Common Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing A Hostel
Is it your first time staying in a hostel, and you’re looking for an in-depth hostel guide to know what to expect? You came to the right place! I’ve been backpacking solo for more than 10 years now, and I’ve stayed in many different hostels throughout my travels. There were good hostels, and there were bad hostels. Some were just a place to spend a night, while others were memorable. And by memorable, I mean amazing, but also horrible experiences that I wish I could forget. I love hostels! They are a cheap place to spend the night and so much more than that. However, I wish I had a hostel guide before my first time in a hostel, as I made some mistakes in my “hostel-staying career.” Luckily for you, you can learn from my mistakes and avoid sleeping with somebody’s feet touching your hair! I said what I said, and I wish I could forget some things. Keep reading for all of my best tips for staying in hostels!
What Is a Hostel?
Hostels are well known for their budget accommodations consisting of four to 12 beds in the same room. The dorm rooms feature shared bathrooms and are separated by gender (hostels for girls/women or boys/men), even though you could also find mixed-gender hostels. The beds are very basic cots, often arranged in bunk beds. Some hostels also offer single rooms or, more rarely, hybrid solutions of single rooms in apartments with shared bathrooms and kitchens. The best-equipped hostel accommodations also have common areas such as a kitchen, bar, reading and/or games room, and even a swimming pool.
But bear in mind that single rooms can be pricey and often cost as much as a hotel room (if not more). Do you know why? Generally, there are just a few single rooms available. Therefore, the hostel managers/owners keep the price tag high. So, if you wish to travel on a budget and find cheap accommodation, opt for a single bed in a dormitory. They represent 99% of inexpensive solutions besides being the true essence of a hostel.
How To Choose A Hostel?
When picking the hostel you will stay at, you want to think about the different types of hostels you want to stay in, what type of room you want to stay in, and what facilities the hostel should have.
Different Types Of Hostels
Hostels are not just cheap, crowded rooms with questionable hygiene standards. Nowadays, there are so many different options you can choose from for hostels. Some hostels I stayed in Southeast Asia were even more luxurious than budget hotels!
Tips For Choosing A Hostel
Once you know what type of hostel you are looking for, you should decide on what other facilities the hostel should have. You can stay in hostels with friends or solo! Check the location of the hostel; it should be in a safe neighborhood, fairly close to the city center, or reliable transportation.
Female-Only Or Mixed Dorm?
You will notice there are several hostel room types. Some hostels offer female-only dorms, which are unjustifiably more expensive than mixed dorms. I do not usually care if I am in a mixed dorm or female-only. However, there are some instances where I will go for a female-only dorm. Female-only dorms are usually calmer than mixed dorms. In most cases, you can expect to get a good night’s sleep with no disturbances if you stay in a female-only dorm. Girls choosing these dorm rooms are willing to pay more for their comfort, so you should all be on the same page. One rule I have is that if I am solo and staying in a less than 5-person dorm room, I will go for a female-only if there is an option. Because chances are that otherwise, your mixed dorm room will be a male dorm room and you. Also, I try to go for female-only dorms in party hostels. I just feel more comfortable knowing that I won’t be woken up by a drunk guy unable to find his bed.
Room With Fewer Or More Beds?
This one is an interesting question. You would think that a 4-person dorm would be more comfortable than a 12-person dorm. It is not necessarily the case. I was in a 4-person dorm that was so small that I felt like we were all sharing the same bed. I was also in a 30-person dorm that felt like I was alone because the room was a whole floor of the building, and the beds had nice, thick curtains. Over the years, I created a rule that I do not book rooms with less than 5 beds in mixed dorms. Somehow, they always ended up being male dorms and me. Or worse… me and one more guy that I don’t know. It might seem weird, but I always felt safer in a room with more people. And I am not saying hostels are not safe, but I have shared a room with 1 extremely uncomfortable man. Luckily, somebody else came into the room. Otherwise, I would have asked to switch. Look at photos, and see what the situation is like. Bigger dorms will always be cheaper, but you might be sacrificing your comfort.
What Facilities Should A Hostel Have?
Basic hostel facilities, your hostel should offer at least these:
Lockers: You want your dorm to have lockers where you can safely store your belongings.
Personal light: This one is always an advantage. You do not depend on the room light.
Personal outlet: To charge your electronics. Preferably close to your bed so you can use your phone.
Curtains: Always a great advantage. Gives you the privacy that is very much needed in a hostel.
AC: It is a life-changer in tropical countries!
Wi-fi: This is a given nowadays. Yet, it does not hurt to check if your hostel has free wifi you can use.
Common area: Essential if you want to meet other travelers and hang out outside the dorm room.
Kitchen: Very useful in Europe, not that common in SE Asia.
Free drinking water: Great in countries where you cannot drink tap water.
Beginner’s Guide to Hostel Etiquette
You will notice that most hostels have hostel rules printed out in the rooms and on their website. Nevertheless, some things are considered basic courtesy and common hostel sense. You should follow the hostel etiquette in this hostel guide to make your stay enjoyable for yourself and others. At the same time, you should be prepared that some people will not care.
7 Mistakes Not To Make When Choosing A Hostel
Don’t choose a hostel in a bad location to save money
I admit to being a cheapskate who considers it a challenge to spend as little as possible (or practical) when visiting a city, but one lesson I learned early is that hostel/hotel location is critical and not a good place to be too frugal. Obviously, it depends on the city, but for many, there are one or two ideal neighborhoods and the rest is a dead zone for budget travelers.
Those of us who search for hostels from lowest price to highest price can easily fall into a trap where we see a few choices at US$15 per night, so it seems absurd to pay US$25 per night elsewhere. Then you arrive at your US$15 per night hostel to discover that it’s in a distant residential neighborhood, a very long walk from the center, or worse yet, a long bus or tram ride away.
Don’t sacrifice important features to save money
Until you’ve researched and stayed in dozens of hostels in different parts of the world, it’s easy to assume that they generally all have the same set of features. The most popular (and most expensive ones) usually do have a common/TV room, a bar, a staffed front desk, and a communal kitchen of some kind, but many of the cheaper ones lack many or all of these things.
This is another area of trouble for those of us who gravitate to the lowest prices. I’ve stayed in hostels that have literally turned out to be an unmarked apartment with bunk beds in every room, and pretty much nothing else. That’s a fine way to save money for some travelers, but a poor choice for many of us.
Don’t discount the importance of having a 24-hour desk to help you with visitor advice, such as a cheap place to buy wine nearby. Having a common room or lounge to relax in is a huge benefit for many of us, and having access to a kitchen can save us most of the cost of one or two meals per day if that’s our style.
Don’t confuse party hostels with non-party hostels
You can broadly put hostels and their guests into two major categories: party types and non-party types. In other words, many of us like to have a few drinks before or after we go out in the evenings, and many hostels are very accommodating of that. And there are people who like a silent place to get some sleep for an early start at sightseeing, with plenty of very subdued hostels ideal for this.
Fortunately, there isn’t too much gray area, so if you prefer a party hostel, then you owe it to the rest of us to look for one that is welcoming. And just the same, if you want a peaceful place to sleep, you owe it to the rest of us to look for a hostel that specializes in that.
It’s frustrating for the staff and also for fellow guests when a party group invades an otherwise chilled hostel, just as the reverse is true. It’s also unhelpful when these out-of-place guests leave scathing reviews because they actually booked themselves into the wrong sort of hostel.
Don’t skip actually reading the reviews
Directly related to the point above, it’s not only wise, but you really owe it to the rest of us to spend a bit of time with the guest reviews of a hostel before you book it. It seems like most hostels are quite honest when describing their features, but not always so with their location.
You’ll often see hostels that claim to be “10 minutes from the city center” when it’s really a 12-minute ride on a bus that only comes once an hour. And unless you have been to a city before, it’s hard to know much by just looking at the map location.
Don’t get fooled by fake reviews
Even though I have no hard statistics on this, it’s pretty obvious that hostel reviews are more corrupt in many markets than the hotels. Since many potential guests just scan the averages rather than reading the actual reviews, many hostels attempt to game the system, which can lead to their competitors trying it as well.
There’s a sort of famous story about a hostel that offers guests a free beer upon checkout if they leave a positive review. There are also many others that incentivize staff to get positive reviews rather than having them focus on providing the best guest experience.
So if you see a hostel with a huge number of reviews and most of them are short and 5 stars, there might be more to the story. Take longer reviews more seriously and hopefully, you’ll be getting the bigger picture.
Don’t forget to book early for popular hostels or in high season
There’s nothing quite like that feeling of traveling around with no schedule or reservations, but in many cases, it leads to having to stay in an overpriced or poorly located hostel because you waited too long. During high season, you’d be crazy to arrive in a city in the afternoon assuming you’ll find a bed in a great place by just walking around.
One of the great things about booking hostels is that (unlike many hotels) you only have to put down a 10% deposit to reserve a bed or room. Consider heading to Amsterdam for two nights and seeing that your first-choice hostel is available for €18 per night. It only costs €3.60 to make the reservation, and you pay the balance upon arrival. Compare that to finding out it’s full when you arrive without a booking and then having to hoof it up and down the road hoping to find a place without much to go on.
Even if you miss your train and you are a day behind schedule, you can almost always have them hold your bed for the next night or even just shift your reservation back by one day. There’s so little to lose and so much to gain that you should really reserve as soon as you are sure of your dates, regardless of the season.
Don’t pay a service charge if you don’t have to
Disclaimer: Priceoftravel.com is in the partner program of hostelbookers.com, so when you book by clicking from this site, we get a small cut to help pay for the operation. The reason I am partners with hostelbookers.com is because it’s also the site I recommend and use myself, mainly because they offer the same thing at a lower price.
There are two major players in the hostel-booking scene, the larger of which is hostelworld.com, which usually shows up higher in Google searches, but they also charge a Service Fee for every reservation. So for that 2-night Amsterdam reservation mentioned above, you’d pay €3.60 plus €1.50 as a Service Fee that doesn’t go toward the room cost and is non-refundable if you can’t make it.