The NY Times has an article today that complains about a hostel in Denmark. The hostel has over 1000 beds and apparently costs US$100 to $154 for a room that can hold four travelers.
An excerpt is below. Is it fair criticism, or just whining by someone who isn't made for hostel travel?
THE ROOMS
My room, 706, was a four-person room that I had booked as a single. “Spartan” is too extravagant an adjective. A barren white box with a blond wood floor, the small space held a hard foam double bed and two bunk beds that folded down from the wall. It felt like a prison cell designed by Ikea. There was no TV, no phone, no closet and not even a freestanding lamp. The room’s marquee feature was its view, which looked out over Copenhagen.
THE BATHROOMS
Remember dorm life? You will when you force your way into those closets. The toilet and stand-up shower, more a shower head bolted to the wall, were at least very clean. Soap and shampoo are not provided.
ROOM SERVICE
None. In fact, there’s not even housekeeping service. As is customary in hostels, guests have to rent sheets and a towel (60 kroner, about $11.60 at 5.19 kroner to the dollar per set). A broom and dustpan in the corner are all that stand between you and the day-by-day accumulation of dirt.
[...]
At 520 kroner, about $100, in low season, and up to 800 kroner, or $154, in high season, for a room that can be used by one to four people, the Danhostel isn’t especially cheap by international standards. (A Hosteling International Card costs 160 kroner; without it, guests are charged 35 kroner more a night.)
16 years
As an urban planner, I´d say erecting a 16-story building so close to the old town is almost a crime.
"ROOM SERVICE - none". Well, it´s a HOSTEL, for chrissake. If you book a single room in a hostel and complain about the price you clearly have no idea what hostelling is all about. OK - the € 27,60 they charge for dorm beds aren´t exactly cheap, but apparently that´s what you can expect to pay in Copenhagen - other hostels have similar rates.
16 years
My favorite line:
"There was no TV, no phone, no closet and not even a freestanding lamp."
:confused:
16 years
The idea of booking a 4-bed room for one person is weird. He's missed the whole point about hostels: that they are far cheaper than hotels for a single traveller who is willing to share a room. His fixed mindset about single rooms -- Tvs -- phones etc shows he has no idea.
Incidentally, the mindset that "strangers" must never share rooms is spreading. We are used to Guest Houses where the smallest unit is nearly always a double room (and that is why, as a single traveller, I hardly ever stay in one, and indeed have been subject to discrimination when asking for one.) But I've visited a number of places that call themselves 'hostels' but will not put people in rooms together with people that they did not walk in with. Some of these, to their credit, don't charge any more for individuals; some do charge more, which disqualifies them from being hostels in my definition.
16 years
its the times - why would anyone who has anything to do with it have anything to do with hostels? NYT writers arent exactly the closest thing to a backpacker you could find.
that said, i deal with these kinds of people (what feels like) everyday.
how many times can you say 'hostel, NOT hotel' and 'communal living' before you shoot someone?
16 years
NYT writers arent exactly the closest thing to a backpacker you could find.
Well Harvard MBA students aren't the closest thing to a backpacker either, but they're the guys who research Let's Go guides.
It does appear that the NYT writer doesn't have a clue about hostels. The hostel he writes about sounds OK, if a bit overpriced and impersonal. Imagine what his article would be like if he stayed in a really bad hostel.
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