Budget Lodgings, Minus the Austerity

HOSTELING used to be so easy. Choose a place at random. Make a side trip to the drugstore for sleep aids and earplugs. Brace yourself for the 4 a.m. hip check from the guy who drank his weight in Guinness, and shuffle to the refrigerator at first light to see whether someone stole your food.

Now things are much more complicated. Should you spend the night in an English castle or opt for a place with WiFi? Choose a private suite with a Jacuzzi or a dorm room overlooking the walking garden? And just how many pancakes can you eat at breakfast?

After nearly 100 years on the lower rungs of the accommodations ladder, hostels are moving up. Hostel organizations are holding their members to higher standards than ever, and hostel owners are following suit as they serve a budget travel market that is increasingly thirsty for more diverse, and often fancier, accommodations than they will find at motels and low-cost hotels.

"They're absolutely getting better," said Mark Vidalin, marketing director for Hostelling International USA, a nonprofit hostel organization based in Silver Spring, Md. "There's been a recognition that hosteling had reached critical mass and gone beyond just cheap places to stay."

Customers have helped push hostel standards higher, industry executives said. Many backpackers who frequented hostels decades ago have returned to them in more recent years, seeking the camaraderie of these properties, but without backaches from ancient beds or headaches from worrying about their valuables disappearing while they sleep.

To help meet the market's rising expectations, Mr. Vidalin said that in the mid-90's, Hostelling International, which represents 4,000 hostels in 60 countries, began applying stricter standards to its member hostels. The United States division, for instance, has two full-time inspectors who travel to each of the organization's about 80 affiliates to evaluate cleanliness, security and the aptitudes and attitudes of managers, among other things.

Mr. Vidalin said that after the inspections began, Hostelling International USA dropped an undisclosed number of members. "We're a nonprofit, so we're more concerned about the quality of the experience than the bottom line," he said.

Hostels abroad are undergoing similar changes. According to Paul Fearn, spokesman for the Youth Hostels Association, Britain's division of Hostelling International, hostels in England and Wales "have improved dramatically in recent years," in particular, by increasing guests' privacy. Most hostels are walling off their big dorm rooms in favor of smaller rooms housing four to eight visitors, or even private rooms with a single bed.

Such measures are "ideal for couples with young families traveling on a budget, as they can book their own room," Mr. Fearn said. "Many come with en suite bathroom facilities too, so all can stay together."

An example of the trend can be seen at the two Globetrotter Inns in Britain: one opened in Edinburgh in 2003 and the second opened in London late last year. The biggest rooms in each house eight and six people, while those for four people and couples offer connected bathrooms. A double room, which comes with either two twin beds or a double, costs £46 in Scotland and £48 in London, a little over at the rate of .74 to the pound, including tax and a Continental breakfast. Other rooms cost £15 to £22 a person.

The London Globetrotter has a garden behind the building, and each has an in-house pub far enough from the sleeping areas to be out of earshot.

Amber Dornbusch, a 20-year-old native of Brisbane, Australia, stayed at the London Globetrotter recently as she neared the end of a two-year traveling break from her studies at Queensland University of Technology, in Brisbane. Hostels, she said, "have this reputation of being dirty, unsafe and all that sort of stuff. My mum didn't want me doing it."

But Ms. Dornbusch said she and her traveling companion have stayed at hostels almost exclusively during their time on the road, "and most of them have been really clean, and everyone's been friendly and welcoming," she said. "The other thing about them is, you're meeting other travelers, and everyone's always keen to tell you about the best spots to see and the cheapest places to eat."

Ms. Dornbusch said that before leaving one hostel, she would use the Internet lounge that is now a common amenity at hostels and go to HostelWorld.com to locate and reserve rooms at her next destination.

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