Youth Hostels

[a.twiddler]

It used to be that those who arrived under their own steam were given priority by the Warden. Much easier for a motorised Hosteller to get to the next Hostel than a walker or cyclist. I expect that has changed now.

 

[mjr]

The hostel movement has been ruined by modernisers turning them into cheap hotels wherever possible and selling many of the buildings.

StayOK in NL seems OK for a modernised hostel system. I'm not sure why modernisation seems to be failing in UK (and BE and FR) as far as I can tell.

My ex introduced me to the joys of hostelling, 12 to 20 sweaty farting blokes in a room, I'd sooner sleep in a bus shelter

I've never been in a hostel room that big. It's not compulsory.

 

[raleighnut]

StayOK in NL seems OK for a modernised hostel system. I'm not sure why modernisation seems to be failing in UK (and BE and FR) as far as I can tell.


I've never been in a hostel room that big. It's not compulsory.

I have

 

[cougie uk]

I've stayed in some lovely ones in Austria and Switzerland. No frills but I don't go on holiday to stay in my room watching TV etc.

 

[oldwheels]

It used to be that those who arrived under their own steam were given priority by the Warden. Much easier for a motorised Hosteller to get to the next Hostel than a walker or cyclist. I expect that has changed now.

That was the case with the SYHA but not the English equivalent I seem to remember. Allowing free entry to motorised travel to hostels was the thin end of the wedge. Management changed after my time there and the modernisers got control. A bit like privatisation I think where cash is more important than service.

 

[Trickedem]

That was the case with the SYHA but not the English equivalent I seem to remember. Allowing free entry to motorised travel to hostels was the thin end of the wedge. Management changed after my time there and the modernisers got control. A bit like privatisation I think where cash is more important than service.

I remember parking down the road on a family holiday and walking up to the hostel carrying all our stuff.

 

[Trickedem]

I've just been for a weekend at this former yha hostel in Snowdonia. Fantastic accommodation, with some single private rooms available. I was sharing a 4 person room with 2 friends.
We cooked our own meals on 2 nights and it had a really well equipped kitchen. There was a big group of cyclists there and they said it had a large cycle secure cycle store.

 

[Dayvo]

You might find decent, affordable accommodation (B&B style) in pubs.
When I cycled in Australia a number of years back I spent quite a number of night in old-style Aussie pubs.
Around $10 a night including breakfast. And I could keep my bike in the large single room with no questions asked.

 

[IaninSheffield]

A bit like privatisation I think where cash is more important than service

Well, the YHA is still a charity and therefore a not for profit organisation. I suspect that maintaining some of the older, smaller, more 'rustic' (and admittedly perhaps more charming?) properties was financially challenging.
As for service, the customer service skills of some of the wardens was a rustic as the properties themselves.

 

[annedonnelly]

You might find decent, affordable accommodation (B&B style) in pubs.
When I cycled in Australia a number of years back I spent quite a number of night in old-style Aussie pubs.
Around $10 a night including breakfast. And I could keep my bike in the large single room with no questions asked.

I'm not sure there's cheap accomodation anywhere at the minute. Lots more people staying at home in the UK has put prices up. Sounds like motorhome pitches have about doubled in price according to my neighbours.

 

[presta]

Most have bike sheds, but a few don't. I chained my bike to a drainpipe at the back of Portland hostel, Hartington has Sheffield stands with a rain awning, but no shed, at Newcastle Jesmond Road I left the bike in the passageway with the wardens bike, but that's closed now anyway. There are a few others, like Bristol, where the bike lives indoors. Some sheds are bigger than others, but I've never run out of space.

At Exeter Globe independent hostel there was a stack of about 6 or 7 bikes in the lobby. A closer look showed that the weight of the whole pile was supported by the pedal on the bottom-but-one bike propped against the front derailleur of the bottom one.

 

[Baldy]

Last time I was at Loch Ossian hostel I just left my bike outside against a tree. I doubt a thef would walk all the way across Rannoch Moor just to nick someone's bike.

It's a fantastic hostel but I don't think it's open at the moment as it only has two dorms.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Youth hostelling as a 16/17 year old back in the '70s was both fun and adventurous - anyone ever stay in Selby Youth Hostel, the Sabrina W?!
I've recently looked at rejoining the YHA, although as others have mentioned, for various reasons it's not so easy to find a bed in a hostel in the current climate. When I was abroad just before Covid, I did spend one night in a well-run backpackers hostel. It was a great place, but as an older more mature traveller, I felt a bit out of place. Dormitory living might have been tolerable to the 16 year old me, but not so much to the 60 year old version.
Has hostelling changed since I was in my teens? Sure. Given the changes in society, if it hadn't, it probably wouldn't be around at all. But I've changed too and with my dotage fast approaching, prefer a quieter, more peaceful experience.

EDIT: Maybe the clue's in the organisation name and I've conveniently forgotten that?

We're of the similar age and pretty much similar experience. I had some great times hostelling in the 70s. But it's not something I'm tempted to retry.

 

[mjr]

I'm not sure there's cheap accomodation anywhere at the minute. Lots more people staying at home in the UK has put prices up. Sounds like motorhome pitches have about doubled in price according to my neighbours.

I think it depends where. I think most of the UK are heading to the coast like lemmings and prices there have gone high: a quick search now suggests £230/night for a basic double which is around £100/night for a Saturday night middle of next summer. We didn't pay noticeably more than usual for our stays in interesting small towns and cities on our midlands bike tour or another trip to an unfashionable-but-nice south coast city this summer.

The YHA Sheringham is still £79/night but sold out for many dates.

 

[a.twiddler]

That was the case with the SYHA but not the English equivalent I seem to remember. Allowing free entry to motorised travel to hostels was the thin end of the wedge. Management changed after my time there and the modernisers got control. A bit like privatisation I think where cash is more important than service.

Possibly wardens back then were able to use their discretion more, particularly in remote locations where they probably saw themselves as distant outposts of the YHA empire. A lot more regulation nowadays I should think, in this age of Corporate Image and Institutional arse covering which is seen everywhere today. There were some rugged, if not eccentric, individualists about, probably not best suited to blending in with ideas imposed from above.