What's happened to the YHA?

[groberts]

After some years I have recently re-joined and started to use the YHA for Cycle touring, only to find great numbers of closures in England etc - what has happended? I searched but can't find a succint explanation. I'm sure it goes something like: they were not used so had to close. However, there still seem to be plenty in Europe and I can not believe if they were properly marketed (that horrible word but let's face it there is more competition now) they could remain open. It is very sad to see some really great places no longer available for those of all ages to use on foot or by bike. Is the CTC linked with the YHA in any way - this and other similar links are a natural market for the YHA.

[james01]

Society has changed, affluence has increased, demand for cheap-as-chips dormitory accommodation has declined. The atmosphere of YHA has changed anyway with the end of the ban on motorised arrivals (late night noise from guests who haven't expended energy getting there and keeping awake the minority who need their sleep ready for tomorrow's effort). These days I prefer the privacy & peace of my tent.

[meic]

The YHA has moved on (modernised) from what we knew and loved.
However the independant hostel movement is taking over the role that YHA have left.
Many of the old hostels sold off by YHA are now running independantly.

http://www.independenthostelguide.co.uk/index.php

The YHA claim that people stopped using the hostels and they were too expensive to keep. Many of us users stopped using the Hostels because the YHA made too many petty obstructions, like their booking system, though in practice you could still just turn up.
Unfortunately too many YHA hostels are closed to the members most weekends as they are rented out for corporate training or the like.

[thirdcrank]

Here's one we prepared earlier:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1825&hilit=Boggle

[meic]

They have opened a new YHA in Abergevenny, so it isnt all one way.

[iviehoff]

They got in a financial mess, (probably through losing money on some over-costly flagship projects), and had to sell off some of their estate to fill the financial hole. The CTC has no formal link with the YHA.

Obviously some of the hostels the YHA can fill without any great effort, the Amblesides etc. But the hostels the cyclists like, they obtain patchy use. In many cases the smaller and simpler hostels are better run as an independent backpacker hostels. The independent owner has the incentive to use their own labour for the maintenance, thus keeping costs down, and is often sufficiently plugged into the local community to be more effective in obtaining custom. For example the new trust which bought Dolgoch and Ty'n-y-Cornel hostels from them has greatly increased the patronage of the hostels. In many ways it is a good thing that these hostels are no longer run by the YHA. Perhaps if this had happened earlier, some of the other smaller hostels could have been rescued.

In some other countries, the YHA is basically a franchise operation, providing a marketing network for a loosely affiliated group of independent hostels. I think it would be better like that here, at least for the smaller hostels I favour. But the E&W YHA is probably ham-strung to some degree by its charitable status and the need to provide the charitable aims. I guess they do not have this issue most other places.

[Ivor Tingting]

I stopped staying in YHA 20-25 years ago as one could never get a decent night's sleep . Much prefer my tent or if more substantial shelter is needed a cosy cheap BnB.

[rbrian]

They're moving away from dormitories to private rooms, and charging as much as, in some cases more than, a B&B. I mostly use a tent now.

[Edvardus]

Same as what's happened to the SYHA as far as I can see. If my stay at Aberdeen last month was an example of how things are hostelling-wise now, then I regret having renewed my membership. Probably unfair to cite THIS hostel in view of its location, but I counted at least 12 cars, at least one party of commercial folk and immigrants. I was the only cyclist. I suspect that the days of a motorist being chucked out to provide accomodation to a cyclist or walker at isolated hostels have long gone. I suppose maintenance costs and rates (if they pay them) plus the need to conform to more rigorous health & safety regs have taken their toll.

[TheBrick]

I've never been to a youth hostel but I am planning to have a go this winter as an alternative to camping in the cold. When I started to look at it I started to find the problems listed, not that cheap anymore and quite often inconveniently spaced.

I think a possible alternative for me is warmshowers http://www.warmshowers.org/ does not have the same appeal as YHA but gives an extra option of places to stay.

[eileithyia]

TB, you will be very lucky to find a YHA open to general public in the winter months these days. As listed above they have (mostly) gone over to Rent a Hostel during in this time and it is impossible tostay as an individual or a small group.
Most of my hostelling was always from Sept - April often with a small CTC group weekend away, we were always too busy on other projects/ holidays etc in the summer months to co-ordinate club weekends. These are now virtually impossible.

In Oban a few years ago we found B&B were cheaper than the high season hostel prices!!!

[MartinBrice]

I too don't even bother to look for YHA places when i'm after somewhere to stay. B&B is almost always better, the breakfasts are nicer and they are either the same price or very little extra. I have had some utterly dreadful breakfasts at YHA places. i suspect it is because they are run by people who have little interest in increasing the number of people who stay - the old British Rail syndrome. Sometimes you can get lucky and i have stayed in YHAs that have been OK, but given the total cost of a trip, the little extra to stay in a B&B doesn't add much to the overall price of several days. A tent is also much cheaper. I stayed in Kendal YHA in July a few years ago and it was about the same price as a B&B, and the room was tiny and very hot and the noise from the street - chucking out time drunks, then traffic at night and finally - the last straw - "caution, this vehicle is reversing" as the dustmen came to pick and drop every bin in the street at 6am - kept me awake most of the night.

[Big T]

I think the rise of the budget hotel chains has also made a difference to the YHA.

If you're organised enough to book well in advance, you can get Travelodge rooms for as litte as £9, even a couple of weeks before you go you can get them for £30. For a couple, they're cheaper than staying in most Youth Hostels. Plus you know what you're getting with a Travelodge. The accomodation at Youth Hostels can vary enormously.

[AllanJ]

As iviehoff said, the YHA got involved with setting up some large, expensive city hostels and wound up with a huge debt. A lot of hostels were sold to raise capital to service this debt. The hostels that were closed were not necessarily making a loss, it's just that the YHA wanted the quick cash from the sale of the property. Take Ty 'n Cornel for example, which was the least used YHA hostel but still (as I understand) breaking even, however it's sale raised 100k to help service the debt.

Some hostels, like Ty'n Cornel and Dolgoch, have been re-opened as independents.

Cheers
Allan

[TheBrick]

TB, you will be very lucky to find a YHA open to general public in the winter months these days. As listed above they have (mostly) gone over to Rent a Hostel during in this time and it is impossible tostay as an individual or a small group.
Most of my hostelling was always from Sept - April often with a small CTC group weekend away, we were always too busy on other projects/ holidays etc in the summer months to co-ordinate club weekends. These are now virtually impossible.

In Oban a few years ago we found B&B were cheaper than the high season hostel prices!!!

Oh bügger. thanks for the heads up. Though.