Super hostel with Soho vibe

I can pinpoint the exact moment I realised I was past backpacking. I was in a hostel in Amsterdam, I was hungover and a stranger's vomit was dripping through the mattress above and on to my face.

I resolved then that, although I wanted to travel the world and meet interesting people, I wanted to do it with a modicum of comfort. And that the next time I came into contact with the bodily fluids of a fellow traveller I would, at the very least, have met him first. So it was with unconcealed glee that I visited the world's first five-star hostel in Melbourne, Australia.

Now, either times have changed since I was a backpacker or Base St Kilda is an exception to the rule. Standing in the in-house RedEye bar there's a definite Soho vibe. The countertop is toffee apple red and the VJ - an ex-resident of Berlin's Circus Bar - mixes music videos and a mean Martini with practised ease.

Walk into the bathroom and there's a waterfall eddying down a Perspex wall into the urinal. Upstairs, in the all-girls Sanctuary level, there are Egyptian cotton sheets on the bunks, full-length mirrors, en-suite bathrooms, hairdryers and Aveda products for an extra 80p. Nowhere are there junk-shop sofas that look as if they should carry government health warnings. Everywhere you look it's clean, classy and, well, civilised. It's backpacking. But not as we know it.

The people at Base had a thought: what if backpacking wasn't all about dirt and deprivation and urine stains? What if backpacking was all about socialising and discovering cool parts of the world?

With this they set about designing the type of hostel they would like to stay in. One that was cleaned every four hours (there's a rota on every floor). One with 24-hour access but with safety features such as rooms with swipe card access and bunks with enough storage to stash a backpack.

The licensed bar has beers at 80p a 'pot' (285ml), is open until 2.30am and gives away free drinks when there's full occupancy; the Thai restaurant serves meals at £2. It all starts at a pocket-friendly £9 a night.

The quality of Base St Kilda surprised me so much that I visited another of the city's hostels to see if the trend had caught on. At the Coffee Palace, I met Jade Munroa, 21, and Rebecca Hood, 19, who were painting their nails in a dorm on the fifth floor. They wanted to watch TV but told me there was a 'weird guy' who wouldn't let them watch anything but the cookery channel. Plus they didn't want to leave their backpacks there as reception couldn't guarantee their safekeeping; one of their friends had just had all her things stolen.

They were jovial but the scene was desperate. At the mention of hairdryers at Base, their eyes grew wide like saucers and I left them fantasising about Aveda rosemary mint shampoo.

Hostel purists may moan that Base St Kilda is too sanitised. But the rooms must have the latest health and safety features following the hostel fire at Childers in 2000. And, given the number of backpackers who have gone missing over the last few years, the surveillance is essential.

Hardcore hostel-goers may call me a snob. They'd be right - but who wouldn't prefer a crisp Egyptian cover slip to a vomitstained pillowcase?

Base St Kilda, 17 Carlisle Street, St Kilda. Tel: +61 3 8598 6200. Dorms from £9, Doubles from £36.