Why are hostels becoming so overpriced?...

Ozell and I stayed in a hostel our first two nights here in Salvador.  The hostel had an extraordinary high favorability rating.  It was in the heart of the Centro Historico district.  It was one of the cheapest (if not the cheapest) hostel we have stayed in on our trip- $12/night for a bed in a 6-bedroom dormitory.  I am sure the price is going to go up quickly though as soon as the word gets out about this hostel.  It just opened in late 2008, and they are not listed in the guidebooks yet.  They are listed on Hostelworld.com which is where Ozell found them.  Ozell does most of the work with the hostel bookings for a few reasons.  But that is not the point of this post.

 

We hated it.  Maybe "hate" is a strong word.  The owner and staff were very friendly and accommodating.  The free breakfast in the morning was the best that we have had at a hostel.  It had some charm and character although I felt the common spaces were a little claustrophobic.  The main reason we did not like the hostel is that each dormitory room had its own bathroom which had to be shared amongst all of the roommates.  That is why in this case we just to stay in the smallest dorm room they had- 6 person.  I hate this layout for a hostel for a variety of reasons...

 

First, one bathroom for even six people is too little.  I grew up with a family of six in a house with one bathroom.  Well, there was another unfinished one in the utility room in the basement, but nobody used that one.  This was hard enough when we were kids and didn't really need much bathroom time.  Thankfully, my parents moved into a bigger house once we were hitting our teens.  But for six adults who are getting up at the same time (because you are all cramped into bunk beds in a small room together so when one person gets up, everyone starts to get up) and typically going out at night at the same time, one fucking bathroom isn't even close to being sufficient.  You can easily waste an hour and a half of your day (twice a day) trying to get into the bathroom.  I couldn't even imagine what the one bathroom would be like for the 8 and 10-person dorms this hostel had.

 

Secondly, the bathrooms are attached to the interior of these small rooms.  Therefore, all of the unpleasant smells are waffed into the room every time someone takes a shit.  This also goes for the humidity of the showers.  And many times, someone shits and then takes a shower, so when then open the door to come out, you get the pleasure of heavy, dank air combined with innumerable particles of feces attached to the water vapor for the even more pleasant smell of ass.

 

Thirdly, the rest of the room is filled with strangers who may or may not be as considerate as you- most likely not as considerate.  Ozell was about to get a shower when a fat, nasty Irishman awoke in the morning.  Knowing that many people need to piss when they wake up, Ozell offered the Irishman to use the bathroom before him.  The Irishman accepted and then proceeded to undertake his complete morning regiment.  That is okay although I would have been more considerate and just pissed and waited my turn.  However, Ozell had the pleasure of walking into a closet (hostel bathrooms are about as small as physically possible to maximize bed space because more beds means more capacity which means more money) that stunk of fat Irishman beer shits and was completely flooded.  There was a shower area with a shower curtain, but obviously this guy did not think it was necessary to use the curtain at all.  The toilet seat was completely wet, the walls were drench, the floor was flooded so even if you were wearing your protective flip flops, you were bound to have Irishman pubic hairs and masturbated cum drippings floating onto and attaching to your feet.

 

All of these problems can be solved or significantly ameliorated with one design change... larger community bathrooms or independent bathrooms which are not assigned to a particular room of people.   Many hostels have these, and I think Ozell and I will only choose to stay in hostels that do from now on.  They may be unisex or divided into men's or women's.  The community bathrooms can be as small as three toilets, three showers, and two sinks.  This is enough to prevent waiting in all of the busiest of times for either a toilet or a shower or to brush your teeth.  Independent and community bathrooms also are not attached directly to a bedroom, therefore, their odors and humidity are confined to the bathroom itself.  There is no need to inhale other people's shit into your lungs when you are just trying to listen to your IPod while laying on your bed.  And since there are multiple toilet, shower, and sink options, other people's inconsideration can be mitigated.  If someone leaves a disgusting or clogged toilet, choose the next one.  If a shower befouled by someone else's man seed or a bitch's long hair stuck in the drain, choose the next one.  If a sink is unusable, choose the next one.  Most hostels are good about cleaning the bathrooms every day.

 

So- that was a long explanations as to why I do not understand why hostels have got so expensive.  For what you get sometimes, they are becoming very overpriced.  This last hostel was priced right for what you got.  But it will get more expensive.  But Ozell and I have found that we can often get a double room in a hotel for the same price as a hostel or just a little more.  Hostels often offer doubles with bathrooms and without bathrooms, but these are often hard to reserve because they are so sought after.  Additionally, they are not nearly as nice as a hotel.  The mattress is of low quality.  There is no private TV.  They are very tiny (again to maximize capacity).  There is a host of other things that make them inferior to hotels.  And that would be fine except they cost nearly or as much.  THAT IS THE PART THAT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

 

Yesterday, Ozell and I decided we needed to find another place- either a hostel that had community bathrooms or a hotel.  Because of the short notice, we were not having much luck.  We found some hotels, but they were out of our price range.  (Don't misunderstand my statements above about the affordability of hotels.  Obviously, you can spend as much money as you wish on a hotel room.  It is not always possible to find a hotel room the same price as a hostel, but it often is possible.  When you do find one, they are much better than what you get with a hostel).  Then I spotted a Pousada which was advertising rooms for $20 a night per person.  We checked it out.  We now have a fucking beautiful ocean view (minus the tankers because this is a port), a private kitchen, and private veranda, and private bathroom, and a TV.  We are paying a little more than the hostel we were in a couple of days ago, but we are paying less than the last three other hostels that we have stayed in.

 

The picture attached to this post is part of the view from our private veranda where Ozell and I relaxed nude in the sun and drank beers all afternoon yesterday....  SO WHY ARE YOU GODDAMN HOSTELS CHARGING SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY?

 

Cheers,

 

Sean