Hostel Industy Thriving While Hotels Suffer

HI-USA released some interesting occupancy numbers:

'08 Hostel Occupancy
With 3,811 more guests in October 2008 than a year earlier, Hostelling International USA saw a 6.7 percent increase of overnight stays in its destination city hostels.

• Boston, Massachusetts, down 1.6 percent
• Chicago, Illinois, down 0.2 percent
• Los Angeles, California, up 3.3 percent
• New York, up 9.8 percent
• San Diego, California, up 22.1 percent
• San Francisco, California, City Center, up 13.1 percent
• San Francisco, Downtown, up 4.8 percent
• San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf, up 5.7 percent
• Washington, up 9.7 percent

Source: Hostelling International

Independent hostels are doing well too:

This year's turbulent economy appears to be fueling demand for hostel space.

Heading into ski season, Loree Weisman, the owner of the Crested Butte International Lodge and Hostel in Crested Butte, Colorado, said her hostel bookings are trending ahead of the town's other lodging options -- and up about 25 percent from her bookings by the same time last year.

Most Americans aren't aware of hostels:

Despite the rise in many hostel bookings, Williams said hostelling still isn't part of mainstream American culture.

"We do hostelling about as well as we do soccer. We do it, but it's a limited market, and we do it a certain way. Otherwise, most Americans aren't very comfortable [with] it," Williams said.

Wampach said he believes this represents Americans' "relatively conservative views and lifestyles."

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