It is always desirable to book in advance. People sometimes think that hostels are more likely to be full in the high season than at other times. This is not necessarily true. During the quiet seasons, hostels often take long-term guests -- people working or studying for several months. Many hostels take groups, whether from schools, colleges, climbing clubs, or stag weekends, and these often take over the whole hostel. Many YHA hostels are simply closed, or only open to groups, in the winter (which can be September to April!). Some independent hostels also close for a few weeks in winter, so in November-February you are likely to find there is less of a choice.
If you are going to a major festival, most notably Edinburgh festival in mid/late August and Hogmanay on New Year's Eve, you need to book months in advance, and at many hostels you can only book an all-in package for several nights.
If you really need to stay in a particular city or hostel, you should book at least 2 weeks in advance.
Some people book for their whole tour before they leave. This gives you peace of mind, but you lose all flexibility if some place takes your fancy or you want to join up with another traveller.
You can just turn up at the door; this method gives you the chance to assess the hostel before paying your money. But whatever the season, be ready to be turned away. For this method, the earlier in the day, the better. Around 1000h is often a good time, because hostels usually give preference to guests who are already there, and that is usually the time when existing guests have to decide whether to stay or leave.
Most people strongly advise that you should book from home for your first two nights after arriving in a new country. It is particularly difficult to go searching or telephoning in a strange country where the phone system, the coins and perhaps the language are unfamiliar. Although you are not on the spot to look at the hostels, you do have time to browse the internet and find what other people have said about the hostel. Here on UK Trail we give personal opinions about as many hostels as possible, and also summaries of the reviews we have seen and read, and this will give you a good basis to choose the hostel(s) that most suit your wishes.
For the rest of your trip, a good middle way is to book ahead a day or two. Telephone the previous evening, or email or book online a few days earlier. Or ask the staff of your present hostel; they are are often very helpful and may book you at another hostel, particularly if it is within their own organisation or group; this saves you the cost of the phone call and possible language problems.
Booking by telephone works nearly everywhere. If it is more than a week in advance they may insist that you send payment by post, but a credit card is usually sufficient. If they don't ask for payment now, do please follow their request if they ask you to confirm the day before, or arrive before 18h, etc; hostels do get a lot of no-shows, and if you have not paid you must expect them to sell your bed if you do not follow their method.
Booking by email is cheap and effective, provided the hostel management are geared up for it, but some are not, or appear to lose emails. Send an email, allow 2 days, then if no reply, use another method. Do not assume that a request has been answered if you have not received a reply. If they reply favourably, then keep a note of any reference numbers.
Many hostels have facilities for booking over the internet. This is very convenient, but be aware that not all the hostel beds are allocated to the internet scheme, so if the online system says a given night is full, you might still find a bed available if you email or phone. Some hostels do not take part in the system, partly because they like to make personal contact with potential guests, but some of them have a means of sending a form from their own website. You will normally have to pay a booking fee of up to 2 Euros, and you have to pay 10% of the overnight cost; do not expect to get these back if you cancel, but if you phone them to change the night, you can expect them to use the payment towards that night.
If you would like to book hostels in England, Wales or Scotland, please look for the hostel in our listings and decide whether you like it. Then, if there is a button to press, press it and you will be taken to one of the booking engines that we are agents for. That will give you more information, but written by the hostel itself, so be aware of the bias!
If you would like to book a hostel elsewhere in the World, please click in this box! If you have found our site useful, please do use our booking system, as we receive a small commission which helps to fund our site!
Book your first 2 nights, your final night, and any nights when you HAVE TO be in a particular city, before you leave home. To do this, study websites (in the case of Great Britain, this site!) to see what hostels there are in a city and what other people have said about them. Then book them online or by email or telephone. For the rest of your tour, make a note of the hostels you most like, and carry those notes with you, then book them 2 days or so beforehand.
