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