Booking a Hostel

Hostels can be a great accommodation on a solo or budget trip, but booking a hostel and finding the one can be daunting for those new to it. It is a lot different from booking a hotel, and it can be overwhelming looking at all the various options for a single hostel. Do I book a mixed room or an all female room? Where are the showers and toilets located? Is it loud? Is it safe? Some of my favorite memories of a trip are from a great time that I had with fellow travelers at a hostel and if you follow my tips below for booking a hostel and then you too can have an awesome hostel experience. So, let me break it down for you. I’ve listed the top categories to research and what to look for in each.

Booking a hostel

Website

The first key to picking the right hostel is to do some research prior to booking one. A simple search on google for “booking a hostel” will result in an endless list of sites enough to make you go crazy. However, the only one that you really need to know is HostelWorld. On this site, you’ll find just about every hostel in existence where you can filter your search based on things like price, ratings, distance, etc.

You can book directly from this website, which I have done numerous times without any issues, but I recommend booking straight from the hostel’s own website if possible. Occasionally it is cheaper to book directly with the hostel, and sometimes they have different options than listed on HostelWorld. Also, it is a peace of mind (at least for me) to have confirmation from the hostel that I have a bed booked and not just some third party.

Ratings

Finding the right hostel is all about carefully looking at the ratings that the past hostelers have left. The first thing you should do with the search results is to sort them based on the ratings. As common sense would suggest, nobody wants to live in a hostel that has been rated bad by a majority of the past guests. I think any hostel that’s rated 85% or above is a safe bet. So, at this point, go ahead and slide the “Ratings” slider on the left to 85%-100%.

There is one caveat though. Make sure to look at how many people have left a rating by looking at the orange box showing cumulative rating. If just 10 people have left reviews for a hostel and they all gave it high ratings then it’s possible that most of these reviews came from either the hostel staff or friends of the owner. I suggest that you ignore any hostels with less than 100 reviews. Now, it’s possible that the hostel is so new that it simply doesn’t have enough reviews. So, unless all the other hostels are booked and the pickings are slim, I would advise you to stay away from these new hostels and let others experience the good/bad side of it first.

Location

The next thing to look at is the distance of the hostel from the city center. After completing the above step (selecting the rating), switch to map by clicking on “Map View.” You’ll quickly discover that some of the best rated hostels are a little further away from the city center or where majority of the attractions are. Picking these far away hostels is okay if you’ll be staying in a city for 3-5 days when you can afford to spend time taking the local Metro to get everywhere. However, if you’re spending just 1-2 days, you don’t want to waste any time just walking to get to the attractions. Some cities have major attractions far away from each other. In this case, you should stay somewhere more central to the attractions and close to a Metro stop. I know that some would say that walking around and getting lost is the whole point of a trip and that is a valid point if you have 5 days to spare in a city but not if you have let’s say…just 1 day to spend in Brussels and want to try all the amazing Belgian beers, waffles, and chocolates!

Also, you need to look at the safety of the location. Is it located in a bad area of the city or is it located in the heart of the tourist area? If you don’t know the area well, read the reviews. A solo female traveler will give the best review on safety and will let you know if you shouldn’t be walking around alone.

Room Type

So far, the booking/research process has probably been pretty similar to you as booking a hotel. Here is where it really starts to deviate.

Dorm vs. Private

After clicking on the hostel name or the “Book Now” button, you’ll be presented with rates and room availability. The ones that say “Private” are meant for groups or couples that want to book the whole room for themselves. As such, these will be the priciest option. The “Dorm” rooms will either be female only or “Mixed” (male & female) rooms with the ability to sleep 4+ guests.

Female or Mixed

If you are a guy, obviously you will select a mixed room (very few hostels in my experience have all male rooms). If you are a female, you get to decide. When I travel with Nisheet, we of course stay in a mixed room. If I’m traveling solo, I stay in a female only room because I feel safer and less exposed and because I have found these rooms to typically be quieter, which I prefer. The one major draw back to a female room though is it can often be filled with groups of clicky girls that can feel uninviting to the solo traveler, but this can usually be remedied by only using the room for sleeping and using other parts of the hostel for socializing.

Number Of Beds

The number of beds per room varies depending on which hostel you are staying at, but typically you have a choice between 4 and 12 beds with the price generally decreasing as the number of beds increases. I have stayed in rooms with 4, 6, 8, 12, and 14 (more than usual) beds, so I have pretty much tested out all the choices. My favorite when traveling solo is 6 beds. Although the 4 person rooms are usually quieter, they are also usually filled with groups of 2s. That can be a little awkward, especially if you are the only solo one and the other is a couple… Rooms with more than 6 people tend to start getting noisy. With more people in the room, it is more likely that you will have at least one person that comes stomping in at 3am or has to make a mad dash to the airport at 5am. Staying in a 14 bed room was absolutely miserable for me, and I got zero sleep. All that said, when I travel with Nisheet, I like a 4 person room because I’m usually not necessarily trying as hard to mingle with others, and having another couple in the room is nice rather than awkward.

Amenities

You may not think much about the amenities of a hostel but trust me this one is important. I have stayed at some hostels where I had to deal with things like no lockers or a single power outlet shared by 10 other people. So, make sure that you click the “Facilities” tab and double-check that the hostel has the right amenities for your needs. Some big ones to check are: lockers, plenty of power outlets, Free WiFi, air conditioning, common area/bar, and plenty of showers in the bathroom.

Lockers

I used to think that all hostels had lockers, especially if the website says they have lockers. That is not always the case. Or rather, they don’t always have MY definition of a locker, and all lockers are definitely not created equal. Some lockers are just small wooden boxes that can fit a small purse and the hinges can be removed without a struggle. Other lockers are more like your high school metal lockers that do a good job of deterring people. And others still are metal cages that slide underneath a bed, but they work just as well. I find that it is best to look for locker information in the pictures or read reviews to find out exactly what the lockers are. One thing to note is that sometimes you have to provide your own lock, and sometimes you need a quarter or a Euro to lock it, so make sure you take both! I travel with expensive electronics, and I don’t like hauling them with me every day, so I make sure to have a good locker and a good lock. Having said that, the one time I was fooled into staying at a hostel without a locker, I ended up having no issues with my stuff being stolen or even touched during the day, but I wouldn’t chance it and instead just stick to hostels that have lockers.

Bed Type and Location

You probably won’t get a choice of the type of bed you are sleeping in, but you can generally request which bed you are sleeping in by filling out the request or comment box. Most standard hostels have bunk beds. I generally pick the bottom bunk because I’m short and the top bunk isn’t always that easy for a short person to climb on. I also always look to see if they have a lamp and outlet for each bed or if there are only couple of outlets in the room. If each bed has its own outlet, great. If not, request to be in the bed closest to an outlet so you can charge your phone more easily while sleeping. Information on number and location of outlets is almost always present in the amenities section of a hostel’s website. As for bed types, there are 2 different kinds. The normal bunk bed, and the ones with a fancy curtain that wraps around the bed to block out light and provide more privacy. If you are sensitive to light, you might consider trying to find a hostel that has the curtain beds. However, I find that the curtains just trap in the heat, and eye masks work just as effectively to keep out the light.

Common Area / Socializing

The common area is a biggy, especially if you are traveling solo. If you are by yourself and staying at a hostel, more than likely you will want to socialize at night. The hostel may claim to have a great social atmosphere, but I have found there are 3 things to check for: (1) Check to see what the common areas look like. If the only common area is a small kitchen, there probably isn’t much socializing that’s going to happen. If there are comfy looking sofas or a great outdoors area, people will want to go there and socialize at the end of the day. (2) Look at the activities offered by the hostel. If they promote activities such as cooking classes, dinners, bar hops, free walking tours, then you know that you are staying somewhere that promotes mingling and fun times. (3) Read the reviews. If it is a party hostel or if it is a loner hostel, the people will tell you.

Showers

Showers are very important to me. I can only go so many days with a cold, misting shower. I like my showers hot and strong. As an added luxury, I like the little private changing areas outside the shower. To find out these details, it is best to read the reviews from other travelers and not go by what the hostel website states. Another word on showers, it is often better to go for the hostels with common shower rooms instead of a private ensuite one. It might seem a little counter intuitive at first, but if you only have one shower for the 6 people in your room, you could be waiting a while. Also beware that some hostels have mixed shower rooms while others separate the ladies and gents.

Breakfast

Some hostels serve breakfast, others don’t. If this is important to you, make sure you know what you are actually getting. It might just be some gross orange flavored juice and old soggy cereal. In my opinion, breakfast is just an added perk. I wouldn’t pay a lot more just to get breakfast or stay at a hostel just because it includes breakfast because think of all the awesome cafes that are waiting for you just outside the door.

The Price

By this point, you probably have your search narrowed down to two or three hostels are are debating which one to pick. Something that might help is reading the fine print carefully. Some hostels charge an extra fee to use a credit card at check-in. So, in that case, make sure you carry some cash to avoid the 1-3% surcharge. Some provide free breakfast and offer free walking tours. These can add up the total cost of the trip and, with all other variables the same, if one hostel is a few $ more than the other but offers free breakfast then that could be something that would easily pay for itself.