Name: Palm Court Budget Motel Hostel/Backpackers
Address: Corner Third & Giles Street, Katherine, Katherine, Katherine, 850, Australia
Rating: 6

Air conditioning

Smoke-free property

Ticket assistance

Garden

Terrace

No elevators

Reception desk

General

Non-smoking rooms

Safe (in room)

Rooms

Accessibility features

Wheelchair Accessible

Accessibility

Laundry

Services and amenities

Breakfast

Kettle

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet access

Internet

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Barbecue grill(s)

Picnic area

Barbeque

Recreation

Parking

Garage

Outdoor pool

Pool and beach

Pets allowed (under 5 kg)

Pets

Location

At the mini-hotel

Djilpin Arts

Railway Museum & Stream Train

MiMi Aboriginal Art & Craft

Katherine Public Art & Craft Galley

Tindal Airport

Palm Court Budget Motel Hostel/Backpackers

Katherine

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

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shared-bathroom

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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

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not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

We travelled via hire car from Darwin with aim of being close to Katherine Gorge for an early start! Whilst accommodation was basic, you get what you pay for! Reception was unfussy and helpful, but WiFi was dodgy! Town is a strange mix of Outback Aussies and local tribesmen, but we found a couple of nearby watering holes to see us right! 
Up bright and breezy in the morning, we got to Katherine Gorge before the rush, so the backpackers place was ideal! 

Perfect Accommodation Stop Off

For a budget stay this is of the best. Rooms are equipped with fridge and proper aircon. Staff is great and you'll easily find other packers spending the night by the pool having a barbecue. Clean, well kept and relaxed stay for overnighters or for those staying a bit longer.

Great staff, nice stay!

We had to stay in Katherine because our car broke down on the way to Kakadu Nationalpark. While we had the car at the mechanic in Katherine we stayed at Palm Court for 3 nights. Soraya, her boyfriend and Pauline are the best ever. They were so helpful and generous. They gave us advice for the car repair, gave us lifts to the mechanics place to pick up some stuff from the car and they let us stay in the room the whole day even we didn‘t know if we are going to extend or being able to continue our roadtrip! Thank you so much for everything! We felt like home and family in this hostel <3

Best staff ever!!!

To make things clear: THERE ARE 2 BUILDINGS at Palm Court: THE BACKPACKERS  – plus THE MOTEL BUILDING which is adjacent.

I’d reserved a couple of nights in the backpacker section before heading out to KATHERINE GORGE to camp. My mistake in the booking saw the nice lady running the place offer me a budget motel room instead – at a price reduced $20 per night from the usual. I’d spent the previous fortnight in backpacker dorms and a small tent, so I jumped at a chance for something a bit more private and comfortable.

And indeed it was. 
But that’s compared to backpacker dorms and tents. You dudes will probably want some sort of comparison with other motel rooms. Okay, here we go:
Katherine is not short of the latter – a glance at pricing suggests it’s hard to get one within $30 of PALM COURT BUDGET MOTEL’S normal tariff and you can spend a heck of a lot more. I’m thinking that makes PALM COURT pretty good value. Sure the room was a bit old fashioned in a building that looks like it hasn’t changed much since construction in the 70s/early 80s, but it was clean, pretty fully equipped with the normal motel inclusions, had an efficient if a bit noisy aircon (important when it’s 40C outside), a comfortable bed and was of a reasonable size. This is not a noisy site – the road outside didn’t seem particularly busy, at least half the guests were backpackers engaged in local fruit picking who tended to hit the sack early in preparation to an upcoming hard day in the sun, and it seems to be one of those solidly constructed joints with minimal noise transmission from neighbouring rooms..
The manager told me I was welcome to use the kitchen and laundry in the backpackers’ section (but I found my room’s microwave fine for cooking) – the place had extensive clothes lines and guests from both sections shared the nice little pool.

Location is fine – this is one of Katherine’s more central motels where you don’t need a car to get into townl. It’s 3 blocks from the central intersection: less than 10 minutes’ relaxed stroll to WOOLWORTHS and other shops/restaurants/services (including the GREYHOUND bus station) in the main drag. There's a MACCAS in Palm Court’s road less than 5 minutes away and a corner store 2 minutes in the opposite direction.

To sum up – nothing to get excited about, but PALM COURT BUDGET MOTEL is an okay place in a good location costing less than the opposition – subtract my $20pn discount and we get “costing CONSIDERABLY less”.

How a Budget Motel Room Can Be a Step Up.

I really want to start my review with how I came to be at Palm Court Budget Motel... 
I'd just had a really bizarre experience trying to reserve a room over the phone at the nearby Pine Tree Motel. The fellow on the phone wanted every bit of detail from me under the sun, including my name, address, full credit card details and goodness knows what else (despite my saying I would be arriving within a couple of hours and could sort it all out then). I was told they would take a copy of my credit card (illegal without my consent!) either way when I arrived, in case of any problems. I was told that had I booked through an online consolidator, I would have had to provide my credit card details anyway, and no appreciation was shown for the fact that I'd tried to reserve a room directly and avoid the Pine Tree Motel losing 10-20% in commissions to some huge american internet booking conglomerate. Enough was enough, I wasn't going to be treated like a criminal (made all the more amusing if the fellow had known anything about my professional background), and I hung up.
Next on my list was Palm Court - my call was answered by the easy-going Soraya, who was happy to organise a room for me, negotiate a more reasonable price, and arrange for an alternative check-in as I would be arriving slightly after hours. What a refreshing difference! Admittedly I was in a bit of a hurry to organise a roof over my head for the evening, and with this, I didn't need to think twice.
Arriving at Palm Court through the Giles Street entrance (watch the driveway, it's a bit low and I scraped my bumper when I didn't approach it at an angle!), I found my keys and found my room. I will say I was a little concerned about some of the other nearby guests loitering outside in the carpark and listening to music, but in the end they didn't cause any trouble and I couldn't hear anything once I'd shut the door.
The twin room that I got was itself quite spacious, albeit dated. I will also say that the old box-style air conditioner was completely inadequate for the temperature and size of the room. It took basically all night to cool it to an acceptable temperature, and this is something that will certainly require the owners' attention. 
The TV worked and had a good selection of channels, and in the end I got a reasonable nights' sleep. Unfortunately in the morning I found there was no milk provided for my coffee, and I didn't feel like walking around outside in my pyjamas in search of this.
Everything in the room itself and in the bathroom was tidy.
In the end there were some good points and some areas that need improvement. While this is advertised as a more "budget" accommodation option, I don't think that $85 a night in the wet season was a super bargain. It was, however, at the lower end of the scale for accommodation in this area, and I must reiterate that I appreciated being treated like a respectable human by the hospitable and friendly Soraya. This really made for a pleasant stay, as did a bit of a play and a noisy welcome by her dogs when I finally went out in the morning!
Like some of the other reviews mention, don't be fooled by the word "backpackers" in the property name. They cater for those wanting a motel room as well, and I didn't actually see or experience any of the typical drunk and annoying backpacker crowd that I'd normally expect. Perhaps they've all been chased out of town by the over-zealous Auxiliary Police I encountered at the Woolworths bottle shop who wanted to see my ID just to enter the place! Bizarre! I have since discovered that ID needs to be shown in the NT to purchase take-away alcohol, which to me seems very 1984-esque, but to be subjected to checks just to enter a bottle shop? C'mon! Oh and a special mention for Officer Melissa Bridgeman - may I suggest not "losing" your name badge in future, it's one of the oldest tricks in the book!
Anyway back to the topic at hand!..... Palm Court Backpackers and Budget Motel is certainly worth considering as a friendly, no-frills accommodation option in Katherine, away from any highway noise but within walking distance of the shops, pub and the main drag. Thanks for your help and for a pleasant stay, and for not making me feel like a crook!

Friendly service in a central location

The place is quite run down for the place it is, ants in bathrooms, cockroaches. bed bugs, mattresses are quite ancient when you feel the inner springs not able to sleep to good, some mattresses are old when the stuffing is coming out. After hours so called caretaker is a real arrogant pig regular drunk happy to pick on selected people, filthy pool people got sick from using until it was closed. Not a good place to check in, pay bit more and go to proper motel. The service is crap like the people who run it. Cleaning of the rooms aren't that clean. I been treated better from people who live on the streets. The place should be shut down.

I booked this hostel from the 2nd till 5th of September (female dorm) because it was the cheapest one in Katherine but looking back i would have rather spend more money and stayed anywhere else.
When I arrived the room was filthy - dirt and hair on the floor, dirty sink in the bathroom, no toiletpaper, smelly cans in the fridge, stripped bedsheets still on the beds and stuff of people already gone still on the beds. I just assumed the room would be cleaned later that day because I arrived at 5 am, but when I checked out 2 days later the room still looked the same (I had to buy my own toiletpaper in the meantime). I tried to ask the reception staff to clean the room, but there was never anyone there, just a sign saying that the reception is closed that day, without a reason for that mentioned. I finally phoned the manager about it and upon telling her my issues she kept insisting that the dirt was my fault and I could have brought the used sheets of other people to the laundry myself. She said she's not responsible but housekeeping is (I thought a manager is supposed to manage the rest of the staff...) and finally just hung up on me mid-conversation. Rude stuff and filthy rooms - stay somewhere else!

Do not stay here!

Very dirty massive build up of dust on fans over all dirty and ruff. Very disappointed we new it wasn’t going to flash as it was only $95 but it’s shouldn’t be this dirty. Wouldn’t recommend wouldn’t stay here again 😪

Palm Court Budget Motel Hostel/Backpackers

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