Little Drifter Surry Hills

A friend of mine stayed at your hostel shortly after it reopened and highly recommended it to me. I was very happy with the location, as it made getting around the city extremely easy. However, there are serious issues regarding cleanliness and room management. I booked a 6-bed female dormitory, yet two men were assigned to the same room without any explanation or communication from the reception staff. What is the point of booking a female-only dorm if this policy is not respected? Upon arrival, my friend also discovered that someone was already occupying the bed assigned to her, forcing her to take another bed instead. The first thing we noticed when opening the room door was an unpleasant smell. I was assigned a top bunk located directly beneath an air vent that was covered in dust and grime. My lungs certainly noticed it. Taking a shower was equally frustrating: it took around 20 minutes for hot water to arrive, and even then it lasted for barely a minute before turning cold again. I also found it quite irritating that nobody opened the door when we rang the bell, despite the fact that the reception area has cameras monitoring the entrance. If someone is ringing the bell, it is likely because they do not have the access code and are arriving to check in. Finally, let's talk about the kitchen. The mould inside the refrigerators and on the storage trays was simply disgusting. Cleanliness standards throughout the hostel need significant improvement. Overall, while the location is excellent, the poor hygiene, lack of organization, and disappointing room management made this stay far less enjoyable than expected.

Amazing stay for my first week in Australia! Service was absolutely fabulous, especially from the lovely Brandon who made me feel at ease from day 1 and was always there to help if needed. Rooms were really clean, beds were comfy and shower water pressure great! Would highly recommend this hostel to anyone wanting a carefree stay.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazing place! It's the perfect place whether you're staying long-term like I am or just visiting the city for a few days. The atmosphere is friendly, welcoming, and comfortable, making it easy to feel at home. The location is also great: it's only about 10 minutes from the CBD and around 25 minutes by bus to the beach, making it easy to enjoy both the city and the coast. A special thank you to Bryan at reception, who is always helpful and smiling :) He goes out of his way to make guests feel welcome and supported. I'd also like to thank Stacy, who organizes fantastic activities for everyone. I especially enjoyed the drawing sessions, which were fun & a great way to meet new people. I highly recommend Little Drifter Hostel to anyone looking for a great place to stay and meet new people 😊🌟

The staff are friendly and the location is ideal. However, everything else needs improvement, and quickly! The hostel's Wi-Fi doesn't work, and no solution has been offered since my first visit in October 2025. Some rooms lack windows and are very poorly laid out, making it difficult to move around and store belongings. Finally, the door unlocking system using the phone doesn't work well in most rooms. For the price (around 380 AUD per week during the winter), the hostel is completely inadequate and sorely lacking in modern amenities. It's a shame because it has potential...

Little drifter was a really good place to stay. I’ve stayed here for the last three months and it’s been such a good home away from home. The staff is really friendly and there’s nice events going on. A lot of longstayers, which makes it a great place to stay as a longtermer. Thanks everyone, I’m gonna miss little drifter!

Hi Little Drifter, Please look into your email, I've tried to reach out multiple times about an unpaid proforma. Looking forward to your response, Thanks. Kim

Very chill hostel, you meet good people on this place, it's not crowded, clean and in a good place ! The team is also very helpfull and will accomodates you really well I recon

Great stay at Little Drifter Surry Hills! Great accommodation with nice facilities and great staff. Cameron at Reception helped me out with any anything I needed and made me feel like part of the family. Second time returning, and I will come back again!

I LOVED Drifter! I had the best stay there. Thank you Cam for being such a wonderful host and making me feel so welcome. 😋

Look, it was alright. Will I stay again? Probably, it was a good place to crash close to Central and the SCG. As someone who is there to sleep on a quick trip and not socialise the ability to reserve a bottom bunk is valuable. HOWEVER - This is the second Little Drifter I’ve stayed at. The only reason I knew about the whole digital keys shebang was because of this, if this was my first time the following would’ve been 100x worse. I rocked up in the middle of the night, I’d come straight from the airport. I go to door in front of the ginormous white check in sign and try to open the door with the digital key because that makes sense right? WRONG! A guy opens up the door and looks at me funny and I walk up to the reception desk and say I’ve checked in, give him my room number so I could go to bed. There’s another building. Not that I’d know that because it was written NOWHERE. So he sends me over there without so much as a code to the other door (so I had to pray the digital key worked which it never did for the main door) which another guest gave me when I went to that building. For a young girl who’d just taken two buses from the airport and rocked up in the middle of the night so much as a smile would have made me feel more at ease. Point is, you guys need to improve your after hours check in 10 fold. I also made it clear I was arriving late too… Other than a noisy roommate which isn’t a fault of the hostel it was pretty good and clean.

Really enjoyed my stay! Clean hostel, friendly and Brandon as reception was really helpful!