WHY HOSTELS?Youth hostels and backpacker hostels are excellent places to spend the night, and not only for backpackers! For economy travel they can't be beaten, with beds in a small dorm at a fraction of hotel prices. In addition, many hostels now also offer double and single rooms, with no frills but all necessary facilities. They are cheaper than guest houses for single travellers and couples, with the added bonus that you can usually prepare your own meals and save the high costs of restaurants! Single travellers especially will appreciate the common room where you can chat to interesting and friendly travellers!
So why not take a look at what hostels are available in the places YOU want to visit? Just click the box on the right:
Book a hostel in Great Britain? Just click 'Hostels' in the Main Menu, choose your city or region, and you can find opinions about lots of hostels based on personal experience and reviews. Select a hostel there and, if it has an online booking facility, you can do it right there!
Want to visit other countries? Then start your hostel search right here!
There are several 'booking engines'. All of them are reliable, accurate and secure. But some charge a booking fee. Ours charges NO FEE!
How do booking engines work for YOU? When you choose a hostel, the booking engine will give you information about the hostel, written by the hostel management. Some engines give assessments contributed by users; some of these are very helpful, others less so. In all cases, when you book, you pay 10% of the overnight fee. You cannot get this back, even if you cancel or don't show up. This payment goes to the booking company (with a percentage to UKTrail), and the hostel doesn't see it, but the hostel is told your details by the booking company. Many hostels then send you a personal message in the next 2 days. If they don't, it is a good idea to email or phone the hostel before your visit to check. The booking engine does not make a mistake, nor does the hostel if they monitor their bookings properly, but some hostels can be lax in checking. On arrival, you pay the balance of the fee; make sure that the hostel does not charge you the full price at that stage, it's easy for them or you to forget about the deposit when a mixture of currencies or different room rates are involved. With some systems (but NOT ours) you pay in addition a booking fee of about $2 US.
How do they work for hostels? A Hostel allocates a certain number of its beds to a given booking system. If those beds (for a given type of room) have all been taken, the system will show: "No beds available." But the hostel may also use one of the other systems! So if your chosen hostel appears to be full through our booking engine, by all means try one of the other systems to see if they have room! Some hostels manage their allocations efficiently, such as by putting all their beds on all the systems, then if they get a booking through one system they cancel beds on the others. Hostels pay a 10% fee to have their beds listed on one of these systems.
How do they work for UKTRAIL? UK Trail hosts the system, and in return receives a commission from the organisation on each booking made. If you like our site and want to help us, please make your booking HERE, we will appreciate it!
Can I book for any number of people? Some hostels have a limit on the number who can book through this system. If you wish to book for a group, Hostelbookers will give you a personal service and suggest appropriate hostels.
Do the listings only include hostels? No, some of the booking systems also list Guest Houses (also called Pensions, Hostals, B&Bs, or Hotels). So their lists for a city may not be as long as appears at first sight. Guest Houses are more expensive than hostels, have only private rooms and usually no communal rooms or kitchens, and you rarely meet other guests. Couples may like them occasionally; but if you are a solo traveller, they are even more expensive (you have to pay 1.5 to 2 times as much as anyone else!), they are very private and therefore very lonely, and the lack of a kitchen means you may have to spend even more by eating in a restaurant.
