Black Sheep Backpackers

From a great place to a toxic environment of harassment and selective discrimination. Do not recommend! I stayed at this hostel for long-term periods, and it is deeply disheartening to see how the current management and the conduct of the supervisor on duty managed to completely ruin my experience. What happened to me was the final straw for an establishment that has clearly lost all respect for its guests. If you are a traveler looking for an environment that welcomes and embraces diversity, I strongly advise you to stay far away from here. Anyone who follows the recent history of reviews for this hostel will notice a worrying pattern: previous guests have already highlighted serious issues regarding unfair treatment and discrimination. My personal experience unfortunately confirmed that this venue operates with a heavy bias and selective harassment against same-sex couples. I acknowledge that I breached a house rule by letting my boyfriend spend the night with me. However, the aftermath was a clear abuse of authority and felt like pure retaliation, as the previous day I had rightfully complained about the neglect concerning my food in the shared fridge. In the morning, the supervisor approached me in a hostile manner and applied a double, completely disproportionate penalty: I was forced to pay the financial fee for the extra guest, and even after paying, I was punished with immediate eviction. I was given a miserable 15 minutes to pack all my belongings and leave the premises, being treated with absolute disrespect despite my long-term history as a regular, paying guest. The most shocking part is the blatant double standard: in the exact same room, there is a heterosexual guest who frequently brings a partner over to sleep, and no action has ever been taken against him. When questioned, the supervisor's flimsy excuse was that "there are no cameras in the room to know," which only solidifies the clear targeting I experienced. Why do strict enforcement and 15-minute evictions only operate with maximum agility against a gay guest and his partner? Why charge the financial penalty and still enforce a humiliating eviction, if not out of malice? It is deeply sad to see a hostel that used to be very good decay into this level of hostility and prejudice. I am sharing this on every major platform to ensure that future travelers—especially minorities and the LGBTQIA+ community—are fully aware of the unfair treatment they might face here before spending their money.

Better than some motels I’ve stayed at! Black Sheep Backpackers has a perfect location, friendly staff and is extremely clean. Excellent security with keypad codes for rooms and bathrooms. The rooms are perfect sized and heated, and the full shared kitchen has everything you need. Highly recommend to anyone!!

As far as backpackers go this has to be right up there. Very close walk to town. The spa and sauna were epic!

The best place in Queenstown so far! -clean -comfy beds -nice staff -Sauna!!! -great location Highly recommend ❤️

A bit hassle with the check in but thankfully a staff arrived after 10-15 mins. I saw some comments about the hassles about the doors that needs an app to open it, but I don't think that it was that hard as long as you remember the code. I like how clean the place is, ample amount of toilets and showers they have a blower the shower, aside from the highly reflective ceiling, I like the restroom. The room that we got has a good space, we can move around, have a table, tv, drink station and a very good heater 💓 Thumbs up with their hot pool, sauna and cold plunge 🙈 My partner have a hard time sleeping because the room that we have is beside the restrooms and everyone was awake around 6/7 am.

May I start this story by saying what an amazing hostel. The muck that was caused and the stories and people that were formed in that hostel are for the books. From my first day arriving and first encounter with someone in New Zealand I met the town alcoholic Jodi my first bond had been made in New Zealand. From there I made a family with my English brothers and future wives of the hostel, we’d cook up a family storm every night, some say it was entertainment watching us cook others thought it looked like fine dining. Shoko (the best worker) and another figure of great importance, who was in our dorm who I shall not name as he is the prince of the black sheep, were ones to be remembered. Room 7 has been christened and will go down as the room to be in engrained in the mind and engraved into the very walls we slept around. Like a mark in history that you’d find in a caveman’s cave. Thank you black sheep.

Overcrowded and awful hygiene. There's currently somewhat of a flu epidemic here so beware. Everyone in my room has the flu and I don't want to stay in there. For a reason unbeknownst to me they're not making it a priority to isolate all infected people into the same rooms and it's spreading. They don't have any private rooms available yet, they do have parking spaces for vans. They also have a space available yet shockingly, won't let me park my car (with bed and curtains) there to avoid all the sick people in my room. Nor did they offer a refund, attempt to help or even give me a managers phone number. I want to be as polite as possible despite being enraged. So taken to reviewing on here and giving two stars because frankly, I like the design and the location is central. Post writing this review the receptionist has found me and tried her best to resolve things to the best of her ability. So, they do employ nice, friendly and polite people here.