Name: Banana Bender Backpackers
Address: 118 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane, Brisbane, Brisbane, 4000, Australia
Rating: 8

Air conditioning

Smoking areas

Smoke-free property

Terrace

General

Non-smoking rooms

Rooms

Safe-deposit box

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Common kitchen

Vending machine

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Billiards

Recreation

Playroom

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Caxton Street

The Barracks

Brisbane Arts Theatre

Queensland Police Museum

Queensland Police Service Academy

Kurilpa Bridge

St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital

Jubilee Catholic Parish

Queensland Theatre

XXXX Brewery

Brisbane Airport

Redcliffe Airport

Banana Bender Backpackers

Brisbane

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

One of the only hostels that allow long term stay. The staff are super friendly and helpful. If you’re looking for work they can help you with that. I didnt have work for the week and they found a job for the mean time. Great stay and always great people in there. Not to long of a walk to the city.

Great stay

The cleaning is catastrophic (3 people to manage 20 rooms it's not complicated if?). It has only just reopened but they are increasing prices by 12.5% already, the vacuum cleaner went to 7 a.m. The terrace is closed from 10:30 p.m., so we have to divide in our rooms from 10:30 p.m. I've been there for a few weeks and I have the impression that the hostel is already deteriorating!

The cleaning is disgusting and The price of the rooms has increased too much all at once

We stayed at the hostel just one night.
Facilities are clean and it was good everyone had his/her own set of kitchen utilities (plates, cutlery, mug, ...) stored in a locker. Also the building looked freshly renovated.
The big issue for us has been checking out within reception hours (9am-8pm) to be able to get 60$ deposit back we had paid for the room keys. So, unless you have got an Australian bank account (which we haven't, being tourists), you have to put into account losing your deposit if you want an "early" check out.
Apart from that, there are very few bathrooms for all guests; shared dining room is outside, on a terrace, which is a bit annoying during winter chilling nights; wifi in the room was not good; there's no hangers in the showers, which makes it a bit tricky to shower; there's also no bed light or a little shelf thing beside beds.


Not recommended

I have two kids (6yr, 3yr). I have always worried about circumstance of hostel when I have a booking. Sometimes there are a lot of drunken people or terrible guests in the hostel. But Bananabenderbackpackers is peaceful place and chill place at same time. My boys loved staying there as all staffs were kind and nice. Specially thanks to site manager who showed us really generous manner even though my family was nagging to you >**<.
It was nice trip with beautiful memory. Thank you guys!!

Nice atmosphere

The worst part about the stay was that we got bitten by bed bugs. We had lots of red bumps on our body and after seing a doctor he could confirm that they were bedbug bites. The welcome to the reception was OK, but it was really hard to hear what the receptionist actually said. Also be aware that you have to pay a deposit for each key. Some of our keys didn't work for the lock so we had to go down and get new ones. 

Location was OK but keep in mind that it is pretty far away from the centrum of Brisbane. It is walking distance but it's going to take you close to 30 min. There is some good restaurants and bars in the immediate area which I would recommend going to grab something to eat from. 

I can't say anything about the standards of the kitchen since we didn't use it but I was surprised that it closed so early. The bathrooms are OK, I have for sure seen worse at other hostels. The showers were a bit dirty and uncomfortable. There also was a lack to bathroom compared to how many people there were. I had to stand in a cue to brush my teeth before going to bed.

Would I return here? Probably not. It was OK for 1 night but I wouldn't stay any longer. That's why I'm giving 3 stars.

Bed bugs

Clean quite simple set up yet has everything you need for a quite and enjoyable stay. Great prices. Can be social or if your looking to stick to yourself it's possible. Plenty of quite areas to occupy.

Good facilities simple all you need

firstly, to reply to the automated txt you post in reply to people's reviews: we DID talk to your staff and they appeared to have limited English to understand what our problem was. We said we were not able to sleep because of the noise and asked if we could leave. We were told "No refund, no spare rooms", but then we were moved to an even noisier room next to the toilet. Below are pros and cons of our stay:
Pros
Super location 
well meaning staff, 
Unlimited wi-fi, 
Free breakfast,
Good background music, 
public areas are reasonably well looked after, 
a welcome present of 2 "Snickers" bars
lots of helpful brochures on the walls
Cons
Noisy rooms/paper thin walls. We had to be moved twice and we were told we were the first people to complain which according to the reviews and talking to other guests is not true. AVOID ROOMS 14 AND 17 AT ALL COSTS. First is facing never ending traffic, the second one boarders the toilet, where people bang the door day and night. 
Aircon IS EXTRA. 
NO TOWELS, except for hire $2-I'd contemplate that, but judging by their sheets, you wouldn't get much for your buck. More about sheets-
Ours sheets were absolutely THREADBARE, you could see through them (please see photos). I haven't slept on anything like this even when I traveled in third world countries.
Sheet protectors were stained. If you require people to strip their sheets to return to you at the end of their stay, be prepared what they might see (and photograph).
No shelves/hand drying facilities in the bathroom at all.
No hot water to wash your hands in at least one of the communal bathrooms.
In Ladies shower the head couldn't be moved much and with my height, it would be directed straight at my head-showering was very uncomfortable.
No freezer-only fridge, which is really acting only like a cooler.
No food is allowed in rooms, but the kitchen where the food is stored, is locked for the night. Not sure what people would do if they want a midnight snack?
There are no tables/chairs in the rooms. The only thing you an do in the room is sleep, sitting/reading on the bed is very uncomfortable. We did not feel like coming back to our room so we stayed out most of the time.
Under bed where we always check for stuff when we pack, was filthy.
In conclusion, we recommend this place to students on a budget, but not for to anyone who is a light sleeper.
After a first awful night, we were told if we move out, we won't be refunded, so we had to stay for the whole 4 night stay and left completely exhausted from broken sleep.
P.S. They do offer to store you luggage, which is convenient, but it's in an unlocked public area which they say is monitored by cameras, but imagine the process of claiming your valuables after looking through footage, calling the police, etc... As if people don't have a flight to catch. Why not just put a lock on the door? Our cases reeked of nicotine as the store room is next to the smoking area.

Pros and cons

Small, convinient located hostel that lost its charm. Tiny kitchen, average clean, no helpful staff, no information about Brisbane, not enough showers/loos for everybody and lots and lots of signs everywhere what to do/what not to do. Not again.

Not cozy anymore

Nice place for backpackers. You can find grocery shop nearby and some places for shopping as well. Caretaker is good. Also, I found best was cooking facility so that you can cook your own food. I would recommend this place.

Nice place

For what a backpackers is and what you expect, I was pleasantly impressed. Ablution facilities were clean and safe. Plenty of great open shared facilities like a deck and tv lounge for people to relax at. The kitchen and cooking facilities were pristine and well maintained. Great value for money. 

Banana Bender Backpackers

Main amenities of the hotel

Location

Available rooms

Location

Description of the hotel

What other amenities are there?

General

Rooms

Services and amenities

Meals

Internet

Recreation

Kids

Pets

Policies

Check-in terms and conditions

Paid on the spot

Additional information

Payment