YHA

[steve.y.griffith]

No we were below the threshold for stamp duty . If you are charity you can effectively have the charity commission hold the property for you in trust . The benefit is if you change Trustees you don’t have to amend the Deeds etc .
It would be hard to run Grinton in my view without the benefits of being a charity eg gift aid .
Apart from having enough wardens I would say the two major challenges of running the hostels are H and S and Child Protection (Safeguarding) we are very lucky to have officials who are Professionally qualified .

[Steady rider]

Thank you Steve

One idea could be a submission to the YHA AGM, along the lines of;
The YHA engages with cyclists, cycling groups and organisations to list the most desirable locations for new or improved hostels - cycling centers and explore suitable funding avenues.

The AGM is 9 November 2025, perhaps too late for this year?

[Blondie]

£30 for a twin room at Grinton tonight

[Morzedec]

There is a similar problem in France. Whereas, not too long ago, one could stay in a Gite d'Etape for less than ten Euro's a night, this. has now increased to - wait for it - thirty-five Euro's a night in many places.

Guess what: obvious, innit, most of the hostels now sit empty, often with two members of staff just twiddling. Yes, I understand all about inflation, but Management trying to 'milk' customers so that increased salaries can be paid goes against the very ethos of what the hostels were set up for.

Not so Happy Days.

[rareposter]

but Management trying to 'milk' customers so that increased salaries can be paid goes against the very ethos of what the hostels were set up for.

The days when you could appoint a hostel warden on a stipend and some free accommodation on site are long gone - France and the UK both have minimum wage requirements and that goes for the people on reception and the people who need to come in and clean, change the bedding etc.

In the UK, many of the hostels are older buildings, much more expensive to run and maintain due to things like heritage listing and high energy costs because they're big and draughty and there are still things like modern fire regs to abide by.

Doesn't really matter what the "ethos" is, the bills still need paying.
And (as with the UK), there are generally declining numbers of people who want to stay in a hostel anyway. If you used to regularly have 40 people staying and could charge £10 a night and break even but now you've only regularly got 10 people who want to stay a night, the cost is going to be £40. Same end result (£400) but if you need that to meet the operating costs, no-one is milking anything.

[Steady rider]

Having details to determine the cost effectiveness of designs, running costs, and potential options could be helpful. Having details on the fire regulation and how to design to satisfy the requirements without excessive costs?
Perhaps a university study could consider all the options and estimate cost effectiveness aspects.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... is_methods
higher building cost but lower running costs - Indonesia

[Morzedec]

RareP, research by French friends suggests that the increased costs go to pay the salaries of those higher up in the chain, rather than those 'on the ground'. Continually hiking prices to pay for these salaries, pensions, and so on, ends up with the same situation that the UK has with so-called charity shops - go look at Oxfam's latest accounts, where you will find out exactly what percentage of their 'take' goes to good causes and what percentage goes to higher management. I can still find a basic hotel room in France for 30 Euros a night -separate room, no bunks, shower, - so please do some research before you leap onto the keys to try an defend the indefensible.

[rareposter]

so please do some research before you leap onto the keys to try an defend the indefensible.

FWIW, I wasn't defending hostels. I'm about the last person you'd find trying to defend them no matter what they charge!

Fair point about upper management - although again I'd argue that's a fairly universal issue. Wages of the upper management (in most areas of life) have been rising far faster than wages for those "on the ground" which creates a merry-go-round of "well, that's the going rate for a Chief Exec..." with the implication that if you don't pay that,you don't get a decent candidate. That's rather a separate argument but it's also not unique to hostels.

[mattheus]

£30 for a twin room at Grinton tonight

Nice. Suspect you had good weather too

[Blondie]

£30 for a twin room at Grinton tonight

Nice. Suspect you had good weather too

Twas nice not be in the grey

[arnsider]

Well, I had the great pleasure of staying in many hostels on my walks and rides.
A group tour of the Northern Dales took us to Grinton. We hung our bikes up in a wrought iron meat safe.
Another group tour to Kings at Dolgellau and the dramatic run down from the top road. Many great hostels.
The lovely shack in the woods at Steps bridge, The splendour of Exeter when it was at Countess wear.
Those days are gone for good and the YHA has descended into the same greedy, cynical mindset of every other commercial operation.
I cannot say I am sorry. Yougsters ae mostly led by thye nose these days and seem incapable of real adventure.

[Grandad]

Experiences of lost pleasures that make our memories. Another is of riding on relatively traffic free roads in the 1960s and 70s.

[rareposter]

I cannot say I am sorry. Yougsters ae mostly led by thye nose these days and seem incapable of real adventure.

What's "real adventure" please?
Do I have to have negotiated a mountain road wearing tweeds and plus fours on a laden Dawes Galaxy before arriving exhausted at a hostel for lashings of ginger beer and fireside yarns with my Fellow Cyclists?

Is there some cut-off point where an adventure can become "real"?

[mattheus]

I cannot say I am sorry. Yougsters ae mostly led by thye nose these days and seem incapable of real adventure.

What's "real adventure" please?
Do I have to have negotiated a mountain road wearing tweeds and plus fours on a laden Dawes Galaxy before arriving exhausted at a hostel for lashings of ginger beer and fireside yarns with my Fellow Cyclists?

Is there some cut-off point where an adventure can become "real"?

If you have to ask ...

[a.twiddler]

In our modern technology dependent society a "real adventure" could happen when things stop working simply because the wi fi fails.
or maybe...

Depending on your outlook, anything can be an adventure.