12 years
YHA and SYHA have been running this scheme for at least 15 years, though YHA now call it 'Escape to'. The idea was a worthy means of making use of hostels that would not get much business in the winter half of the year. The trouble is that it worked so well that it got expanded a bit too much, so that some hostels were open as hostels for only 5 or 7 months of the year, and the YHA began to take bookings for groups to occupy whole hostels even during the season, so reducing their availability for individuals and small groups.
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