You know what to expect of a YHA. This one was a bit different, as it was located in a cute wooden house. This also meant a lot of creaking floors and such. Also, there was maybe too few bathrooms. However, the service was good, albeit their insistence on tour bookings not being necessary was a bit annoying. Even if and when they are correct, it would have given us a peace of mind to know that our itinerary is official. Nevertheless, I handled the bookings myself, so all went well. Napier was very quiet at the time, but we managed to fill 2 days just fine.

Stayed here for 2 nights a year ago!
Good place with clean rooms, very clean toilets and fully-equiped kitchen .
We stayed in a twin room just above the reception area, had a lovely view of the beach. Small room but had space to place your luggage and hooks to hang your coats.
(One minus: had soft mattresses, we prefer firm ones)
Lots of travel brochures in the reception area.
Bob (the hostel manager) is a very helpful and informative person. He is kind to lend me a charger for my camera. A million thanks Bob!
Yes, we would stay here again :)

Great spot to stay for a few days - cool old building just over the road from the seaside 7 a short walk back into the centre of town.
Has a relaxed homely feel to it. Great staff, friendly & helpful. I had to change some bus tickets on intercity & as they are an agent it was done with no hassle.
No lockers in rooms but there are $2 lockers in the hall

We are a middle aged couple who have returned from 3 weeks travel on the north island of New Zealand. We stayed in a number of YHAs, and also other accommodation, and our reviews of YHAs will be based on TWIN ROOM accommodation.

YHA Napier is situated in a rambling old building on one of the busiest streets in Napier. Overlooking the water, it has a quirky charm but is not cheap. Be advised to request a room NOT overlooking the water, but at the back of the building, as traffic noise is very loud from very early to very late, including large trucks.

We were allocated an 'ocean view' twin with shared facilities. On both mornings we had to stand in a queue in order to use the toilets and the showers. Unfortunately the toilets and showers, of which there are not enough, are in the room together; a pain if you only want to use the loo but someone is in the room, having a shower.

There is very little outside space, some chairs and tables, and a number of potplants and a small garden patch; and nowhere unfortunately that we could see to hang out clothes; only dryers were on offer.

The upstairs lounge, TV and internet room is large and welcoming.

Bear in mind if travelling by private car that there is no free parking on site; a rather convoluted system of routinely moving your car will be explained once you check in. Once you get the hang of it is not so bad!

The kitchen is rather small for the number of people that can be accommodated and the utensils could do with a clear out and some less stained frypans, saucepans and cooking implements would make the kitchen more appealing.

We arrived on a Tuesday night and stayed for 2 nights and the price was in the high $NZ80s; rather too high overall for the standard of the facilities we thought.

We noted that during our stay that in the fridge was an uncovered plate of BBQ meat which had a note on it that it was from Sunday's BBQ - this was still there when we left on Friday morning.

The staff on the front desk were friendly and helpful.

The place overall is ok but it does need to address kitchen issues and bathroom issues.