Hostel

For the 2006 horror film, see Hostel (film).

Youth hostel in Rome.

Hostels, also called youth hostels, provide short-term accommodation to travellers or backpackers, particularly encouraging outdoor activities and cultural exchange for the young. Hostels are also often called backpackers' hostels (or backpackers' for short), particularly in Australia and New Zealand.

In a hostel guests rent a bed (sometimes a bunk bed) in a dormitory and share common bathroom, kitchen, and lounge rooms. Private rooms are often available. The main benefits of a hostel are firstly the low cost of the accommodation compared to alternatives such as hotels, and that one gets to meet other travellers from all over the world. Hostels are usually less formal and less expensive than hotels. They are most frequently used by young travellers. In the past many hostels had imposed age limits, but today it's more common for hostels to accept guests of all ages. Despite the openness of modern hostels, the majority of guests are traditionally and overwhelmingly between the ages of 18 and 26.

Youth hostel in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

Hostels provide opportunity for multicultural enlightenment. There is more interaction between guests than in traditional hotels, and many hostels provide activities to their guests for free or at low cost. There are some potential drawbacks to using hostels.

Some hostels have a curfew, daytime lockouts, and/or require to do chores, but often these rules have been abandoned, see below.

Theft can be a problem since guests share a common living space, but this can be prevented by locking belongings up. Most hostels offer some sort of system for safely storing your valuables, and many offer private lockers. However, for the greater part travellers are equally concerned for the well-being of their own belongings that theft of other people's belongings rarely takes place.

One potential drawback to staying in hostels is difficulty sleeping because of noise, whether from snoring or someone returning to the room late in the evening. For this reason, some hostels associations fix times for last admission and lights out.

Types of hostels

In 1912 in Altena, Germany, Richard Schirrmann created the first permanent youth hostel. It was inside Altena castle which had been recently reconstructed. The old rooms are on display now; the youth hostel has moved to new rooms, though it is still inside the castle grounds. These youth hostels now belong to Hostelling International (HI) a nonprofit organisation composed of more than 90 associations representing about 4000 hostels in over 80 countries. Hostelling International was formerly called the International Youth Hostel Federation (IYHF). These first hostels were an exponent of the ideology of the early 20th century to let (poor) city people get a fresh breath in the outdoors, so it was more of a youth movement and the youths were supposed to manage the hostel themselves as much as possible, such as with doing chores (which also kept the costs down). Since the children were supposed to go out and be active, the hostels were usually closed during the day. At one time HI had tried to limit the use of the terms "hostel" and "youth hostel" to only HI hostels, but today these terms are used for all hostels, whether or not they belong to HI.

In the 1960's and 1970's a new breed of travellers arose, with some shift in motivation, not so much focused on going to the outdoors but to other (often distant) countries to meet new cultures and people, which included other travellers. The hostels were often the best (because cheapest) option to stay the night, but the rules were not in keeping with the new demands. So a new type of hostel arose which did not have curfews, daytime lockouts, or chores. This concept quickly spread all over the world. Most of these newer style hostels do not belong to HI and they often have bars and many of them have very high standards offering twin and double rooms as well as dorms. Since the older style hostels were starting to lose customers they began to adapt, abandoning most of the old rules. Still, alcohol consumption is often not allowed in many hostels, including most HI hostels. Some hostels cater more to school-aged children (sometimes through school trips) and parents with their children, whereas others are more for travellers intent on learning new cultures. Many hostels employ their long-term residents as desk clerks in exchange for free housing.

Similar accommodation can sometimes be found at YMCA's and on school grounds (e.g., campuses) when school is out for summer.

However, while this emphasis on those travelling to explore different cultures and places is emphasised in many hostels, particularly in cities or popular tourist destinations, there are still many hostels providing accommodation for outdoor pursuits such as hillwalking, climbing and bicycle touring. These are often small friendly hostels that retain much of the original vision.

See also

• Hostelling International
• List of types of lodging
• Hospitality service, alternative to hostels