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Any time I've looked at booking a YHA in the last few months, there's either been no availability at all, even months in advance, during the week and outside the holidays, or I can only book a private room or the whole hostel - e.g. if I want to stay at Honister in October, I can only book the whole place at anywhere between £350 and £900 per night, 2 nights minimum. Similar elsewhere.
Is this a Covid hangover? Surely they can't be insisting on no shared dorms still? There's nothing I can see on their site to explain it.
Some hostels can only be booked for sole use outside summer? Certainly can't get beds/rooms at black sail any time now, only the whole hostel. We have managed to book two nights in ennerdale and two in borrowdale in September, cheaply as well so some are operating normally.
I have made a few bookings over the last 12 months. No real problems. Always a private room but yeah the shared dorms never seem to be free.
Some places are only available if you hire the whole place. They tend to be the more remote ones I think.
I think they are struggling with staff at the moment so moving them around to keep one place open at the expense of another. Was booked into Coniston and that got cancelled so we stayed @ Hawshead.
I used lee valley and it all worked fine. I think it’s some hostels
Individual beds are only starting to come round now so lots of properties still selling room only. In some cases they’ll be larger rooms so the price for 1 person is too high, in which case don’t sell it for less than e.g 3.
Add in lack of staff to turn things over and sometimes it’s not possible to sell it because you can’t clean it for the next group.
That’s certainly where we are now. We might start doing individual beds for winter if the demand is there.
Just about to lose a staff member though with no hope of back filling so will see how it goes.
Some hostels can only be booked for sole use outside summer?
I've tried at various times over the summer too, so it's not that.
Maybe those of you that have managed to book have got lucky, or I've just got unlucky.
Found a private room for a night with a friend a while back for £39 so that was good value, but otherwise it's too expensive if you're on your own. For me it's just a case of being tight, but it's a shame for young people who are trying to get out there on their own. But I get that every organisation has bills to pay, etc.
@tartanscarf sounds like you work for the (S?)YHA?
Individual beds are only starting to come round now
After covid you mean?
Scottish hostels were running as "normal" in June.
Stayed at Pitlochry, Loch Ossian, and Aviemore.
So good to sit in the kitchen at Loch Ossian and chat to hostellers from around the world, putting the world to right. Even got a free beer from the warden 🙂
We tend to book for unpopular times (eg Eyam last Sunday). Maybe there's a swing to holidaying at home/on a budget. Not had any major problems.
Maybe as they've improved they now appeal to a wider market (going by some of the shiny cars you see parked up there).
+1 for SYHA being good/normal. Stayed at Pitlochry, ate at Loch Morlich/Cairngorm (used to work there as a teen a long time ago!) and stayed at Inverary too a few months back.
K
Certainly can’t get beds/rooms at black sail any time now, only the whole hostel.
I thought Black Sail was fully booked for years in advance.
Lovely YHA, only ever lunched there when passing.
Sorry to hear YHA are struggling for staff, I worked at Edale YHA during my gap year and it was terrific fun.
The whole leisure / tourism industry is struggling for staff post Brexit, they've lost all the the young Europeans who would come and work for a few years in the UK to improve English / figure out what they wanted to do etc.
@thenorthwind. No, I run my own business. Used to be 50/50 hostel and self catering now 15/85 with hostel style beds being squeezed out.
booked rooms through the pandemic at certain hostels, mostly in scotland. also book a few over past year, and have a few booked for a weeks time.
berwick. wooler. alnmouth. the sill and alston.
no problems at all with booking.
Not just Brexit causing labour shortages, lack of accomodation for staff nearby because of holiday let's. Not so much a problem with yha as they offer staff accomodation.
I'd assumed that because of Covid there was a move away from shared sleeping dorms to private rooms. It got me exploring options a bit further and I realised that a lot of hostels also do camping for very cheap prices, while also allowing you to use all of the indoor facilities. So for peanuts you can sleep on your own for 8 hours under canvas, and use the kitchens, the lounge, the indoor toilets and showers, and the charging points, but without the higher costs of a room. Result.
So good to sit in the kitchen at Loch Ossian and chat to hostellers from around the world, putting the world to right.
This is the main attraction of hostels for me. Happy to spend the day out in the hills on my own, but it's nice to be around like-minded people who might want to chat in the evening.
@tartanscarf Ah gotcha - where out of interest?
@tonyja That's a good point actually. I've tended to overlook camping at YHAs since there's lots more options if you're willing to camp. But I hadn't thought of it that way.
Oh, nice!