Booking Hostels in Advance (rather than just showing up)

This is an old article, but interesting reading about the trend for backpackers to book in advance instead of just showing up:

LONDON — Betty Kam, a 30-year-old teacher from Hong Kong, carefully planned her July vacation in Scotland. She plotted a detailed itinerary and reserved accommodations for each leg of her journey. The only unusual thing about her trip: She decided to stay in hostels, long the preserve of young and spontaneous backpackers.

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"Customers have at least a rough itinerary and are less adventurous," said Niamh Ni Mhir, hostel division managing director of the Dublin-based online hostel company, hostelworld.com. "The customers now say, 'I know I want to have a bed,' whereas five to 10 years ago people would line up outside hostels at 7 a.m. hoping for a bed, or at least a mattress on the floor at a discounted price."

Many of the world's hostels are changing to cater to the pre-planner. Hostelworld.com, which lists more than 10,000 worldwide hostels on its website, books reservations for about 20,000 customers every day. Five years ago, only 1,000 people booked stays at a hostel. Ni Mhir attributed that partly to the growth of the Internet, but also to the changing profile of hostelers.