getting everything cleaned. When we showed them the over 100 bites we had accrued, they tried to tell us that we must have brought all those bedbugs back from the Abel Tasman track with us - there's just no way. The last time I got bitten so much the hostel burned the bed because the infestation was so bad. Facilities are fine but my room was grubby and the place lacks love and charm - good kitchen though. Skip it and go elsewhere until they sort out the bedbugs.

Make sure you check for bedbugs, when I stay somewhere I expect it to be clean. Not have a bed bug crawl on my friend and find bed bug shells and dried blood on my mattress and other mattresses in different room.

The hostel’s location and facility were amazing but unfortunately bedbug in the double room’s bed