Name: Fox Glacier Pod Hostel & Inn
Address: 39 Sullivan Road, Fox Glacier, 7886 Fox Glacier, New Zealand, Fox Glacier, Fox Glacier, Fox Glacier, 7886, New Zealand
Rating: 6

Smoking areas

Smoke-free property

Heating

Outdoor furniture

General

Non-smoking rooms

Linens

Rooms

Accessibility features

Accessibility

Laundry

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Diet menu (on request)

Common kitchen

Restaurant

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

English

Chinese

Languages Spoken

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Barbecue grill(s)

Billiards

Karaoke

Hiking

Picnic area

Recreation

Parking

Spa tub

Pool and beach

Darts

Cycling

Sports

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hostel

Fox Glacier Pod Hostel & Inn

Fox Glacier

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

park access

The room was nice and clean. There was heated blanket and a heater in the room, so it surely wasn't cold. Room was in a separate block, really quiet. Absolutely no problems. Also an electric kettle and some coffee or tee was available in the room. It was a pleasant stay.

Cozy room in a quiet willage

I went to Fox Glacier for Operation Tidyfox (cleaning the Fox River after the storms), so it was free and all booked for me. I read these reviews before I went and was nervous, but it wasn't as bad as they read. The big negative were the showers, they were pretty disgusting, but the beds were good (I was in a 4 bunk bed room), kitchen was fine and the bar and barfood was also pretty good. Unfortunately they just need to spend some money on those bathrooms and I'll be a good hostel.

Weekend stay

We stayed here because the weather turned bad and a tent wasn’t going to be very fun. Booked a double room with shared bathroom for 2 nights. Beds were ok but the room was damp. Mould on the walls. This is a hostel so we planned to cook our meals. The kitchen is in pretty bad shape. There were 4 stove tops with 2-4 burners. Only 1 burner worked accurately in the kitchen. Tea towels were supplied but there were only 4 a day and they got pretty grotty. Not enough cutlery. I went to the attached restaurant to get forks for dinner and they would only give me 1 fork. They said the morning manager was in charge of that. The booking said there was soup and popcorn included. When we asked about the soup we were told that was between 6&6:30. Never saw popcorn. Ad shows hot pool and when we searched it out we found an empty spa in a shed area. We asked about using the bbq & management told us we would have to clean it before we could use it. “It’s pretty dirty. “. I recommend spending an extra few $ for something clean. (Or sleep in the tent!)There is purely no pride in this establishment. They take the money and leave you to it. 

Desperate for a room

I stayed in a shared dorm for one night here. The hostel is very shabby and run-down and the bathrooms and shared kitchen could have been cleaner, although with the kitchen this was because a lot of the guests didn't wash up after themselves. The rooms were also poorly ventilated and smelled bad. There was a bar next to the hostel, so it was very noisy late into the night. The whole place needs a deep clean and could do with a renovation to justify the price they are asking. The only good thing was that the beds had curtains going across.

Over-priced and run down

Bad service...it took us ten minutes to get a couple of pints in the bar.
Wish we had not bothered...the worst beers we had in 4 weeks in NZ.
Pretty pricey too.
Nice outside space but thats all its got going for it.

Rubbish

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.  Whilst the kitchen was a little drab and under-stocked..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.

Although the actual shared pod-rooms were nice, the overall customer experience was extremely poor: daily unexplained price changes for the rooms, no staff on site overnight, under-furnished and grubby communal kitchen, slow restaurant service with many items not available, no formal welcome at check in.

Safety concern after midnight fire alarm and no staff on site


My partner and I stayed at this location one evening. 

We had many issues with the hostel.
First, the room/building in general reeked of mould and mildew. The entire room smelt so bad that it gave myself and my partner a massive headache. The stench lingered even when opening the window, and using the fan. We had to leave the room shortly after arrival because it was so bad. Then, arriving back in the evening, after leaving the window open, the smell continued to linger. Probably because the room was so small it was like a jail cell. By the time we checked out in the morning, the smell had stuck to our clothes and bags. 
Second, the bathroom was also horrendous. The smell lingered out into the hallway. I had to plug my nose or hold my breath when using it, as the smell made me gag. We did not even attempt to shower in the bathrooms as they were so disgustingly maintained and cleaned. 
Third, there was a white stain of some sort down the side of the bed, this was not noticed til the morning, however it looked like vomit of some kind.. as we did not vomit we have no idea where it came from, and it had definitely been there for a long time. 
Fourth, we needed to be up and out of Fox Glacier at 6 in the morning, therefore we went to bed quite early. However, we were woken up by the smoke alarm going off, not once, but twice. When poking our head out the door to see the commotion, someone who supposedly worked in the bar briskly walked by and said “it’s fine.” No explanation, nothing. When being jolted awake at that time, how is that “fine?” This caused massive anxiety for the rest of the evening as 1. We didn’t know what had happened, and 2. We weren’t sure if it was going to happen again. This is poor management of what could have been a serious situation.
Sixth, everywhere in Fox Glacier the wifi works, except for in the hostel rooms. We could not use the wifi at all in our room, or anywhere on the property. We tried to disconnect and reconnect multiple times. Anywhere else in the town we could connect to other wifi freely, but the one place we needed it was a constant hassle.
Finally, reception was closed at 4PM. We had many issues we wanted to discuss with reception, however, on our attempt to go talk to someone we found there was no one around to talk to. 

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for us, we didn’t check out the kitchen as we were actually terrified it would be in the same state as the rest of the hostel. 

This is horrible customer service from a terrible place to stay. We have backpacked and stayed in multiple hostels around the world, and NEVER had such a disgusting and horrendous experience.

AWFUL

We stayed two nights at Fox Pod Hostel. the room smelled toral musty, it was wet in the room, the bedsheets had bloodstains. the wifi did not work. the walls are extremely thin so it’s totally noisy. the communal kitchen is a disaster. the dining tables were sticky. on the tables stick black long hairs. Not again! 

Not again

My husband, his mother and I stayed in Room 27 on 29 December.

We were not happy with the condition of the room at all, and asked to be changed. There was mould on the shower walls, no wifi, unfinished plastering in the room, cracks and mess on walls, rust in the toilet paper holder and pipes lying around outside.

We hadn't mentioned that we could clearly hear people in the room above us, there was no hand soap in the bathroom and only two towels, though there were three of us.

Upon asking to be moved, we were told this wasn't possible, and a staff member was sent with us to clean the shower mould. They were very apologetic when they saw the state of the room and we reiterated that we would rather move than have the strong smell of mould remover in that tiny room with us. Again, we were told this was not possible.

I understand that rates were higher because of the time of year, but as New Zealanders who regularly stay in paid accommodation around the country, we were shocked and disgusted at the abysmal state of the room, especially considering that we paid about $240 for it. For that price, one is entitled to expect the basics to be present. The next night, for example, we stayed in a very tidy, well presented room in a popular tourist area with limited accommodation for a lower price. There was no comparison.

We found the manager to be abrupt and uncaring that the room was in such a bad state. Reading online reviews, we see that this seems to be a common story. We also met two other couples in the same night who were upset with their accommodation at your facility.

We believe there should be more accountability for the state of this poor accommodation at such inflated prices. As New Zealanders, we are embarrassed that visitors are experiencing this in our country.

Fox Glacier Pod Hostel & Inn

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