YHAgroup.org.uk

We’ve already had one laundry list of ideal hostel features this year, here comes another. This time it’s from backpacker Adam Seper writing on the BootsnAll travel site about “8 Things that Separate Great Hostels from Average Hostels“. Here’s his list (the original article has a lot more detail on each point):

1. A real bar – with real drink choices – placed in a logical location within the hostel
2. A good chilling area and (not or) a good place to hang out with other travelers
3. A breakfast that offers a little bit more
4. A computer station and (not or) WiFi
5. Staff that actually cares
6. Location, location, location
7. A kitchen that can actually support the capacity of the hostel
8. A good view

Once again, he’s talking about international backpackers’ places, rather than the outdoor market (not that those two are mutually exclusive), but it’s still a pretty good list. For walkers’ hostels I’d add an efficient drying room with a sink for cleaning boots, no doubt you could add more.

What I find interesting is that both this list and January’s “ideal” list include a self-catering kitchen, but neither of them mention hostels’ provision of main meals. I know this is hardly a scientific sample of hostellers’ views, but they do seem to be going in the opposite direction to YHA on this issue at least.

What do you think?

Writing in the Lonely Planet blog, Mark Broadhead is musing on what facilities a modern hostel should have. He reckons that…

In an ideal world, every hostel would…

1. Be clean
2. Have no more than 4 beds per dorm
3. Have en suite bathrooms
4. Be safe, with personal lockers
5. Have an outdoor and indoor communal area, preferably containing a ping-pong or foozball table
6. Pick me up from the airport or bus/train station by minivan
7. Have a large communal kitchen
8. Have a small bar at nights serving cheap local beverages
9. Have a laundry room
10. Have private bedrooms (for those tired of dorms)
11. Have a swimming pool (if necessary)
12. Have computers with internet access
13. Have free wi-fi
14. Be run by some friendly local staff
15. Be close to (or in) the city or in an interesting suburb/national park
16. Have someone on reception 24 hours a day

…and, finally, it should charge (at the very most) half the price that a night at a nearby, respectable, budget hotel would cost.

It’s quite a list, and one directed more at the international backpacking hosteller than the domestic hikers that we represent, but it’s food for thought. YHA are currently engaged in a process of “segmentation” – deciding what facilities different types of hostel ought to have, though they don’t appear to have asked the membership what they’d like.

So, now’s your chance, what do you think should be in an ideal hostel? What do you think should be in all of them?

Chris Darmon mentioned it at the Groups Conference, and now Karl’s confirmed it on the YHA forum, the compulsory bed and breakfast policy in force at many popular hostels is being reviewed. Some hostels will have to remain B&B (because they don’t have members kitchens), but others may return to the old book-it-if-you-want-it system.

Personally, I’d be glad to see the back of this policy. Hostels are supposed to be catering (no pun intended) to people on a budget. Charging them an extra three or four quid for a breakfast that they could make themselves for much less does not fit in with this ethos. Furthermore, if you need to make an early start, or you have special dietary requirements, the breakfast you have to pay for may be of no use to you.

That’s not to say hostel breakfasts aren’t any good – I’ve had some excellent ones, but customers should have the choice of whether to buy one, or to make one (or even to skip one if they fancy a little extra time in bed or on the hill).

I also hope that any decision is applied even-handedly, to groups as well as to individuals. If it’s OK for a dozen individual members to make their own breakfasts, it should be OK for a dozen individuals who happen to be members of a YHA group. I know my own group has not been able to stay at some hostels because we’re not willing to abandon self catering.

Karl has posted a summary of proposed governance changes to the YHA Blog. The package of changes to the size and practices of the Board of Trustees will be put to an Extraordinary General Meeting at the end of February. In order to be put into practice, they’ll have to win the approval of a variety of stakeholders, but not even Karl’s 100% happy with them:

Not everybody will get everything they want – me included. That is life I suppose. A few years ago I might have screamed and stamped my feet if I did not get my way, but this time it is different in that this is what YHA needs and not what I personally want. I am going to try and be less me, me, me.

Well, I’m glad Karl is on top of his anger management technique, but that’s not the whole story.

Until recently, Karl was a member of the Governance Implementation Group, a sub-committee of the Board charged with formulating the new structure. Clearly, he’s been well-placed to get his point of view across, although its apparently not always gone his way. To be fair, the Governance Review has involved a lot of consultation at Regional Council level and even, initially, with the wider membership.

It’s a lot easier to accept decisions not going your way if you feel your opinion has been listened to, even if ultimately it hasn’t been heeded. You did your best, said your piece, and take your losses on the chin.

The reason why members sometimes “scream and stamp their feet” at YHA is that they feel excluded from the policy-making process. Important decisions are made behind closed doors, by management or by the Board. Members aren’t consulted beforehand, and often aren’t even told about it afterwards (the removal of limited means discounts being a classic example).

Of course, it’s not possible (or desirable) to consult everybody on every day-to-day decision, but YHA could do a much better job of communicating the choices that it’s made and the reasons for its decisions. If YHA could better engage with its membership, it might begin to look upon them as a useful resource rather than (as it sometimes seems) a whining inconvenience.

Screaming and stamping is a natural reaction if you feel you’re being ignored.

According to a thread on the uk.rec.youth-hostel newsgroup, the offer of a free cup of tea or coffee on arrival at a hostel is no longer to be made. A memo has gone out to hostel managers stating that “we now, no longer provide free tea and coffee for guests on arrival, other than as part of pre-costed packages”.

Now, this seems a little counter-productive to me. It surely can’t cost a lot of money to provide a cup that cheers on arrival (in fact, if staff are really expected to keep track of and report how many teas/coffees were provided on arrival as opposed to at mealtimes, that probably costs more in staff time than the drinks themselves). In return, YHA presents a friendly, welcoming first impression to its guests. Like that old advert used to say: “you never get a second chance to make a first impression!” Picture the scene:

Warden

Welcome to the hostel. You look frozen, would you like a cup of tea or coffee?

Hosteller

Yes please, that would be brilliant!

Warden

That’ll be 50p then.

Hosteller

Oh.

Is the YHA a warm, friendly organisation eager to attract new people into the fold, or is it just another penny-pinching budget hotel chain looking to get people through the door with apparently low prices and then squeeze every last penny from them with optional extras? I fear we’re drifting towards the latter.

Now, this isn’t an issue that I’d go to the barricades about. After all, you can always make your own cuppa in the Members’ Kitchen if you don’t want to pay for one. I do wonder, though, if YHA’s zeal to “increase the food and beverage spend per overnight” has gone a little far this time?

Last month I reported that the discount offered to hostel users of limited means had been reinstated. I was quite pleased with myself – a couple of members reported the issue to me, I brought it up at Regional Council, the matter was brought up at the Board of Trustees, and the management agreed to reverse the decision. Hey, the system works! Or so I thought…

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As we all know, the YHA’s charitable objective begins “To help all, especially young people of limited means…”. An extensive reorganisation of the Association’s governance is under way to bring it more into line with these beneficiaries, but what are they doing to help them where it counts – in the wallet?

Back in the olden days it was simple: if you were a student, unemployed, disabled or a pensioner you paid the under 18′s rate for your overnights as set out in the handbook. Now it’s a lot more complicated.

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The new handbook’s been out for about a month now, so a review of it is long overdue. Here’s an overview of what’s in it, what’s no longer in it, and what needs to go back into the next one…

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A month ago the YHA published an update on the Governance Review project started last September. It told us that review leader Dr Andrew Purkis “has also started a ‘blog’ on the YHA website to invite wider conversation of the issues online”. Well, he hadn’t started it then, because the website was about to be replaced with a new design, and it’s only today that the dust has settled sufficiently on the changeover for Dr Purkis’ long-awaited blog to go live.

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Last week the YHA launched the latest version of its website. It’s already generated some discussion on the UK Hostelling news group , but here’s my take on “what’s hot and what’s not” in the new offering.

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