What is the priority to be in the membership of the Hostelling International ?

[Peter]

Shall I get a more turists if I shall be registered in the Hostelling International ?
Thank you

[DingoNige]

Shall I get a more turists if I shall be registered in the Hostelling International ?
Thank you

Hi Peter, You will only get the tourists if your hostel is in a location where tourists want to go. I dont think that there is much benifit of registering with hosteling international but a safer bet would be to sign up to internet booking websites like 'hostelworld.com' because more & more people are now opting for online reservations.

[Peter]

Thank you

So as I understood , the hostelbookers.com and hostels.com are working only with H I ?

[santa klaus]

No no, they are working with anyone. Forget HI, they are the dinosaurs of the hostel business and will soon be extinct anyway!

[Peter]

Thanks
What are the main proves that HI can be abolished in the future ?

[santa klaus]

Well, I´m not a prophet. I can´t tell what happens in 50 years.

I can make an educated guess about the next couple of years - I make a judgement based on the experience of the last couple of years and extrapolate.

HI has some very good hostels in some countries, but generally speaking: HI has a very bad reputation among travellers. Their hostels are known to be big and impersonal, to have too strict rules and usually to be located in the boonies. I can see no advantage in being part of their brand.

[uktrail]

The YHA (HI in England & Wales) used to be a network of hostel enthusiasts. Gradually and insidiously, just like in Animal Farm, the business people in it took over and squeezed out the enthusiasts. Until recently they were maintaining some of their excellent small hostels in country areas and small towns, largely with the work of enthusiastic volunteers. They invited people to give donations to the 'small hostels fund'. Those volunteers helped to increase the value of the hostels. The YHA then turned round and said 'We're going to sell the hostels', and those same enthusiasts had to BUY them, and pay the YHA for the increased value that THEY had put into them!!

So HI is now just an impersonal organisation. But, that said, they are known to the community and their handbook (hostel guide) is widely used. Some new country hostels and bunkhouses in Britain think it worthwhile to use their handbook as an advertising means (for a fee of course), and become associate members. So just consider it as a business proposition, maybe try it for a year or two. But if HI insist on lots of ways of doing things, you might be best to stay out of it.

[Andy08]

For some reason I used to think YHA/HI was a not for profit organisation..Was that ever the case?
I've stayed in a few YHA's but generally avoid them as a rule.. I think the problem for a lot of YHA's is that they try to target too much of the market. Families, groups, backpackers, singles, etc etc...
I think santa klaus is right, in that HI's will slowly die out as independent hostels target the backpacker market more effectively. Although that said if HI hostels were to concentrate on the rest of the market, so families, older travellers and school groups they could do very well... Especially with the baby boomers all cashed up and set to retire..

[Hostels]

I don't know if this link has been mentioned already, but it lists benefits of Hostelling International Canada -- for reference:
http://www.hihostels.ca/248/hostel+i...nfo+kit.hostel

[uktrail]

For some reason I used to think YHA/HI was a not for profit organisation..Was that ever the case?

YHA (England & Wales) is a charity and does not make money for shareholders. That has not stopped it from going millions of £ into the red. It attempts to cure its negative bank balance by selling off its hostels that were originally its heart and soul. Up to the 1960s the YHA WAS its members. Then it developed a hierarchy of managers, and slowly it has squeezed the life and enthusiasm out of those supporters who still kept going. Now it works no differently from any other big organisation, except that it pretends that it has 'members' who love it and want to help it.

The link to the Canadian HI shows it works about the same way as the Eng & Wales one. Ours has its 'enterprise scheme', and several new hostels in country areas join the scheme and find it worthwhile for getting known.