When picking a "luxury hostel" for a business trip, how to ensure it'll be quiet enough?

3/4/2014 12:27:56 PM

Oh yeah, this is tricky, but it’s arguably also tricky to pick a good hotel. Some just aren’t as described. Some have construction outside. Some aren’t clean.

Anyway, for a hostel. I’ve stayed in plenty, and sometimes I want a party hostel, sometimes I don’t. And by far, the best indicator I’ve found for this is on hostelbookers – the hostel shows an ‘atmosphere’ rating. If that atmosphere is high, the odds of it being a party hostel is well correlated. And therefore, unlikely to be quiet.

At that point, it’s into the reviews to confirm this. Lots of reviews like ‘had a great time, awesome people’ can imply a big social atmosphere. However it might also just describe a friendly common room, there’s no guarantee.

So next is to consider the other less critical factors:

  • chains. Some are party-ish hostel chains, like The Point in South America. YHA hostels in North America tend to be cleaner, quieter in the rooms and more social in the common room.
  • room sizes. The bigger the room, the noisier. And the increased chance of snorers, rustlers, coughers and late sleepers / early risers. Pick the smallest dorm room if staying in a dorm – but for you, since you’re looking at private rooms, it’s a rough idea that cheaper, bigger dorms will attract the rowdier crowd. Not always, mind you, but commonly.
  • read the negative reviews. If it’s noisy and hard to sleep, there’ll be comments saying this. Almost always. I’m amazed how fussy some reviewers are.
  • read the positive reviews. Sometimes they’ll offer hints – nice reading room, private room was separated (eg Monkey Mendoza hostel in Mendoza, Argentina) from the rest of the rooms.

However, as another person has said, there’s no guarantee. You might get unlucky. Then again, you may find a gem, and it’ll have completely been worth it 🙂

3/4/2014 12:11:25 PM

On a business trip, I’m more interested in location and security than “fun”.
Close to the reason for my trip, or at the very least close to major roads or transportation networks is a must.
Safe to have my laptop, tablet, and other gear with me as well. Ideally a secure car park if I’m going to need a rental car.
As many people will end up on business travel needing access to industrial estates and office parks, which are often hard to reach by public transportation, and most hostels are in inner cities, that excludes hostels almost by default.
As hostels tend to have rather poor security in place compared to (the better) hotels, another serious drawback.
Leaves cost as the main reason, but as the trip is going to cost several thousand Euro already a difference of a few tens of Euros in the price of a hotel vs. a hostel isn’t going to make much of an impact (and it’ll most likely end up being charged to the customer I’m visiting anyway).

3/4/2014 8:25:04 AM

Interesting question.

I think this is where social networking comes forward. I personally go for TripAdvisor and look for user comments/ratings to check things like this. I skip the noisy hostels because I’m not a night man while travelling. It takes a lot of time to check all these things hostel-by-hostel, but its worthy.

However I believe there is no way to ensure or guarantee a specific quality about a hostel. Hostels are made to trade-off the price and flexibility.

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About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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