YHA

[arnsider]

All a bit off subject.
The way I see it is not that long ago I could ride my bike somewhere grand like the Cader Idris round or over the Vale of Eywas and Gospel Pass and stop at a Hostel with maybe a bit of notice or having taken pot luck. For a very reasonable sum, I could get a comfy night with self catering and maybe some convivial company.
All gone!
Kings is only available to sole use groups and Capel-y-Ffin is no more.

[axel_knutt]

All a bit off subject.
The way I see it is not that long ago I could ride my bike somewhere grand like the Cader Idris round or over the Vale of Eywas and Gospel Pass and stop at a Hostel with maybe a bit of notice or having taken pot luck. For a very reasonable sum, I could get a comfy night with self catering and maybe some convivial company.
All gone!
Kings is only available to sole use groups and Capel-y-Ffin is no more.

This.

I did virtually all my long distance walking and cycling this way, either turning up unbooked or booking the evening before. By the time I quit in 2011 it was getting harder, but still possible, despite the best efforts of the YHA. What I liked about doing things this way was that I was playing at being a hobo: no ties, just going where I please when I please. Booking spoils that. (You come up against the same problem getting bikes on trains at times, too.)

I've just found this interesting piece about the history of the YHA abandoning the no car rule:
https://calmview.bham.ac.uk/GetDocument ... 900051.pdf
I hadn't realised it had been argued over for the best part of 20 years, or that it happened in dribs and drabs.

[mattheus]

OK you two, here's a deliberately cheeky question for you to answer, in light of those two posts:

Mountain bothys* give you all you ask for: cheap, no cars, no booking, good chance of like-minded company. Are they the answer to your woes?!?

*should that be bothies?? Possibly, sorry ...

[arnsider]

Well,not really. They are okay for serious mountaineers and back packers, being in more remote places like Shenaval.
The Caving and Mountaineering fraternity has a good scheme where kindred clubs can use each others hut facilities at members rates. My own club has a reciprocal right with a number of clubs in the Lakes, Derbyshire and on Mendip.
YHA have made some attempts at bunk barn provision, but have been somewhat hijacked by farmers into thinking they can levy hotel prices for very basic provisions.
The nub of the critcism of the YHA is the fact that they had a number of properties in very grand locations that in this day could not have been bought with gold bars. Devon and the South West in particular has ben decimated by sell offs. The loss of Steps Bridge on Dartmoor was a bitter blow. Arnside, up here was a prime place for young families. A short walk from a Railway station, a beach and lovely woodland and hills. Run for a short while as a franchise, then finished!

[Zulu Eleven]

The nub of the critcism of the YHA is the fact that they had a number of properties in very grand locations that in this day could not have been bought with gold bars.

And very often those properties were gifted to them, either by the owners or by local groups raising funds and buying the property.

Literally sold off the family silver. Pure asset stripping - Gordon Gecko would have been proud.

There’s one hostel that truly infuriates me - Wilderhope Manor - gifted by the Cadbury family to the National Trust on the agreement it was used as a youth hostel. A 42 bed hostel that can only be hired as a whole property - essentially just being run as a wedding venue from what I can see,

[axel_knutt]

The nub of the critcism of the YHA is the fact that they had a number of properties in very grand locations that in this day could not have been bought with gold bars.

Locations that wouldn't get planning permission or change of use permission either.

The nub of the critcism of the YHA is the fact that they had a number of properties in very grand locations that in this day could not have been bought with gold bars.

And very often those properties were gifted to them, either by the owners or by local groups raising funds and buying the property.

Literally sold off the family silver. Pure asset stripping - Gordon Gecko would have been proud.

There’s one hostel that truly infuriates me - Wilderhope Manor - gifted by the Cadbury family to the National Trust on the agreement it was used as a youth hostel. A 42 bed hostel that can only be hired as a whole property - essentially just being run as a wedding venue from what I can see,

Another one like Thurlby.

[rareposter]

YHA Coniston (Coppermines) on the market.

Historic Lake District youth hostel for sale at £400,000 | The Westmorland Gazette https://share.google/sgrmZDPqPEpG7IVOV

[Bmblbzzz]

The property is being offered for sale with preference for continuing the business as a YHA franchise, but options for independent hostelling or change of use will also be considered.

I think similar clauses were mentioned on other hostel sales upthread. So this is not necessarily closure but outsourcing, or franchising.

[Bmblbzzz]

YHA operates three main opening patterns, which can change throughout the year depending on guest demand and trading conditions. These include opening for families and individuals travelling independently, offering exclusive hire (taking over the entire unstaffed hostels exclusively), and hosting organised groups or educational school trips.

I'm not sure I see the difference between exclusive hire and hosting organised groups, other than the (probably minor) possibility of hosting more than one organised group at a time.

[AndyK]

YHA operates three main opening patterns, which can change throughout the year depending on guest demand and trading conditions. These include opening for families and individuals travelling independently, offering exclusive hire (taking over the entire unstaffed hostels exclusively), and hosting organised groups or educational school trips.

I'm not sure I see the difference between exclusive hire and hosting organised groups, other than the (probably minor) possibility of hosting more than one organised group at a time.

Some of the larger hostels are big enough to manage groups and individual guests at the same time, especially where they have multiple buildings. Hartington Hall and Bath spring to mind, for instance.

[mattheus]

YHA operates three main opening patterns, which can change throughout the year depending on guest demand and trading conditions. These include opening for families and individuals travelling independently, offering exclusive hire (taking over the entire unstaffed hostels exclusively), and hosting organised groups or educational school trips.

I'm not sure I see the difference between exclusive hire and hosting organised groups, other than the (probably minor) possibility of hosting more than one organised group at a time.

I guess the bold terms are key:
- exclusive hire would mean zero-minimal staff involvement (presumably keeping cost down) - you just collect keys from somwhere, AirBnB stylee,
- "hosting" may mean on-site staff liaising with group leader, or jus be a fancy term for normal staffing!

[Bmblbzzz]

Yep, vg point.

[EdT]

Coniston appears to be one of the 'exclusive hire' places, anyway.
'According to the listing, YHA Coniston Coppermines "trades primarily on an exclusive hire basis due to its broad appeal and unique location."'

[arnsider]

I am saddened to hear that the Coppermines hostel is up for sale.
I have seen a steady decline in weekending. Turn the clock back to the span, say early sixties till nineties.
If you went to Mendip, Edale, Llanberis or Langdale, there was a regular crowd of singles and couples, all between say 18 and 35 years old and you'd see the same faces every friday night in the pubs.
Back then, Ingleton was like the Klondike at Weekends and the pubs were overflowing.
Now young peopole just cannot afford those grand weekends and that wonderful fraternity we all enjoyed is dead.
The campsites were full of young people, in orange Vangos. Kit either carried in the back of a mini van or across the tank of a motorbike, not plum gobs in posh 4x4's, quaffing expensive Waitroses plonk from plastic wine glasses.
The Coppermines Hostel likely had a regular following of people who were sufficient in numbers to support its maintenance and upkeep, who were glad to do their jobs and had a vested intertest in the organisation.
The YHA have killed off that culture and now they are slowly killing themselves.

[rareposter]

I am saddened to hear that the Coppermines hostel is up for sale.

In effect it's been "closed" for years because it was already an exclusive "whole venue" hire anyway. It hasn't been the sort of hostel where an individual or small group can turn up and book a bed or a dorm room for quite a few years now.

I'm not sure that the whole blame can be laid at the door of YHA either. They've been struggling with how to deal with societal changes for years. Like it or not, we're not in the 1970's anymore.

The Coppermines Hostel likely had a regular following of people who were sufficient in numbers to support its maintenance and upkeep, who were glad to do their jobs and had a vested intertest in the organisation.

Clearly not!