Koala Beach Resort - Airlie Beach

Filthy, and awful staff!
Don't even know where to start. The kitchen is a joke -- filthy and tiny and really badly equipped. You have to pay for bed sheets. The rooms were filthy (we stayed in two different ones). Bedbugs. Huge cockroaches everywhere. Morrocco's, the bar, is an awful, tacky place with no amount of class whatsoever. The pool is dirty. And don't even get me started on the staff. They were all rude and didnt have a clue what they were doing, but one particular blonde girl on reception was the worst. She was only about eighteen years old and didn't care about her job at all, and made us feel like a complete nuisance when all we wanted to do was check in. They were all so rude and unfriendly and unhelpful. When we were trying to check in the transaction was mucked up by the clueless girl on reception, and then this other guy (Justin from Canada) came along to fix the mess she had made. He seemed to know what he was doing, and checked us into another room, and we were happy with that. Now here comes the best bit. Later that evening I got out of the shower to discover he had checked us into his own room! How convenient! He spent that night desperately trying to chat up first one of us and then the other, and pretty much completely ignored us the following day when he realised we werent up for constantly drinking with him. Lovely behaviour from the staff of a hostel! It's a pity about the state of the place, because it has a lovely layout and could be lovely if it wanted to -- as it is I'd just say avoid at all costs. Also avoid their boat on the Whitsundays, the Pride of Airlie -- just do yourself a favour and go elsewhere. we didnt get to see much of the Whitsundays at all, because all the crew were interested in doing was getting drunk, and the food was disgusting. Cheers for that lads!

Awful!
Do not stay here, unless you are a fan of bedbugs, cockroaches, and rats! It is by far the dirtiest hostel i've stayed in! I was eaten alive by bedbugs, the room was filthy, there were dead insects everywhere, and one poor girl literally had her bag eaten to bits by rats. I know hostels are cheap and you don't expect it to be the ritz but there is no need for a hostel to be that dirty, particularly when i have stayed in some really clean hostels!

Filthy, rude staff, and not worth the money
Warning to all -- do not stay in this filthy, cockroach- and bedbug-ridden hole! This is putting it politely. Rooms are filthy, even the doubles which you pay quite a lot for are infested with cockroaches and god knows what else, plus broken glass on the floor (which we nearly trod on) and on complaining to the so called manager, we were told, "so what, I have cockroaches in my room." Absolutely disgusting service from reception staff (I would suggest a customer service course for all members). We were then allocated another room and on opening the door, we were greeted with an even filthier dorm (bearing in mind that we had paid for a double) and the stench of urine, not to mention the pile of soiled mattresses, on top of a bunk bed, which was falling apart. This place is a serious health hazard, we wish now that we had photographed the rooms and reported Koala's to health and safety. Stay well away, as far away as possible.

Koala thoroughly let us down. The rotting fruit and stale beer smell meets you at reception and the whole outside area is messy and unkempt. The pool resembles a pond in colour and is out of order. Rooms dire. Most beds in our room had holes in the middle and therefore were very uncomfortable. Door also not on hinges! Had to pay for everything from a washing fee for linen to hiring pots and pans in addition to cutlery and crockery and a key deposit. Kitchen filthy too. Grossly understaffed all round and the people we had were not helpful.

I enjoyed staying at Koala's. The people there were helpful with anything you needed, and it was an overall great atmosphere, besides everyone being pretty beat after their sailing trip! Pride of Airlie was the boat to be on, such a good time! Only bad party is small and broken down laundry facility, but the laundry place around the corner was cheaper anyways!

Rooms not very clean and kitchen was rubbish. Also this place is massive and hard to find your way around, especially at night when it is badly lit and no signs anywhere! Good location though and nice pool etc.

I don't really know how anyone can recommend this hostel... The rooms were bad: no aircon (it had one but it didn't really work), bad smell, fleas, you need to walk 10 min to get to your room from main street, leak in the roof (everytime it was raining, you heart this constant dripping sound which drives you carzy - if it hasn't been dripping on your clothes). And above all that the staff was really really unfriendly... Try to avoid koalas!!

Decent hostel, our dorm had a kitchenette and was clean. Good location, although the main kitchen was a little dirty and nothing was provided to cook with.

I have visited the Koala Beach Resort on both my visits to Australia. Both times I found it to be value for money and a safe place to leave your pack if you take a boat trip. A lot of happy beered-up nights, thanks to the Koala's.

minging. $24 dollars a night and they still want to charge a fee for the bed linen. And a deposit. Beds are uncomfortable at best, falling apart at worst. Air-conditioner was ineffective and noisy. There's a $3 charge for luggage storage. The kitchen has nothing in it. Grubby. Shabby. Horrible.

I can't think of any words to describe how disgusting this place is! It looks nice from the outset but the rooms smell badly of urine and there was an ant nest in our room, a rodent in another room and bedbugs in another. At $25 a night having to pay for linen is just unbelievable! I wouldn't advise anyone to ever stay at any of these resorts!

It was ok here if you were just staying one night. It's not that cheap, though. It's probably better to look elsewhere.

The room was not too clean and the staff didn't seem to have much of a clue what was going on. They also charge you three dollars a day to store your pack while you are away, even if it's one of their own tours; pretty shoddy really.

This hostel is one of the best on my whole trip to Australia, but it is not very clean. I had problems with rats in my room. And the kitchen is not very good.

I stayed here for one night — it was dirty, and we left with bedbugs — not pleasant. We found the staff rude and disorganized and I would suggest that all avoid this hostel.