We all love travelling! I created top 10 tips to choose the best hostel, so you can turn it into an amazing experience. Hostels are becoming much more popular for young people who are dedicated to travel the world with a low budget. This demand has created a huge opportunity for hotels which led to thousands of hostels being opened across the world. Most of these hostels are similar in principle, however there some offering lifetime experiences. I hope 10 tips to choose the best hostel guide will help you to find the best selection for your next travel plan.
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To be honest, choosing a hostel is not much different than finding the best hotel in the area. However, it makes difference depending what kind of place you are looking to stay at. Moreover, if you’re looking for a dorm room, it makes huge difference to spot the best hostel in the region.
Let’s find out which 10 tips to choose the best hostel would make a big difference.
Evaluating Ratings on Booking.com and Hostelworld.com
Ratings are crucial. Even if you’re using only one website for your travel plans, I’d suggest you review multiple platforms for ratings. The main reason behind crosschecking multiple platforms is related to time they are listed on the platform. Sometimes, hostels list their rooms in different platforms later than the most common ones. So, you might not get the best feedback if they are just newly listed in the platform you are using. I only consider ratings seriously if there are more than 100 reviews about a hostel. As you all know, it’s very easy to manipulate the score when there is not many reviews.
Reading Recent Reviews on Booking.com and Hostelworld.com
Most of the platforms don’t take old-dated reviews under consideration when they put a score for a hostel. Having said that, it’s crucial to read the most recent reviews, so you can have a clearer opinion. Imagine, they might have changed management in the last few months and the new management might be horrible. In this kind of situation, it would me much more important to see the most recent reviews about a hostel. Also, if you crosscheck different platforms, you can get a sense of most-updated issues or benefits.
Price Comparison
Let’s face it, we want to travel with the cheapest option possible. However, believe me sometimes few dollars difference doesn’t worth it. In order to make up your mind, you need to consider other offerings including location, breakfast, etc. Sometimes, hostels offer food and simple needs, but they are overpriced. Therefore, if they’re not located close to markets, it will become overwhelming and pricier in the end.
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Hostels with Best Location offering Convenient Transportation
If you are interested in sightseeing of the area and attractions nearby, location is highly crucial. If you are using Booking.com or Hostelworld.com, you must check the map view before booking your hostel. Always remember that you’re a tourist and you might not get the best deal with cabs all the time. This will drastically increase your low travel budget without realizing it. At least, you should spot few places you’ll see, so you can choose your hostel location according to that.
Hostels offering Free Breakfast
Breakfast is a game changer, especially when it’s free. Most of the people who party a lot complain about early breakfasts. However, there are some hostels offering free breakfast until 11am which is amazing option to have for a low-budget traveler. Even if it’s a light breakfast, it’s always good to have breakfast when you wake up without leaving the property. If you are doing your bookings through booking.com you can have more insight about property’s breakfast offer. Some hostels have “exceptional breakfast” options for it’s visitors which is a great deal to have.
Hostels offering Free Wi-Fi
If you’re traveling domestically, Wi-Fi deal might not be a game changer for you. However, if you’re traveling internationally, you know the importance of the Free Wi-Fi. Today, we all communicate through internet and most of the time we don’t purchase local SIMs. Imagine not being able to talk to your friends and family due to poor connection. It’s not fun, so you might want to check reviews about hostel’s Wi-Fi. Don’t lose your connection to the world!
Hostels Offering Rooms with Private Bathrooms
Yes, if you’re traveling for long time, you get used to using public bathrooms and showers. However, if a hostel has many beds, it can easily become disturbing for waiting on shower line every morning. If you can find an option with private bathroom which has similar pricing, I’d choose the one with private bathroom. If the one in your room is occupied, you can still use the public ones!
Type of a Hostel: Party Hostel, Relaxing Hostel, Hostel with Beach Access etc.
There are few different types of hostels offering different environments for its visitors. My personal favorite is chill-type hostels although I love parties. Because it’s much more convenient to chill day time and go to parties nearby when you have the desire. One day, you can just wake up feeling sick and it’s devastating to feel like that in a party hostel. Not sure which ones are party hostels? Check the reviews, you will understand after reading few of them. (:
Hostels with Common Areas such as TV Rooms, Garden, Pool, etc.
Hostels are great places for socializing especially if you’re traveling alone. However, if a hostel doesn’t have common areas settled according to that, you might run into some trouble. The easiest way to spot hostels with best common areas is looking at the photos of their listings. Yes, sometime photos might be tricky, but you can always double-check with the reviews.
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Hostels with Activities including Ping Pong & Beer Pong Tournaments, Pop Quizzes, etc.
Last but not least in the top 10 tips to choose the best hostel is the activities offered. I think this is one of the most important sign of understanding a hostel’s characteristics. Let me tell you, your stay might become boring without activities. Especially, if the management knows how to run these activities it’ll be so much fun!
This is the end of my top 10 tips to choose the best hostel. I hope these tips will be beneficial for your next vacation. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to mention them and I will add them to the list!
