Surely many have heard the word “hostel” at least a couple of times, however, only avid travelers know what it is. Now hostels are cheap alternative hotels and rental apartments around the world, thanks to which travel has become much more accessible to the middle class, young people and students. In this article we will look at what a hostel is, and also find out the pros and cons of such accommodation

What is a hostel?

Translated from English, a hostel is a dormitory. Indeed, hostels are rooms for several people with a shared shower, toilet and kitchen. Most often, hostels accommodate tourists or young people who come from other countries to study or work part-time. However, hostels are becoming increasingly popular among older people. There are especially many hostels in Europe and the USA, but more and more such establishments are opening in Russia.

Most hostels are quite comfortable - you are provided with a clean bed, a locker for storing things, the necessary amenities for common use and even breakfast, although it is often limited to tea and biscuits. There are separate hostels for men and women, and the number of people in a room can vary - on average, from 4 to 10.

If luxurious hotel room is not your top priority when traveling, a hostel will allow you to save a lot and get the opportunity to travel around the cities you have long dreamed of. In addition, by choosing a hostel, you can afford to live in the very center of the city, which will be convenient for tourists.

Hostels, unlike hotels and rental apartments, have a number of features:

• A shared kitchen, free coffee, tea and biscuits are provided.
• All hostels have free internet access.
• Hostels often have a common lounge area with sofas, TV, movies and music.
• Sometimes certain establishments have rules of residence - in certain time The hostel closes at night, so you won't be able to enjoy your walks until midnight. This is for the convenience of other guests, as people coming and going from the rooms at night can disturb those who are sleeping.
• Very often the hostel organizes a free transfer to airports and train stations.
• Hostels often provide discounts on excursions, cafes and shopping. You can contact the reception for advice, and they will always tell you how to spend your time interestingly and profitably.

Benefits of staying in a hostel

Hostels are now very popular not only among young people, but also among adult travelers. Living in such an institution has a number of undeniable advantages:

• The main advantage of the hostel is, of course, affordable price. Such accommodation is much cheaper than staying in any hotel. At the same time, the hostels strictly observe sanitary standards, and they are located close to the main attractions of the city. If you want to relax on a budget, a hostel is a great option.

• Often, even people who can afford hotels prefer hostels. In the hostel you will live in the same room with foreigners from all over the world - this is a great opportunity to communicate, join a foreign culture, make friends from all over the world, or just practice your English. For sociable people who by chance travel alone, this is a great opportunity to spend time in interesting company.

Disadvantages of staying in a hostel

With all the advantages, living in a hostel also has its disadvantages:

• Living with strangers for a long time is always difficult. You will have no privacy, and your sleep may be unwittingly disturbed by other guests. In addition, you cannot predict who you will live with - some people do not comply with sanitary standards, others may bother you with conversations when you don’t want them to, and with some guests you may fear for the safety of your own belongings.

• Sharing a bathroom and kitchen is also a problem for many. You have to carry personal towels, slippers, and sometimes dishes with you.
• Hostels for tourists try to locate as close to the center as possible. However, in order to save money, sometimes the location chosen is not the best one - it may be a basement with small windows, the top floor of a building without an elevator, and the building itself may be located in a disadvantaged area where it is better for a traveler not to walk at night. All these nuances should be kept in mind and clarified before booking a room.

The hostel provides an opportunity to travel around the world on a budget and meet new interesting people. At the same time, hostels are often chosen by people with a certain character – those who love communication, noisy company and do not attach importance to comfort. If you value luxury and prefer privacy to an abundance of social contacts, you are unlikely to like a hostel. However, if you're only visiting for a few days and can't afford a hotel, visiting a new city is worth the inconvenience.

In order to explain the difference between a hostel, a hotel, a motel and an inn, the main categories of travelers should be characterized. And there are four such categories:

• Travelers who are students and who cannot afford expensive overnight accommodation. Therefore, they have to resort to inexpensive overnight accommodation.
• People moving to another region in search of work or to meet business partners.
• Travelers at heart, restless people who feel overwhelmed by life in one place. For them, life and its meaning lie in travel.

Still, each of them is forced to use services like hostels, motels and hotels. That is why Romashka experts will try to briefly characterize the above-mentioned places to stay overnight and highlight their main differences and features.

What is a hostel like?

Hostel– this is a place that has little in common with a hotel in its classical sense. In a hostel, a traveler usually shares a room, as well as a kitchen area, bathroom or shower room with other guests of the establishment. As a rule, all hostels have a classic set of rooms equipped with bunk beds. The standard number of beds in them is as follows: double, quadruple and ten-bed rooms. Typically, hostel guests are students from other countries, guests of Moscow and from other parts of our country, as well as people who value communication, traveling in groups of friends who value live communication, new acquaintances and impressions. So, in a hostel, the guest becomes a tenant not of a room, but only of a space.

IN hostel "Romashka", there are rooms with different numbers of seats for true connoisseurs of not only communication, but also comfort. After all, we, at Romashka, have everything you need for a pleasant pastime and the level of services provided is at high level. We know how to combine modern trends in hotel service and a special attitude towards human communication, and our hostel is located in a quiet area of ​​Moscow in close proximity to the center.

Motels and their features

Motels- this is an overnight stay and place of residence, which is intended for people who most often move on various vehicles. Motels are usually located on the outskirts of cities or near busy intersections. Near the motel there is usually gas stations, service centers and guarded parking. Such an establishment usually has at least a dozen single or double rooms.

The hotel and its origins

Hotel- this is a place where travelers can temporarily reside for a fee and they appeared back in the Middle Ages. If you remember films or fiction, then they were called inns. Inns appeared out of necessity, because in those ancient times, when horses played the role of transport, and trips could last for weeks or even months. Therefore, in such courtyards one could not only spend the night, but also have dinner, feed the horses, or exchange them for rested ones. Today, hotels are represented by establishments with different star hierarchies, and the more stars, the higher the level of services provided, which is undoubtedly reflected in the price. Hotels can be either ordinary roadside and inexpensive, or elite, where an overnight stay can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars. These hotels have swimming pools, conference rooms, gyms and upscale restaurants with a casino and other additional amenities.

Difference between motel and hotel

The main difference between a hotel and a motel is characterized by the type of building structure. Hotels have a more complex architectural component, and their rooms are located on different floors or levels. Typically, a hotel building consists of a complex pattern of internal corridors, passages, entrances and exits for employees, and they may also be equipped with elevators connecting floors. Whereas motels are most often a one-story U-shaped building with one entrance and exit. Sometimes they are called simply furnished rooms with minimalist furnishings in the rooms and the additional service of a small breakfast.

When going on a trip or business trip, we often calculate expenses so that our trip does not hurt our pockets. A significant part of the money will be saved by choosing the right place where we decide to stay. A good solution may be to choose a hostel. They will be discussed below, as well as What is the difference between a hostel and a hotel?.

Since we are talking about savings, first of all, at price. The hostel, as initially cheap temporary housing, is ready to provide its walls at prices from three to five times less than a traditional hotel, and much more profitable than renting daily housing. In return, you will also receive obvious inconveniences, such as unwanted neighbors, a shared kitchen and/or a shared bathroom somewhere in the hallway. And this is not surprising.

The key difference between a hostel and a hotel is that a hostel is often a dormitory. There are hostels where you can book a separate room, but this is rather an exception to the rule and turns the hostel into an inexpensive motel. The structure of a hostel often resembles a guesthouse, when the owners live nearby and the free rooms are rented out as an inexpensive hostel. Shared rooms can accommodate from two to ten people, but there are hostels with 20-30 beds. The latter are called dormitories in Europe, or simply dorm.

The cost of one night in a hostel is largely determined by the number of neighbors. So the price can vary from 400 to 1700 rubles, depending on 2 to eight guests in the room, respectively. The price may also include additional services offered by the owners of the area.

Despite the initially spartan design of the hostel, you can be offered a hot breakfast, toiletries and the use of electrical appliances and other amenities, but you will have to fork out for them. If bare bunk beds, home-cooked omelettes in the shared kitchen, and the lack of a hair dryer scare you less than an empty wallet, you won't have any trouble finding a classic hostel without unnecessary amenities.

Neighbours

There may be a misconception that a hostel is cheap housing for the homeless. Not at all, the owners usually value the reputation of their establishment and do not allow anything like this.

A modern hostel is viewed more as a temporary overnight stay for budget travel in the company of friends or single tourists, which are often active young people from all over the world. Some owners even set an upper age limit for their guests. And although this is an infrequent practice, hostels have a reputation for being fun hostels, where people don’t just share one room, but make new acquaintances, communicate and have fun together.

The difference between a hotel and a hostel is that the neighbors of the second often become friends when a person tries to retire to a hotel alone or with his family. Sound insulation plays an important role, which the hostel, like any hostel, does not have. So if you have a light sleeper, a child, or, conversely, loud snoring, it is better to pay attention to an inexpensive hotel.

Although budget hotels have taken away market share from the hotel business, many still prefer a comfortable stay in the company of strangers, albeit cheerful, but also noisy. Hotel room will reliably preserve not only your peace, but also your personal belongings. In many hostels you will not even be given a key, and at best they will offer to hide your belongings in a safe or a small locker. The cheapness of hostels can also attract unreliable elements, and their youth and noisiness will many times make you regret the money saved. However, such fears can be avoided by traveling in the company of your friends and booking the entire hostel room for yourself.

In addition to questionable quality additional services, which the hostel will offer you, in the hotel their quality is put on stream and is obviously higher. Even an inexpensive modern hotel will offer you, in addition to a roof over your head, free wireless Internet, restaurant services, high-quality cleaning of your room, air conditioning, TV and much more that artisanal hostels cannot boast of. In Russia, hostels are allowed to be set up directly in apartments, with a common entrance from the entrance, and the living conditions there are too proportional to the daily price.

The situation in the world is not so dire. Hostels have been popular throughout Europe for many decades precisely as a budget option for traveling. The standards of detention there have long been regulated and correspond to the necessary standards for economical stay. Over the years, a certain culture has developed regarding hostels. Today we are not talking solely about saving money.

Travelers from all over the world are specifically looking for a vacation in the company of like-minded people, and find it among the guests of cheap hotels. Today's hostel may not be particularly budget-friendly, and generally offer the same services as a decent hotel, with the only difference being that its clients are close to the atmosphere of holiday revelry, and the need to share a room with strangers is conditional and only satisfies the client's demand.

Every tourist needs a place for temporary accommodation. This can be either a cozy room in the private sector or a huge apartment in a luxury hotel. The choice of option directly depends on the financial capabilities of the traveler. In this article we will provide a comparative description of two accommodation facilities that are widely popular among modern tourists.

Definitions

Hostel

Hostel– European method of accommodation, in which the guest is provided sleeping area in a room without additional amenities. The first facility of this type was founded in Germany in 1909. Historically, hostels were a kind of symbiosis of Russian apartment buildings, European apartments and American motels. All these establishments, hundreds of years ago, offered relatively undemanding travelers cheap place for an overnight stay.

Hostel room

Hotel

Hotel– a hotel-type service enterprise that provides accommodation services for guests for a certain period of time. These objects are divided into many categories depending on the number of stars, type of food, focus, etc. In the Middle Ages, a hotel meant an ordinary house within the city, in which noble people stayed during their travels. Modern type service facilities developed only in the 19th century with the advent of the industrial revolution.

Hotel room

Comparison

The first accommodation option is budget. As a rule, hostels are not designed for long stays and are more suitable for undemanding young people. However, they are also often used by sports teams, pilgrims, etc. Several strangers can live in one room. Sometimes young people move into a hostel with a whole group, completely buying out a multi-bed room. There is also the possibility of living in a separate room, but this will cost several times more. Whatever room the guest stays in, he is forced to share the bathroom, toilet, kitchen and living room with the other guests. All of these are common areas. That is, in fact, only the bed is rented. By the way, the lion's share of hostels opens in ordinary apartments.

Thus, the main difference between a hostel and a hotel is hidden in its accessibility. The second placement option is much more expensive. But the service there is at a higher level. The hotels offer their guests comfortable rooms with all amenities. Often, the cost of accommodation includes meals and use of various amenities of civilization: a swimming pool, beach, bar, etc. Also, for a fee, guests have access to a wide range of additional services. Often on hotel premises there are laundries, hairdressers, fitness clubs, conference rooms and other establishments. Due to this, they can be called multifunctional accommodation facilities.

The table below will give you a better idea of ​​the difference between a hostel and a hotel.

Hostel	Hotel
Budget accommodation option for young people	More expensive type of accommodation for middle and high income people
Accommodation in a shared room	Rent an individual room
The kitchen, bathroom, toilet and living room are designed for all guests	There is a bathroom in every room, meals are provided in the restaurant and are often included in the accommodation bill
Has a modest number of rooms, often located in an ordinary city apartment	It is a separate building with an impressive number of rooms
No additional services	Offers guests a wide range of different services