Myself and a friend decided to stay in the Arts Factory, for a two day stay in Byron Bay. We have been travelling Australia for 4 weeks at this stage and when we turned up we received weird looks, I assume this was due to not looking a certain way, and having suitcases. The hostel is located among a significant amount of greenery (almost forest-like) and is at the end of a road with no street lights, which is very unnerving when walking home late at night. As a result, a car leaving the hostel during the night proceeded to beep and scream at myself and my friend when we were walking home alone in the dark.
We stayed in the Cosy Corner, and this was a private room with a sitting room attached. Upon checking in, we noticed that this room was unclean with chewing gum on several walls, dirty sofa, dirty curtains and a bathroom which had mould and no hand soap present.
When we entered this room, someone attempted to open the sitting room door, which was very unsettling and the curtains do not close properly, leaving you visible from the bed.
This level of cleanliness followed into the shared bathrooms, which were covered in urine.
We made the decision to vacate the hostel a night early and rearranged our trip to leave Byron Bay, a day earlier, as this experience tainted our view of Byron Bay as a location.
Luckily, the manager agreed to issue a refund for this extra night which we did not stay, which was appreciated. However, I would not recommend staying here