.
The only main issue as I see , is it's increasingly difficult to attempt to book any berths, it seems just to get a single bunk in a shared room ,that option is not allowed now.
It appears you have to book the whole room.
Whilst that's ok if it's a twin bedded room, it's normal for these to be 3 bedded family rooms.
Before the 'Panic' demic it was possible, I used to hostel regularly with a group of friends,before that, even then it was increasingly becoming a problem, which has had a knock on effect that,we do not meet at hostels now, we were afflicted to the YH ,but now we have withdrawn that membership.
Pro 'Panic' demic the policy of letting single beds appears to have stopped, and yet life seems to have returned to some semblance of normal, if there are some restrictions.
I've not been in any since covid, but there seem to be some that are taking bookings for single beds and others that are rooms only, which all makes it less practical to tour from hostel to hostel.
The real answer is here. People like you are the reason they're closing. You've not used them for 12 years, what about everyone else?
Where did I say I haven't used a hostel for 12 years? I used hostels right up until they closed for covid, and since then I've been too unwell to go anywhere by hostel or any other means.
I've stayed 567 nights at 205 different hostels in my time, how much support have the YHA had from you?
I question whether someone who hasn't used a youth hostel since 2011 can make statements about how easy they are to book in 2023. My check online tells me that it would not be possible to go on a week's holiday and exclusively stay in YHA accomodation every night in my bit of the Peak District.
Since much of my reason for starting this thread was commenting on how it's becoming increasingly difficult to cycle tour by hostel in the way it was still just about possible to as recently as a decade ago, you seem to be trying to contradict me with my own argument.
There's no way you could have a touring holiday staying around here in a different hostel each night without a lot of organisation.
That's the way it's going, but you made that comment in reply to someone who was commenting about the way hostelling has been in the past, implying that's it's never been practical to tour by hostel. In fact, hostels have historically been by far the most practical way to walk and cycle long distance routes.
We stayed at Langdale on Thursday night, in a private room with shower and toilet for £50. It was lovely and much better than our other option, which was a
Travelodge in Kendal.
High Close is lovely, it looks so unpromising from the road, but the veranda overlooking the walled garden inside is beautiful. I looked out of the kitchen window one morning when I was getting breakfast, and there was a deer stood in the middle of the lawn. There's a roadside garage just down the road from the hostel that used to have a fairground organ in it when I was a kid. I remember staning in the road listening to it one evening.
turning up at a youth hostel door, and booking a bed for the night
My father said that in his day if you turned up at a hostel and it was full they'd let you kip on the floor, but I suppose that all went out with the car, and elf 'n safety.
We always preferred the rural ones as going on holiday to a city never appealed to us
Yes, I like the little ones in buildings full of character, and in out of the way places where nobody else would get planning permission.
Black Sail, Skiddaw House, Tanners Hatch, Tintagel, Winchester, Badby, Clun, Rowen, Grinton, Dimmingsdale, Telscombe, Hindhead......
Since I had to quit cycling I've been dependent on the train to get anywhere, so my holidays have all been in big cities where I can get a hostel within walking distance of the station, shops, and some museums to keep me amused.
