Hostels keep prices low by using a shared room instead of individual, private ones, and only providing the most basic amenities. As mentioned above, a hostel differs here because spaces are shared. And hostels by nature are more social, while hotels offer more privacy. Hostels are an excellent option for a number of reasons. Or, if you want to meet loads of amazing new people, a hostel is a wonderful way to meet fellow travelers.
Here are a few more reasons to stay in a hostel:. If you love meeting new people, a hostel is right up your alley. Hostels are known for their social life, as the shared rooms naturally break down barriers. You can meet all kinds of interesting people, from backpackers to world travelers. People from all different countries stay in hostels — strike up a conversation and make new friends!
Booking several hotel rooms for large groups can be pricey — but renting one large bunk room in a hostel can be much more convenient, affordable, and fun. Some hostels are off the beaten path, but still close to major city centers. Others are in even more exotic locales. One hostel in Panama , for example, is located right on the ocean and even features a slide that spits you right out into the water!
You might think… You have headphones. You can whisper to your boyfriend via Skype at 1 a. This is a hostel. People can deal. The reality: Like passing out on the dorm room floor, this is a great way to make everyone in the room annoyed.
There are usually book lights that can be used for this purpose, but also consider going into the common room. I tend to stay at outdoorsy-adventurous-type hostels, where the majority of people go to bed fairly early and get up fairly early to see the sights.
Obviously, this rule may not apply to party hostels. If you want to avoid noisy roommates altogether, why not try a pod hostel? Yeah Hostel Barcelona , Barcelona Spain. You might think… You have a 6 a. You must pack the morning of, and turn the lights on at 4 a. Just for a minute. You have to fit everything into this noisy, plastic bag. Getting up early is unavoidable. But do your roommates a favour.
Avoid plastic bags if you can, and make sure you wake up to your alarm the first time. Showering with sandals is weird. Why should you wear them? Keep your belongings with you and tidy up before you leave. You should always try and wear sandals in the shower just as a general caution. But almost all hostels have top quality cleaning staff! Selina San Jose , Costa Rica.
You might think… Sweet! A kitchen. Data was gathered through personal interviews at Lisbon hostels from December to February Tables of frequencies and descriptive statistics were provided for each variable. In order to study the differences amongst guests regarding gender, country of origin and age, the non-parametric Kruskal—Wallis test was used.
The goal was to identify the different demands that different guests have, so the service provided is even better and more personalized. The data analysis was conducted by means of SPSS According to the hostel manager, there is no official organization that accounts for hostels and backpack tourism statistics in Portugal, as the number of hostels, guests or the market volume.
The staff asks directly guests when they are leaving the hostel to leave a comment, review, suggestion or rating in websites like hostelworld or hostelbookers. In this context, two examples were provided: one guest commented in hostelworld. According to the hostel manager the most important elements for travelers when evaluating a hostel are the staff, location, cleanliness and atmosphere.
This is Lisbon hostel has won the award for best staff in Europe. In this hostel all the staff members have at least a bachelor degree, speaks various languages and share the hostel values.
In order to enhance the social atmosphere, the hostel organizes surf lessons, cinema sessions, walking tours and cooking lessons.
Finally, guests with different cultural backgrounds, ages and gender value different characteristics of the service. For example, Brazilians look for privacy, Germans care about recycling and green consumer behaviors and Australians value the social atmosphere.
Privacy is most important for female and the older guests. With the purpose of identifying the most important aspects for hostel backpackers, a content analysis of four booking websites obtained from the in-depth interview was conducted in October, The number of items that each website displays varies from six to seven items. Location, cleanliness and staff are the only items common to all websites.
Other items provided to guests are: atmosphere, facilities, value, safety, comfort, service and character. From the respondents, Regarding the marital status the majority of respondents are currently single, representing Regarding the employment situation the vast majority is currently studying From these, The remaining sample is employed and has a job Concerning age, the sample mean is Guests from 25 different nationalities answered the questionnaire and the three most represented countries of origin were USA From the total sample, The main purposes of the visit to Lisbon were holidays The booking was mainly done through the Internet, as was expected.
Hostelworld was the most used website, with The remaining booked through hostelbookers The aim of the next section is to investigate whether the importance ratings vary according to the gender, age and country of origin of the hostel backpacker. Male respondents are more concerned about meeting other guests in the hostel than their female counterparts, and are thus more motivated to make new friendships with other travelers.
Female respondents gave more importance to security than males, result that is in accordance to the conclusions of Hecht and Martin Some hostels are already addressing this issue, offering female dorms and bathrooms with accessories as hair dryers Table 2.
The most significant difference between age groups was observed for the item meeting other travelers. Contemporary backpackers give less importance to this social aspect than younger ones. That is an expected result, as hostels are majority occupied by younger people. The youth tourists have more in common amongst them and so it is easier for them to establish a connection with a fellow traveler. The importance of atmosphere was more important for youth tourists and transition backpackers than for contemporary backpackers.
This is an expected result, a young people judged travel related hazards to be less risky Larsen et al. Finally the importance placed on facilities seems to increase with age. Several differences were found between backpackers from different regions.
For the Australians atmosphere is the second most important item on the list. The Australians are the ones who give more importance to the location of a hostel, followed by Europeans, then South Americans and finally North Americans. For Australians and Europeans, location is actually the most important item on the list. The quality of the staff received the highest mean overall score.
However, this item is more important for North Americans and Australians than for Europeans. Guests from USA and Canada gave more importance to price than their counterparts and for Australians the existence of a bar service is more important than for the rest of the groups. The Europeans seem to be less interested in meeting other travelers than other guests.
Finally, the Internet faculties are more important to North Americans and Australians, while South Americans and Europeans give less importance to this item Table 4. Kruskal—Wallis test by nationality. The findings of this study indicated that Lisbon already has popularity with hostel backpackers and a position in the market place on which to build.
Quality of the staff was the item that had the best overall importance score. Nowadays the importance of recruiting the right staff, sharing the hostel values and mission is of utmost importance. The location, facilities, Internet facilities, atmosphere and cleanliness items were also considered extremely important. However, the results revealed that treating the backpackers as a homogenous group would be a mistake. Many of these issues cost little or nothing for a hostel to fix.
Often it's just that hostel owners are unaware of what they need to do to keep their guests happy and their hostel full. This article on How to Find the Best Hostels highlights what travellers are looking out for.
This article was produced thanks to the input of the Hostelz. We hope that over time more hostel owners will be aware of these points and it will help to improve the hostel experience for all backpackers, and the hostelling industry as a whole. Backpackers know what they want. Whether you're running a backpackers hostel or a party hostel, these tips work across the board. What makes a good hostel? Let's jump in and see! Implementing policies and rules are inevitable. Yet, if it's your own hostel, there is wiggle room within these rules.
And this is where strict rules can easily become respectable rules that everyone can get on board with. Remember; you're not stepping into the role of parent. Treat travellers with respect and like the adults they are, and it will work wonders for your business. Here are 11 safety tips for hostel travel - what guests expect regarding safety and security at hostels. This is possibly the most important aspect to think about when creating an awesome hostel.
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