Requiem for the YHA

[ebikeerwidnes]

Do you remember having to do a chore before you leave? I have swept many a bunk room.
i recently stayed in one in Bristol in a great location and a nice coffee shop but the rather tatty facilities and bunk beds left me craving a hotel with single en-suite rooms, I’ve clearly gone soft.

Oh yes

was told to sweep the driveway once
It had been tarmacked a few days before and we got several buckets of stones off it and had hardly touched the problem
had to refuse to do it any more otherwise we would have been there all-day!

but it was normally mopping the floor or something


I do remember that leaving it late to ask was a lottery
some places would save the worst jobs for last
otehr would have run out of real jobs and just let you off

 

[PaulSB]

I agree it's nice to have a 'Room of one's own', to quote Virginia Woolf, but a room of one's own these days costs at least 100 quid a night which makes any bikepacking journey horrendously expensive. Doing a LeJog over 12 days, for example, is 1,200 pounds just for the room. Add in food and trains and planes and hotels before and after the actual cycling and that's about 4 - 5,000 quids worth gone.
I wonder what happened to the B&B's one used to see dotted along the byways for 30 quid a night

You must be choosing some very pricey stops. With a bit of planning one can get a Travelodge for £50 or less. There are plenty of other possibilities but I would agree finding a low cost B&B is more difficult.

The last bikepacking trip we planned a little research found independent B&Bs at +/-£70/night.

 

[mjr]

Wasn't it more than frowned on but not allowed at one point?

I think I remember staying in a hostel on a Welsh long-distance path with only farm vehicle access for the operator, no guest parking. I couldn't say for sure it was YHA, though.

I've stayed in hostels in several countries, and abroad that's been usually mixed dorms with no lone travellers allowed in them IIRC, which is an interesting policy with all sorts of implications, but I think it's probably better for walking and cycling tourism than the way the YHA seems to have gone 'whole hostel'.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

When I was a teenager there was a girl who lived nearby that I knew

she was a bit of a rebel
her Dad managed a Youth Hostel somewhere remote and she visited him for weeks on end in summer and often over Easter

Apparently access to it was along a narrow track, so no cars could even get close
He had to get his supplies from the nearest village and get them as close as possible on a small 4WD thing which lived in a shed quite a way from the hostel
then carry the rest up - often recruiting visitors to help out

clearly no electric except from a generator - which needed petrol carrying up for it so was only on for a short time every day
heating was by a single stove in the main room
and water came from the stream


THAT was a proper Youth Hostel!!!

 

[Baldy]

I've used the SYHA hostel on Loch Ossian, in the middle of Rannoch Moor. There's a train station 2 miles away, the one in the train spotting film. Or it's walk or cycling in. Solar power and wood stove and no Internet, great place. No problem with solo travelers.

 

[mjr]

You must be choosing some very pricey stops. With a bit of planning one can get a Travelodge for £50 or less. There are plenty of other possibilities but I would agree finding a low cost B&B is more difficult.

"A bit of planning" = six weeks ahead, pre-paid non-refundable room-only, and you may be ten miles away from where you wanted, especially in an area with few lodges and some are basically on motorway junctions with rubbish cycle access.

And some are more basic and tatty than many hostels, aren't they? I remember Alcester, Croydon and Stonehouse needing refurbishment, off the top of my head, and the last two weren't cheap! Bethnal Green was poor too, but that was more shambolic operation unprepared for the number of guests and it was RideLondon, so not typical.

 

[PaulSB]

"A bit of planning" = six weeks ahead, pre-paid non-refundable room-only, and you may be ten miles away from where you wanted, especially in an area with few lodges and some are basically on motorway junctions with rubbish cycle access.

And some are more basic and tatty than many hostels, aren't they? I remember Alcester, Croydon and Stonehouse needing refurbishment, off the top of my head, and the last two weren't cheap! Bethnal Green was poor too, but that was more shambolic operation unprepared for the number of guests and it was RideLondon, so not typical.

We should unpick this. I have no particular affinity to Travelodge but your post isn't entirely accurate. It appears you don't like Travelodge, that's fine. I'm not a great fan of the YHA, the last one I stayed in was Buttermere, my recollection is waking up very stiff and a poor shower along the corridor. This doesn't make it necessary for either of us to deliver this sort of sweeping, generalised criticism, something I've avoided doing.

"Six weeks ahead" - you can book Travelodge Chorley, local to me, 2½ miles off the Leeds Liverpool canal, a popular bikepacking route for this Sunday - £32.

"ten miles away" as a criticism presumes YHAs are on one's route. It's a bikepacking tour the route can be varied. I doubt many affordable B&Bs are necessarily on route.

There are 630+ Travelodges, 32 on motorway services, how many on junctions is probably impossible to determine.

I've never been to the ones you mention other than Bethnal Green, twice. It was OK, the staff very helpful and for a London based event reasonably priced.

Recently I stayed in Southwark, well refurbished, extremely helpful staff, very poor breakfast. Leeds Vicar Lane last Friday was very well refurbished, quiet and offered excellent breakfast. The staff were great, as check-in finished, the lady smiled and said "Enjoy Bob, I love him." I hadn't mentioned Dylan, she guessed.

Within every organisation there will be good and bad, writing off an entire group on the basis of some broad generalisations doesn't help people who might consider Travelodge as a possibility.

 

[presta]

My ex took me hostelling a few times, I must say that sleeping in bunk beds with @20 sweaty blokes with dubious personal hygiene half of whom had been on Lentils is not my idea of a holiday. After the 3-4 trips away I bought a Tent.

A small price to pay for a proper bed, shower, and kitchen all indoors out of the rain. I haven't slept in a tent since I grew too big to fit in one.

I agree it's nice to have a 'Room of one's own', to quote Virginia Woolf, but a room of one's own these days costs at least 100 quid a night which makes any bikepacking journey horrendously expensive. Doing a LeJog over 12 days, for example, is 1,200 pounds just for the room. Add in food and trains and planes and hotels before and after the actual cycling and that's about 4 - 5,000 quids worth gone.
I wonder what happened to the B&B's one used to see dotted along the byways for 30 quid a night?

My last cycle tour in 2011 cost £631.34 for 27 nights. That's the whole cost, for everything, not just the hostels.

 

[robjh]

It is a shame about the dwindling number of 'proper' youth hostels with low-cost options for single travellers, and it seems to have been a constant trend since I rejoined YHA ten years ago. There are number which I have stayed in since then that are either closed, private rooms* or exclusive hire-only now.
That said, I use YHA hostels several times a year still and am generally quite pleased with them, but there isn't the choice there used to be.

*some of their private rooms are not extortionate once you compare them with any alternative type of accommodation, although others are!

 

[Tenkaykev]

I agree it's nice to have a 'Room of one's own', to quote Virginia Woolf, but a room of one's own these days costs at least 100 quid a night which makes any bikepacking journey horrendously expensive. Doing a LeJog over 12 days, for example, is 1,200 pounds just for the room. Add in food and trains and planes and hotels before and after the actual cycling and that's about 4 - 5,000 quids worth gone.
I wonder what happened to the B&B's one used to see dotted along the byways for 30 quid a night?

Friends of ours walked LeJog a couple years ago. 88 days most of them in B+B unless they were within striking distance of friends/ relatives. Saved a fortune in transport costs 😉 but all in came to about £8k.

 

[presta]

There are number which I have stayed in since then that are either closed, private rooms* or exclusive hire-only now.

Well over half the hostels I've ever stayed at are now closed (118/205), dunno how many more have gone RaH.

 

[Drago]

Sod the sandal wearing peace hippies. Camper van for me.

 

[ktmbiker58]

Decades ago when I was a yoof the Youth Hostels were cheap and cheerful, they would always squeeze you in somehow even if full.

Having grown out of my ging gang goolie phase I haven't used one since.

I guess the business model is different now, there's a lot of competition with airBnB and even the chain hotels do good deals from time to time - I checked my nearest YHA in the summer and the bunk rooms were unavailable but there was a private room for £70 which was the same price as the Premier Inn less than a mile away which had better facilities and a quieter location with parking.

 

[Drago]

I guess the business model is different now, there's a lot of competition with airBnB and even the chain hotels do good deals from time to time - I checked my nearest YHA in the summer and the bunk rooms were unavailable but there was a private room for £70 which was the same price as the Premier Inn less than a mile away which had better facilities and a quieter location with parking.

Yeah, but you dont have to share a bed with Lenny Henry at the Yoof Hostel.

 

[mjr]

We should unpick this. I have no particular affinity to Travelodge but your post isn't entirely accurate. It appears you don't like Travelodge, that's fine.

I don't dislike them, but they're more expensive than hostels most of the time and the main benefit over hostels is private room as the norm and more locations.

I'm not a great fan of the YHA, the last one I stayed in was Buttermere, my recollection is waking up very stiff and a poor shower along the corridor. This doesn't make it necessary for either of us to deliver this sort of sweeping, generalised criticism, something I've avoided doing.

I said some, not sweeping generalisation. There's nothing so wrong to make them a no-stay, but many are sub-hostel quality on average and rarely as cheap as suggested.

"Six weeks ahead" - you can book Travelodge Chorley, local to me, 2½ miles off the Leeds Liverpool canal, a popular bikepacking route for this Sunday - £32.

Well, yes, it's a Sunday. And it's £78, £55, £59, £44, £55, £66 for the rest of the week, so over £50 more than not.

Of course you can find odd ones cheap on odd days, especially on Sunday nights, but one night does not a tour make. I did look at their pricefinder for three regions (and knocked a couple of weeks off to allow for xmas and New Year) before estimating I'd need to book about six weeks ahead to average £50 a night - and that's in winter.

So I basically stand by the opinion that it is rarely that price.