Youth Hostels

[matticus]

the Deansgate YHA in Manchester was 3x more expensive than Premier Inn, and level with the 4 star hotels.

City Centre. Lots of dorms empty, not making them any money - hardly surprising, is it?

 

[fossyant]

City Centre. Lots of dorms empty, not making them any money - hardly surprising, is it?

Not going to make any money at those prices though.

 

[a.twiddler]

Funny, for all the solo hostelling I did, I don't really remember meeting anyone, apart from nutcase wardens. I guess have always been an unsociable git.

Are sheet sleeping bags still a thing? Something I only used when hostelling. I remember I got my mum to make one.

If being an unsociable git was an olympic sport I could probably have a few medals by now but somehow, people would talk to me when I went Hostelling. Maybe many adult Hostellers of that era were ex military and were familiar with hospital corners and hairy blankets, certainly the beds and bunks looked awfully familiar to me, but I had never seen a sheet sleeping bag until I started doing the YHA thing.

Looking back I suppose it could be seen as "roughing it" but it didn't seem like that at the time. Compared with duvets nowadays, and what's expected from a hotel, maybe wifi, TV and all, it would be. Room service instead of Hostellers'duties. Hmmm.

 

[matticus]

Not going to make any money at those prices though.

They're not competitive, if that's what you mean, no. The more rural locations will fare differently.
(did you see how many days were already booked out? Just out of interest.)

Personally I think YHA have been too cautious throughout COVID. Two people would be very safe sharing a typical dorm now. (During lockdown, certain chains were taking bookings from people who technically shouldn't have been travelling.)

 

[grldtnr]

I used to use YHA a lot in my younger days when there were many more "simple" hostels about. I was a YHA Youth Group Leader for a time and introduced many young riders to the joys of Hostelling. The number of Hostels has declined in the last 10-20 years to the extent that it's hard to find enough within cycleable distance of each other to be able to put together a tour. Add to that the trend to go up market and they have pushed their prices up into competition with the likes of Travelodge and similar organisations.

It makes me very sad actually, but it's the change in regulations concerning charities and maybe general demographic changes altering people's holiday expectations which have made such organisations as the YHA more profit conscious. There are independent hostels and camping barns about but it takes time to find them whereas YHA at least was a wide ranging set up that made it fairly easy to connect with their Hostels. I don't recall a cycle store being an optional extra. All the ones I knew had them. Maybe they are catering more for motorised holiday makers now. At the moment, in the shadow of COVID there seems to be a push to hire whole Hostels rather than rooms or dorms, certainly when I last enquired, which rather defeats the object for solo travellers or small groups.

I maintained my membership for years after I stopped regularly Hostelling as a gesture of support but the organisation changed so much from the experience that I used to value that I have completely lost contact now. For me, at that time, the YHA was tied in with my cycling club, the CTC and other such organisations. Fings ain't wot they used to be, indeed.

On the bright side, I too have heard that Travelodge are bike friendly, would be interested to hear of posters' experiences of this and similar hotel chains.

Thats my view too, I have hostelled regularly over the years, still a member now, but for how long I don't know, the network has been drastically reduced, and as you say ,it's changed from what it used to be, it's moved up market and away from what we're its core members.
Thinking on ,this year probably be my last as a member, to be honest there is little benefit, when you mostly just get a measly discount for a nights stay & occasionally special offers.
It was great whilst it lasted,and I had many a memorable stay, but the current situation precludes sharing common rooms & kitchens, the heart of it's been ripped out.

 

[scragend]

YES !!!

This doesn't get mentioned enough.
(perhaps because some travellers want the cocooned, jacked directly into smartphone all evening/night experience, I don't know ...)

I can understand that if you want to leave your fellow travellers behind at the hotel reception desk, then hostels don't seem very attractive. And a good deal at a Travelodge (2 sharing) will seem much better value than beds in a YHA.

This is the reason why I still stay in hostels when I go travelling, both with bike and without, both in this country and abroad. I'm single, I travel solo and I'm very much an introvert. If I stayed in hotels I could easily not interact with anyone for the entire length of my stay apart from the receptionist when checking in and out.

In hostels I can still find it quite hard to just walk up to someone and strike up a conversation, but it's less hard, because there will be other people there in the same boat, other solo travellers etc.

Most people I know don't "get it" and express surprise that I'm still hostelling "at my age". I'm not exactly old (I'm 40). I must admit I do sometimes feel slightly out of place but that's only when I've perhaps made a bad choice of hostel in terms of the demographic of people who go there, although I do try to do careful research on each hostel and I don't get it wrong very often. Hostelworld reviews are good for that because they show the age bracket of the reviewer. If most of the reviews are from 18-24 year olds I choose somewhere else.

I am tending towards private rooms rather than dorms these days and yes it can be expensive, but even if it's the same price as a hotel, the social factor as mentioned above tips the scales in the hostel's favour. I did stay one night in a Premier Inn on my recent tour though - I'm not used to such luxury!!!

 

[grldtnr]

This is the reason why I still stay in hostels when I go travelling, both with bike and without, both in this country and abroad. I'm single, I travel solo and I'm very much an introvert. If I stayed in hotels I could easily not interact with anyone for the entire length of my stay apart from the receptionist when checking in and out.

In hostels I can still find it quite hard to just walk up to someone and strike up a conversation, but it's less hard, because there will be other people there in the same boat, other solo travellers etc.

Most people I know don't "get it" and express surprise that I'm still hostelling "at my age". I'm not exactly old (I'm 40). I must admit I do sometimes feel slightly out of place but that's only when I've perhaps made a bad choice of hostel in terms of the demographic of people who go there, although I do try to do careful research on each hostel and I don't get it wrong very often. Hostelworld reviews are good for that because they show the age bracket of the reviewer. If most of the reviews are from 18-24 year olds I choose somewhere else.

I am tending towards private rooms rather than dorms these days and yes it can be expensive, but even if it's the same price as a hotel, the social factor as mentioned above tips the scales in the hostel's favour. I did stay one night in a Premier Inn on my recent tour though - I'm not used to such luxury!!!

Even booking a private room generally works out cheaper at a hostel, and as you say you get to meet travellers, with whom you get to share experiences, and relate to, normally as a cyclist, I expect to socialize with other cyclist, that is the whole point of hostelling ,meeting folk of the same interests,or just meeting other lone travellers, that's the main point of hostelling for me.

 

[BoldonLad]

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 think it depends when. we are talking about.

From memory (fading) when I was 16-17 (1963/1964), English YHA was only open to those arriving under their own steam (ie walking/cyclking), but, I recall, this did change and arrival by car was allowed. I do not recall when these changes occurred.

 

[theloafer]

From memory (fading) when I was 16-17 (1963/1964), English YHA was only open to those arriving under their own steam (ie walking/cyclking), but, I recall, this did change and arrival by car was allowed. I do not recall when these changes occurred.

..
it was changed in 1973 ....

 

[Low Gear Guy]

Youth hostels are a better option than hotels if travelling with the family. You can all stay in one room and use the self catering kitchen. Paying for multiple rooms and restaurant meals is an expensive business. There is also a separate common room and games to borrow.

 

[Baldy]

. Room service instead of Hostellers'duties. Hmmm.

I think "hosteller's duties" went out about a hundred years ago.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I think "hosteller's duties" went out about a hundred years ago.

I remember the Jingling Warden of Clun giving out duties. "You, sweep the kitchen, you wipe down the sink , you shake the mat outside, and you two (to me and my mate) ... You can clean the lane between here and the village"

We had obviously done something to incur her wrath. Being the obnoxious teenagers that we were this would be unsurprising.

 

[matticus]

I think "hosteller's duties" went out about a hundred years ago.

(actually I can date it more precisely; when my parents took us to hostels, there were duties - when my sister later worked in the places, they had gone. Hope that helps )

 

[pawl]

Hostel duties Worst one was trying to get the porridge pot clean

 

[albion]

"This is your quarterly AmazonSmile donation notification. Your chosen charity, YHA (England & Wales), recently received a quarterly donation of £32.17 from AmazonSmile, thanks to customers shopping at smile.amazon.co.uk or with AmazonSmile turned ON in the app. This amount includes any additional donations generated as a result of the 2021 Prime Day promotion. "

They need a bit more help than that! The conversation gone here certainly might educate some in trying them (Hostels, not A....n the superpower) , camping there being the option for some too. The English side is/or was managing and certainly needs support in an ever increasing commercial world.