Saturday, 4 August 2012

Managing your hostel expectations

Hostels are a thing of fascination for people who haven’t stayed in one before. I know that there was a time in my life when I really never could imagine what a ‘hostel’ really was.

When it comes to hostelling, I think that your experience can be tampered with largely due to elevated expectations. As I write this entry, I am in the common room of my hostel in Sacramento, California. I was just in my dorm room and this woman who is in her fifties (as she told me had checked in and the receptionist showed her to my dorm (not a normal service here, I gather she was being such a pain that the receptionist had to go out of her way to appease.)  The lady proceeded to be an absolute pain, complaining and whining about all sorts of things and I found myself incapable of just hmm-ing sympathetically; and instead found myself attempting to reason with her. I gather that she goes around to many hostels, being a pain and probably annoying other people and so my twisted logic was that maybe, just maybe, I could make some sort of a breakthrough in her approach to hostel life. I doubt that my efforts would have been effective. When I came down to the common area and passed by the receptionist, she apologised to me for having to put her into my room and asked me to let her know if I encounter any ‘problems’.

This encounter has led to me thinking about all of the times that I have been frustrated about something at a hostel. I’m at the point where I’ve stayed at so many hostels that I’m used to certain facilities being standard. I was in utter disbelief when the hostel in Brighton, England didn’t have a map. They had dozens of general tourist brochures advertising tours, hiring bicycles, museums, attractions – but no map. I judge more so on the level of the price that I’m paying, and what facilities I should get in return. I also do generally belief that if a hostel advertises to have a facility, then it should be available. However I’ve been caught out on various occasions by the exception to the rule, and I’ve witnessed many people who are new to hostelling be shocked by particular aspects of the hostel life.
 

Elevators

The woman who I was dealing with in Sacramento was complaining about the lack of an elevator here in the hostel. She told me that in the USA that a building not having an elevator is peculiar. I cannot really judge this as a blanket statement, but I did tell her that the property is described as being in a historical building which has been retained in its original form, and that this implies no elevator. The lady bristled when I pointed this out and just commented that she’s ‘close to being in a wheelchair’ (an exaggeration from what I can see). My response to this was that if she’s genuinely disabled then it might be necessary to call ahead to confirm the facilities. However she isn’t the first person I’ve come across who has complained about this.

Not all hostels will have elevators. In Europe, most hostels don’t have elevators! In Prague in 2008, I had to walk up and down six flights of stairs to get to my room. Even in London, where the hostel I stayed at is in an older building, there are five floors of rooms with no elevator. You will need to be able to cart your luggage up multiple sets of stairs. If you are budget travelling in the long term, you will need to do this at hostels, train stations, metro stations and more.

Solution:  If you are physically impaired in some way and considering a stay in a hostel, I do recommend calling or e-mailing the property to check if it is accessible. Be very clear about what your requirements are.  If you’re using a third party booking website, you probably won’t be able to locate direct contact details until you book. Try a Google search or looking for the property on social media sites. If this fails, generally you can contact the booking site who will forward your query.


Noise

If you have never stayed at a hostel before, it is really important to go in with an understanding that you will have to deal with more general noise around you than you would in your home environment. This may sound obvious but after having someone who was on a trip for a job interview ask me to ‘open my locker quietly’ when I woke up at 8am (generally, an acceptable time for general movement about the room) – I’ve learned that some people don’t grasp this concept. This noise may come from within your room (people waking up to their alarm, packing, the beeping sound of an electronic locker being opened); from outside your room (people in the bar downstairs, couples fighting in the corridor, a noisy elevator through the wall); or even from the street (a hostel situated above a nightclub, construction across the street).

Solution: If this is going to be a major problem, consider taking earplugs and practice sleeping with them at home prior to going.


Grocery stores & Food

My Sacramento buddy was complaining about ‘how far away’ the closest grocery store is. I looked at her with confusion and I said, “oh, so you need like, a major store, like a Walmart?” She said, “no, just a small store would be fine.” I said, “Oh, there’s one only three blocks away.” She said, “that’s six blocks in total.” By this point, I’d listened to her complain for twenty minutes and I found myself asking, with the slightest hint of joking tone to try and soften my utter disbelief at her being so unreasonable, “What, were you expecting a grocery store downstairs?”

Sometimes, hostels are located within absolutely perfect location to food and groceries. In Helsinki, the hostel was above a major grocery store. This is a rarity to be quite this close, but normally I would expect to be no more than about five blocks to some sort of food if I’m staying at a hostel in a downtown type of location. If you're further out, then you may need to walk a lot further or get public transport to find appropriate facilities. However depending on destination, time of day and day of the week, you may have facilities across the road but they could be closed. Even in Cleveland, which is a relatively major city, the CVS (major pharmacy here in the USA) closed at 5pm on a Saturday. I remember arriving in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic on a Sunday and finding that I would have to go all the way to the other side of town to the Asian run store to find a food outlet that wasn’t a restaurant open.

Solution: I recommend carrying with you some sort of ‘emergency’ food: something like packets of oatmeal or noodles, something that you can stash away in your pack and bring out if necessary, a ‘just add water’ kind of food. This has come in handy for me many a time when I’ve arrived in the evening and there is no nearby and open food outlet - or simply if I'm feeling too tired to head out.


Internet

It is very rare in a modern hostel in either Europe or North America for there to not be some sort of internet access at the hostel. Wi-fi is generally free; however a couple of times I have encountered places that charge a fee for wi-fi. Some hostels have internet kiosks, the kind where you pay a couple of dollars for twenty minutes. Sometimes, hostels (more commonly found in Europe) will have a common use computer with internet access. If internet is an absolute necessity, I would closely check the amenities listed and read through reviews on a site like Hostelworld. If the hostel commonly has issues with its internet, generally these will be highlighted by previous customers.

Solution: If you’re an internet junkie like me, I look ahead of time to see what the wi-fi access is like in the city I’m headed to – if there is Starbucks, McDonalds, if the train station or airport has free wi-fi. Shopping malls sometimes have free wi-fi. If you need to get essential information, like the address of your next hostel, ask at reception – you may just find that they take pity on you and let you quickly check your e-mail on their computer.


Laundry

If you are ever literally at a point where you are going to be absolutely, definitely needing to do laundry – e-mail ahead and just check what facilities are available. Some hostels list that they have ‘laundry’ but this might be self-service or might be a laundry service that only is available at particular times. Always, always have lots and lots of pairs of underwear. Worst case scenario, unless you’ve literally got spots and stains all over your clothes, as long as you have clean underwear you can get by!

Solution: I carry with me a small pouch of laundry powder so that in an emergency I can hand wash in a sink.
 

Rule of thumb to managing your expectations: you are guaranteed a bed, anything else is a bonus.

On top of the bed, the general next level of understanding is that the hostel will provide running water, that the facilities will be clean and you will have somewhere secure to store valuables. Having said that, these three can be questionable in the worst of the hostels that are out there, however if they have a major issue, this will be evident from reviews via booking websites.

Beyond that, even promised facilities may not actually be available – things like kitchens, wi-fi, laundry facilities, common rooms and lockers may not be up to the standard you had envisaged.  Things break down, go wrong, the hostel may be in the midst of renovations, there could be electrical problems, or they just might have exaggerated their facilities online.

The hostel life requires flexibility and open mindedness to being able to live in varying circumstances. You are giving up your control over many things, you don’t get to pick where you sleep, you sometimes cannot use the bathroom as you desire, you may have to scrounge around to find a power outlet to charge your electrical items. It is this very open mindedness which is the greatest thing that comes from the hostel life – the longer that you travel, the more that you become accustomed to handling what you are presented with. What you get in return for giving up that basic control is worth so much more. In the long run, you won’t look back at that time you had weak internet connection. You’ll remember the places you went, the people you met and the things you learnt. So embrace the challenge, don't focus on what you don't have and instead focus on what you do have, and you'll find the experience to be all the more better.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Danielle
    Of all your posts, this one made me want to get back out there and start hostelling straight away! Ah, the good life...

    ReplyDelete