Hostel numbers

[Plakian]

I have started writing a report about the dire situation of hostels in Greece. It would help if I could present a list of European countries with the number of independent and HI hostels.

Does anyone know if such a list exists or do I have to labouriously go through pages on HW?

[uktrail]

For UK, go to yha.org.uk and syha.org.uk . On each, you might find a list of hostels somewhere, if not then look at each regional map and count the number of hostels.

I have the Scottish SYHA guide for 2007. The number in there is 67. It will be less now.

I have the YHA guide for 07-08. The number of "youth hostels" in their index was about 200. There are also 14 bunkhouses. (Camping barns are not hostels and not included.)

The Blue hostel guide for Scotland lists about 130 independents.

For independents in E&W, try www.independenthostelguide.co.uk . I have their guide book for 2007 which shows about 130 for England & Wales, but some of those are for groups only. Incidentally, that guide has an advert from the Greek YHA which shows 10 hostels including yours. I'd be interested to know how many independents there are in Greece.

[Plakian]

Originally Posted by uktrail

Incidentally, that guide has an advert from the Greek YHA which shows 10 hostels including yours. I'd be interested to know how many independents there are in Greece.

Those 10 are just the ones who have taken the trouble to join the local association; why I do not know, it does nothing other than a little advertising. I think that there are currently about 26 independent hostels and 1 with HI.

[Hostels]

I wonder if the hostel booking engines would give up that information if asked. The drawback of using Hostelworld.com for research is that they call many hotels "hostels" (e.g., beds from $250 each when you book the whole room ).

Marco might have those numbers because he sorts his properties by whether they are hostels or not.

[Plakian]

Originally Posted by Hostels

I wonder if the hostel booking engines would give up that information if asked. The drawback of using Hostelworld.com for research is that they call many hotels "hostels" (e.g., beds from $250 each when you book the whole room ).

Hostelworld also has a sort facility where you can show only hostels.

Anyway, good idea - I will mail Hostelworld immediately.

[aboriginalhostel]

Originally Posted by Plakian

Hostelworld also has a sort facility where you can show only hostels.

Anyway, good idea - I will mail Hostelworld immediately.

Well, regardless this option, there are still hotels, apartments and other type of accommodation rather prefer to registered as hostels because they can get more revenue...

I could only realize it when I was on the spot.

[Hostels]

Originally Posted by Plakian

Hostelworld also has a sort facility where you can show only hostels.

Thanks... I never noticed that option in the sidebar. It remembers your preference with a cookie too which is nice.

[Plakian]

Sorry to harp on but, as part of my research, I am finding some strange results on the Hostelling International web site http://www.hihostels.com/dba/continent-Europe-EU.en.htm

As far as I am aware Greece was thrown out of HI (or whatever it was called then) years ago as the Greek philosophy could not accept the concept of “non-commercial”. All that remained for the past 15 years or so was the Athens International hostel. Today I find the following-

Athens - Aphrodite (definitely commercial and listed on HW and HB)
Athens - Athens Easy Hostel (opened 2 years ago and ditto)
Athens - Hotel Lozanni (HOTEL?)
Athens - Student & Travellers Inn (definitely commercial and listed on HW and HB)
Athens International (fair enough but also listed on HW and HB)
Corfu Travelers Inn (another name for the notorious Pink Palace!)
Ios Island - Lofos Hotel (HOTEL?)
Santorini - Hotel Drossos (HOTEL?)
Santorini - Loizos Apartments (APARTMENTS?)

Are other people seeing some odd results for their country?

Can anyone join HI now if they pay the fee?

[uktrail]

Interesting site, I wasn't aware of it, I look at YHA and SYHA's own sites.

For UK hostels the site is good but a little out of date. And they take bookings and show RATINGS! I didn't know that HI would actually encourage ratings and negative reviews about themselves.

Yes, anyone can join the YHA or any other branch of HI. Decades ago, this was a matter of pride in a cooperative organisation. Now it seems archaic. (I'm OK, I joined as a life member when the life membership was half the cost of an overnight today ).

[Plakian]

Originally Posted by Plakian

Can anyone join HI now if they pay the fee?

I meant hotels, apartments, etc. I does seem to be against the whole original ethos of HI.