Hostels Growing Up? Or Growing Mainstream?

Monday April 20, 2009

We've been wondering whether traveling folks who might normally, or formerly, have turned up the nostrils at hostels might start noting this summer, as they find themselves forced to

pinch pennies and pounds, that hostels are not only no longer the fleabag flops older folks may (often exaggeratedly) remember them as, but that some are downright luxurious while still being extremely economical, and worth a look by budget business and family travelers. Traveling folks like, say, us, who might regularly discuss at which hostel one can get the best buzz for the least bucks, have known for some time that some hostels have undergone some serious changes in the last decade, with a few stars totally shining in the hostel universe, and we're unsurprised when we see articles like this one touting hostels as surprisingly great places to stay:

NY Times: "In Europe, Hostels Grow Up"

Hostels really run the lodging gamut these days: whether fabulously furnished or seriously shoddy, though, urban youth hostels have generally always had one thing in common -- youth. Though youth hostels have long seen the occasional sprinkling of 30-something folks finishing an interrupted or never-taken gap year and a few solitary businessmen -- and even geezers get glimpsed among the guests -- there've not been many mainstream American families in urban hostels of late. With articles like this on the loose, though, we continue to suspect we'll be threading our way through hostel halls filled with families this summer, and we're wondering if hostel rules limiting guest ages (in either direction, like to folks over 16 or 18, and under 30) might come into play in a more widespread way (you'll find those rules in place in a few places).