I suppose they think foreigners are less likely to crash the party on them.

No seriously...do they still have YMCA's? I recall they were the cheapest or had that reputation.

I just don't plan in visiting brataslava anytime soon without my ceremonial axe!

@vladthepaler: Hihostels saved me in Geneva when I got booted from my hotel after a booking miscommunication. Ended up being amazingly cheap too!

@Cat_In_A_Hat: I stayed in a few really great hostels when I lived in Europe... Anny Studios is considered a hostel, but it's really more like apartments surrounding a common area with a pool, pool bar etc. and they have bar nights and whatnot as well... of course, I also stayed in some really, really crappy places, like Hostel Eden in Rome, which was in a building where prostitutes were obviously working, there were hobo-fights on the street in front of the hostel, and the man who ran it lived (and partied and smoked pot 'til the wee hours) in the women-only part of the hostel. (and sometimes wouldn't bother answering the doorbell when people arrived)

Sites like Hostelworld.com or hostels.com are a great place to start, since they rank the hostels by different criteria (safety, cleanliness, location, fun etc.) so you can figure out what best fits what you're looking for.

@pb5000: While studying abroad and traveling through Europe, I stayed at a family friendly hostel in Freiburg, Germany. It was the safest I'd ever felt at a hostel. There were kids and babies, teenagers, and older people. While the hallway to the bathroom was a bit scary in the middle of the night (a weird paper mache foot was coming out of the ceiling), this place had a much better atmosphere than a creepy hostel I stayed at the first time I went to Rome. There was what appeared to be blood stains on the bed and a hole in the ceiling above me. After that I'd thought I'd never stay a hostel again, but have had pretty good experiences with them that last few times I've traveled.

And, given that bedbugs are a significant and growing problem for accommodations that cater to international travelers, I much prefer a room that is sparsely furnished with only easy-to-inspect bedframes, rather than a room chock-full of bedbug-friendly hiding places.

[No, I didn't used to be this paranoid about bedbugs, until I slept in a bedbug-infested low-end hotel in Berlin. Bad as that stay was, wondering whether I'd brought the bedbugs back to my condo in the US was even worse. Bedbugs are an unimaginably huge hassle to exterminate, and they'll put a great big dent in your home's resale value when you disclose the infestation to prospective buyers]

You have to be really careful and read reviews about these places. If you are going to London, don't forget "the Clink". It's incredibly new, bedbug proof beds, a friendly staff, clean bathrooms by even MY standards, and really nice. Rooms are a tad small in some places, but they are really great. It's like $25.00/night which beats paying $40.00 for a hotel and getting a $1,000+ bed bug problem to bring home with you!

Hostels are fine for young people, but after coming home from Europe and my backpacking travels, I would much rather stay with a friend or go all out for a hotel.

don't stay there.

Hostels can be great, but often they're much more expensive than you'd expect. For a single person in a shared room they can be dirt cheap, but as soon as you have 2 or more people it's probably not going to be much cheaper than a Super-8 quality hotel. That being said, Hostels do have other perks that a comparably priced hotel wouldn't including a full sized kitchen, a bar, and most have organized tours leaving directly from the hostel. The hostel employees are generally pretty nice and are much more likely to have useful local knowledge than your average hotel clerk. Depending on the city, they can often be more centrally located than the cheap-o hotels as well. Contrary to what alot of people think, there are many hostels with a more laid-back atmosphere where you won't find mobs of 21 year-olds partying all night. Hostels do generally skew younger, but I've seen people of all ages staying in them - once in B.C. my girlfriend and I shared a 4 bed room in a hostel with two ~50 year old women. If you're super broke you can usually stay for free (or near free) if you're willing to work cleaning rooms for 3 or so hours a day. I've never done this personally but have seen people doing it at almost every hostel I've stayed at.

I admit that I'm not exactly in a tourist hot-spot, but around here hotel prices generally hit ~25 bucks a night in winter. God only knows why ANYBODY would come to Arizona in summer, but hey, I suppose some people are willing to pay $75 a night to stay in a room with real air conditioning when it's 110 degrees outside.

@subtlefrog: Kinda makes you wonder what the Loom-er was looming for..

I'm a small female too (4'6") so I would be seriously creeped out and threatened.

You actually remind me to be happy that last night I chose a Hampton Inn hotel room for a weekend trip coming up. I paid in full in advance so there's no changing any minds about it. I was feeling really broke.. but now I know what I'm paying for. lol.

I've also had other friends wake up to rather suspicious noises in hostels. That, I think, is even MORE nightmare-causing, and good enough reason to stay away. I have no doubt that the same sorts of...ahem, personal activities happen in the privacy of hotel rooms, and happened in whatever hotel room before I stayed in it, but at least I don't have to hear it / witness it. Blech.

@subtlefrog: AHH!! I'm really creeped out by your first hand experience.

It's creepy enough when my husband does that to me.. I can't imagine a stranger looming over me.

If I have any nightmares about this, you will be the first to know.

Hostels are great if you're young and traveling with friends, but private rooms in one can be prohibitively expensive and not nearly as nice as what you'll get with Priceline (in my experience.)

@shadow67: I just checked Expedia, and you can definitely get a hotel for about $90 to $130, and it's actually in Aspen!

hmmmm... i tried the hostelbookers now. I was looking for a place in Aspen. Surprised to see they had aspen. But then it showed place in Glenwood Springs, abt 40 miles away. And for 2 ppl it was $90. I think I can get a hotel at aspen for abt 100. So not really sure if it is cheap.

I'm sorry, Chris, but I'll never be able to move past the movies and feel safe staying in a hostel.

This seems much safer than couch surfing, in which you're entering a person's home. The hostels provide a neutral location so you can't walk in and be skeeved by someone's taxidermy collection, or their paintings of clowns.

But like renting space that isn't entirely yours, the danger is still there. The person sleeping in the next bunk bed may still be a psycho.

Lack of showers, basic cheap hotel ammenities and partying youth will deter me from hostels for life. Oh and that whole Eli Roth movies series did not help either.

Then again, a little whip here and there is probably worth the cheap price these things can get.