Pallavi Agarwal says that hostels are the perfect go-to places for young travellers today and luxury hotels don’t even count anymore
Gone are the days when vacation meant staying at luxury hotels, spending tons of money and still coming back disappointed, after having done all that, because you couldn’t get the right comfort and peace of mind you had hoped for. The reason for this discomfort is also the fact that untill a few years ago, there weren’t too many options available for travellers.
Today, however, things are a lot different. Thanks to digitisation and exposure, which made people familiar with the concept of staying at a hostel as opposed to a hotel. People now look for more than just going to a clichéd place, taking a few pictures, eating some local cuisine and coming back home. They’ve started looking for wholesome experiences like going to offbeat places, interacting with people they otherwise wouldn’t have had they stayed in a hotel. And hostels give youngsters precisely that — a perfect balance between privacy and a sense of comfort.
The environment is always safe and lets the young travellers be as they want to. Most hostels have a plenty of common spaces where travellers from all over the world can interact with each other and exchange stories. And all of this, at pocket-friendly prices.
Staying at a hostel is also the best way to get a first-hand experience of the local culture of a place as hostels have tour guides who are happy to take you around to explore to the lesser-known, non-commercialised areas of a city.
Since most young travellers have a limited budget, hostels also offer a variety of add-on services for a small fee — tours, laundry, home-styled food. There are all sorts of dormitories available at hostels from mixed to only female. The women’s dorm is serviced by an all-female staff. Even sanitary napkins are available in case anyone needs them. At a time where there are more women travellers than ever before, a hostel is the prime example of how safe a co-living environment could be.
The hostel culture has also promoted community living, something which was very common in ancient times. People in a co-living space are complete strangers but stay in harmony with each other, also helping one another in various things. Most travellers are usually of the same age-group, experience and mindset, which is great, because once they come back from a day full of adventure, they can just kick back and unwind with strangers who quickly become friends. Hostels organise a bunch of fun stuff like game and karaoke nights that help break the ice.
Hostels also serve as a fertile hub for social networking. People meet, share, connect and sometimes, even collaborate. You could say hostel travellers are like social butterflies — they fly from one place to the another, collecting experiences and memories, and then fly off to another place to create more. And that’s the beauty of hostel living. It lures you to step out of your comfort zone and lets you be.
(The author is co-founder of GoStops, a co-living hostel chain in India.)