15 years
[*]Yellow Hostel -- I didn't know until I read this article that they don't allow anyone to stay there who is 40 years old or older
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Probably most over 16 year olds wouldn't get past their yellow website. It's not easy on the eye!
New York Times: In Europe, Hostels Grow Up
Hostel Trends and News
In Europe, Hostels Grow Up
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/travel/19hostels.html
Hostels across Europe have undergone a transformation over the last decade. “There has been serious quality improvement in the hostel movement,” said Johan Krüger, head of communications for Hostelling International, a consortium of youth hostel associations in over 80 countries that operate more than 4,000 hostels.
“Though hostels have always had the big shared dormitory-style rooms, we are now seeing more demand among travelers for double or single en suite rooms,” Mr. Krüger said, adding that hostels had grown even more popular in the midst of the recession. In 2008, Hostelling International had a 14 percent increase, to 1.4 million bookings, on its Web site, www.hihostels.com.
Mr. Krüger attributes the increased interest in smaller rooms to a changing clientele. “We are seeing business travelers coming to hostels now,” he said, speculating that in addition to the lower rates, they also prefer the social aspect of a hostel to the more staid hotel culture.
Hostels featured:
- London Central Youth Hostel
- The Circus
- Oops! Paris
- Barcelona Urbany
- Yellow Hostel -- I didn't know until I read this article that they don't allow anyone to stay there who is 40 years old or older
- Comments
15 years
Excellent article. It points the way to making hostels a mainstream style of travelling. At the same time, it emphasises that we have to get away from the style of hostels that some of us grew up to.
15 years
The NYT. Cool. Everyone who is planning to open a hostel in the States should attach this article to the business plan.
15 years
They've updated the article with photos at the top and links to hostel reviews:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/travel/19hostels.html
What that means is that the New York Times is going to start ranking for hostel keywords -- like your hostel's name.
Here is the NY Times ranking #10 in Google already for a search of Barcelona Urbany:
This could be very interesting.
For now it's a good thing because the NY Times links directly to the hostels' websites...
15 years
This is an interesting reply:
April 18th, 20098:29 pm
Another New York Times article celebrating gentrification! In fact, the Circus has been something of a blight on the neighborhood, though this is typical of hostel placement in Berlin -- there's no other major city that allows hostels to be planted directly in the middle of what were once residential hubs. So what was once a major center for Berliners has now been taken over by the tourist hordes and, in fact, by the Circus itself, as it has built a proper hotel kitty corner to the hostel. Poor, poor Berlin: the more it's hyped, the worse it gets.
- Anonymous
He gets a few things wrong (in fact almost every major city DOES allow hostels just about everywhere, but only in Berlin hostels can easily afford top locations; apart from that, the Circus is on a square where you would expect commercial use) but it´s a good point anyway. I wonder how much the massive concentration of hostels in Krakow´s old town (for example) has driven up real estate prices there, making the area unaffordable for locals.
edit:
read the review about "Oops!", the long one on the bottom of the page. Paris... why am I not surprised?
15 years
read the review about "Oops!", the long one on the bottom of the page.
That is the worst kind of review to get -- level-headed, detailed, sounds honest, and is #1 in Google for "oops reviews"...
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