youth hostels

[paddypete]

i remember going to fintry hostel in the 70s,76 i think it was no more than a big hut,i think it was about ten bob a night or 120 pennies or somthing,but to see hostles now thay are like hotels,and very nearly the same price,you know the

se bothies for walkers that are free,well some org,should get some huts put up for cyclists,there are some at the top off scotland,caithness,sutherland,they were built for the glasgow boys laying the roads,but were sold to the public,but it would be good if there was a cycle path from l/end to j ogroats with bothies every 50 mile

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Wot's a bootie? You meant to wash and sleep in it?

 

[vernon]

i remember going to fintry hostel in the 70s,76 i think it was no more than a big hut,i think it was about ten bob a night or 120 pennies or somthing,but to see hostles now thay are like hotels,and very nearly the same price,you know the bothies for walkers that are free,well some org,should get some huts put up for cyclists,there are some at the top off scotland,caithness,sutherland,they were built for the glasgow boys laying the roads,but were sold to the public,but it would be good if there was a cycle path from l/end to j ogroats with bothies every 50 mile

We can all look back to the 'golden years' and marvel at the low cost adventures that we enjoyed but financial realities have made the hostels of 'the golden years' unviable.

Folk expect greater comfort. The YHA has responded to this by upping the standards of the accomodation on offer. Hostels that would be expensive to upgrade and/or had few users were closed because they'd be a financial drain on the network. Fewer folk are willing to take on their duties from the rosters that minimised staffing levels at hostels. Fewer folk are willing or able to be wardens in small hostels. The very folk who bemoan the passing of youth hostels are the very ones who didn't use the existing ones before they closed. Youngsters are no longer able to use youth hostels unless with an adult and, furthermore, their parents are unlikely to let them go hostelling unsupervised. Society has changed and the protecting unstaffed bothies near centres of population will be expensive. A cycle path from Lands End to John o'Groats? - dream on! Who is going to pay for the road modifications?

There's a a healthy independent hostel network filling in some of the gaps. http://independenthostels.co.uk/

 

[swansonj]

We can all look back to the 'golden years' and marvel at the low cost adventures that we enjoyed but financial realities have made the hostels of 'the golden years' unviable.

Folk expect greater comfort. The YHA has responded to this by upping the standards of the accomodation on offer. Hostels that would be expensive to upgrade and/or had few users were closed because they'd be a financial drain on the network. Fewer folk are willing to take on their duties from the rosters that minimised staffing levels at hostels. Fewer folk are willing or able to be wardens in small hostels. The very folk who bemoan the passing of youth hostels are the very ones who didn't use the existing ones before they closed. Youngsters are no longer able to use youth hostels unless with an adult and, furthermore, their parents are unlikely to let them go hostelling unsupervised. Society has changed and the protecting unstaffed bothies near centres of population will be expensive. A cycle path from Lands End to John o'Groats? - dream on! Who is going to pay for the road modifications?

There's a a healthy independent hostel network filling in some of the gaps. http://independenthostels.co.uk/

Some folk wanted greater comfort. The YHA centrally, suffering from the same culture of executive capture that is destroying the CTC, made a strategic decision to pursue that particular segment of the market, to move upmarket, and thereby to come into inevitable competition with the cheap hotel market, and inevitably to lose and thus to fail.

The very existence of a burgeoning independent hostel sector that you point out says that there was an alternative model that YHA could have followed, true to its volunteer roots (and therefore, of course, alien to its professional management), with a very real prospect of success.

 

[vernon]

Some folk wanted greater comfort. The YHA centrally, suffering from the same culture of executive capture that is destroying the CTC, made a strategic decision to pursue that particular segment of the market, to move upmarket, and thereby to come into inevitable competition with the cheap hotel market, and inevitably to lose and thus to fail.

A single instance but one that was repeated in many hostels that have closed in the past decade:- I stayed at Keld YH just before it closed. There were two other hostellers present. The topic of hostel closure was raised with the warden. The occupancy rate for Keld had been at that low rate for months as had other hostels facing closure. If the customers aren't using them, they are expensive millstones on the rest of the network. Keld has re-opened as a restaurant and expensive B&B. Perhaps YHA ought to pursue that model to expand the network?

The old YHA was not meeting the needs of the current generation and there wasn't the money available to subsidise the the loss makers.

 

[swansonj]

A single instance but one that was repeated in many hostels that have closed in the past decade:- I stayed at Keld YH just before it closed. There were two other hostellers present. The topic of hostel closure was raised with the warden. The occupancy rate for Keld had been at that low rate for months as had other hostels facing closure. If the customers aren't using them, they are expensive millstones on the rest of the network. Keld has re-opened as a restaurant and expensive B&B. Perhaps YHA ought to pursue that model to expand the network?

The old YHA was not meeting the needs of the current generation and there wasn't the money available to subsidise the the loss makers.

Everyone agrees that, under the strategic model followed by YHA for the last few decades, the network was not viable and lots of less busy hostels could not be afforded and had to close. The question is, was there a viable alternative strategic model? I am distrustful of anyone, but especially of professional managers, who say "there is no alternative". I think there was an alternative. But we'll never know now.

 

[paddypete]

We can all look back to the 'golden years' and marvel at the low cost adventures that we enjoyed but financial realities have made the hostels of 'the golden years' unviable.

Folk expect greater comfort. The YHA has responded to this by upping the standards of the accomodation on offer. Hostels that would be expensive to upgrade and/or had few users were closed because they'd be a financial drain on the network. Fewer folk are willing to take on their duties from the rosters that minimised staffing levels at hostels. Fewer folk are willing or able to be wardens in small hostels. The very folk who bemoan the passing of youth hostels are the very ones who didn't use the existing ones before they closed. Youngsters are no longer able to use youth hostels unless with an adult and, furthermore, their parents are unlikely to let them go hostelling unsupervised. Society has changed and the protecting unstaffed bothies near centres of population will be expensive. A cycle path from Lands End to John o'Groats? - dream on! Who is going to pay for the road modifications?

There's a a healthy independent hostel network filling in some of the gaps. http://independenthostels.co.uk/

yes,but dreams dont cost money

 

[paddypete]

even camp sites are taking the urine,a site near loch lomond wanted £30 night in the summer,and they dont like the fact you can camp a hundred yards away for free,every where is money,money,and more money,wont be long before they start charging to camp for free,its already started at loch lubnaig,they built a toilet frew in some fire pits and charge £5 for the tent and £5 per skull and for those who travel by car £5 for that too,wat happend to the couple of quid a night,i dont think putting a tent up for the night is worth more than £3,as i'm not a credid card tourer and dont like getting robbed,but as they say a fool and his monet are easily parted

 

[raleighnut]

An ex-girlfiend introduced me to the 'joys' of the YHA, sleeping in bunk beds in a dorm with a dozen other sweaty, snoring, farting hill walkers.
I got a bigger tent and we camped the next year.
Mind you I,
'm not a fan of Hotels or B&Bs either having spent many years as a Shopfitter/Exhibition Stand builder but a few years ago we found this place in Wells next the sea, stunning. EDIT- Itried to put a link, its called Machrimore

 

[Gravity Aided]

These hostels look nice. There were some in America,but have always been thin on the ground in the center of the country, a flaw inherent in the arrangement.