September 5, 2024, 10:14 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Flat screen TV, private bathroom: such comfort sounds more like a hotel. In reality, however, this can now be found in more and more youth hostels – much to the displeasure of hotel operators, who speak of unfair competition.
Sabrina Kurth had not expected to have her own room with a bathroom in a hostel. She was thinking more of shared showers, bad food and dishwashing service. She was all the more relieved to discover that the Düsseldorf youth hostel has a breakfast buffet and single rooms. For ten days, she has been supporting a group of journalists meeting in the youth hostel as a technician. And those could have been ten very exhausting days. “I expected to have to get up early to queue for the shower,” she says. “It’s almost like a hotel here.”
‘More and more comfort’
The concept of the youth hostel has changed a lot in recent years. “We are offering our guests more and more comfort,” says Barbara Mott from the Rhineland regional association of the German Youth Hostel Association. Mass dormitories and simple meals are the old image of a hostel. The regional association no longer just wants to appeal to school classes and sports groups. Families and business people are welcome guests today. This is especially true in the cities. The figures prove the association right: in 2014, the youth hostels in the Rhineland were once again able to increase their visitor numbers.
Düsseldorf Youth Hostel is located directly on the Rhine. The new building was opened in 2008. The hostel advertises the fact that the exhibition grounds and airport are within easy reach. There are conference rooms – the largest can accommodate up to 210 people. “It’s almost fully booked for this year,” says Julia Puneßen, event manager at the hostel. Those who book the conference package also get two coffee breaks with a small buffet in addition to lunch. The offer is very popular. “We are cheaper than a hotel,” explains Puneßen.
Flat screens and internet
Many of the conference guests make use of the overnight accommodations in the youth hostel. There are 25 double rooms, which can also be booked as single rooms. A small flat screen hangs on the wall and there is an Internet connection. Only the locks on the wardrobes are reminiscent of a youth hostel. “Sometimes people who don’t even know each other sleep in the rooms,” says Puneßen. This is not usually the case in the double rooms, but it is in the four or six-bed rooms. “What sets us apart from a hotel: There are no minibars or telephones in the rooms.” Otherwise, all rooms have their own shower with a separate toilet. Only the double rooms have a television.
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Criticism from the hotel association
The Youth Hostel Association is a registered non-profit organization, and youth hostels benefit from state funding. This annoys Rainer Spenke from the North Rhine Hotel and Restaurant Association. “The youth hostels almost have the character of a hotel. That’s unfair competition.” He believes that they should concentrate on their actual target group: Young people and families. “Business travelers or trade fair visitors simply don’t belong there.”
However, not just anyone can stay in a youth hostel. You have to become a member of the youth hostel association. “Membership is easy to apply for online or here at reception,” explains Puneßen from Düsseldorf Youth Hostel. Families and individual members over the age of 27 pay 22.50 (25.00 dollars) euros per year, and there are special conditions for group membership for schools or associations.
Mott from the Rhineland regional association also emphasizes that the main difference between a youth hostel and a hotel is its philosophy. “For us, the focus is on community, on meeting each other,” she says. You don’t have that in this form at a hotel.
The original version of this article was published in 2015.