Hostels re-imagined

YHA wants to involve more people in running youth hostels. It’s an approach with potential for sustainable tourism, a way of maintaining and re-imagining hostels, based on YHA’s long history.

At its start, in 1930, with people eager for hostels to open, YHA lacked the resources to build or buy its own properties, and turned to others to do so, with astounding success.

Having opened its first hostel, very briefly, in late 1930, by 1938 the handbook of hostels listed 264 hostels available in England and Wales.

Connections

Of those, YHA owned 24, and held formal leaseholds on another 30. Of the rest, YHA rented some on short term tenancies, while in some communities local people ran their own hostels, known as adopted hostels.

It’s difficult to be sure how many youth hostels were privately owned and run, but as many as 100 probably were. Figures are obscure because agreements made with YHA were varied and sometimes uncertain.

https://duncanmsimpsonwriting.com/2021/11/17/adopting-an-organisation/

Private ownership was a way of connecting YHA with local communities, a social glue, binding communities and visitors together. Decisions made about hostels were made by those living in communities, not by those in distant bodies and authorities.

Some people in YHA dreamed of a time when communities would run their own youth hostels. [1] Today that seems a remarkably far sighted and sustainable approach to tourism.

Flexibility

YHA shifted to owning its own property. As the organisation achieved an established status, purchasing its own properties became the way forward. By the end of the Second World War, parts of the organisation had determined that direct management and ownership of property was essential.

Ownership of property gave YHA better control of standards, and ensured continuity. The number of adopted hostels dwindled from at least 104 in 1938 to less than half that number by 1950.

https://duncanmsimpsonwriting.com/2021/12/08/switching-a-future/#more-8567

Despite the change, private ownership of hostels endured. Martham in Norfolk was privately owned in the 1970s.

The number of privately owned hostels increased in the 1990s, with new owners bringing property to YHA, like the youth hostel at Okehampton in Devon, and as hostels like Ninebanks, which YHA had sold, continued in the capable hands of private owners.

In concentrating on owning property YHA lost flexibility and became saddled with concerns, like property management and maintenance that distracted from its core ideals.

Necessary steps

Pandemic shutdowns, the cost-of-living crisis and steep inflation have affected YHA significantly — like other charities and hospitality providers. With its new three-year business plan, YHA is taking the steps necessary to secure its prosperity.

You can read more about YHA’s plans here. https://www.sidneyphillips.co.uk/buy-a-business-yha/all-properties-for-sale/YHA/all-locations/

Notes:

[1] Jack Catchpool, YHA’s national secretary and an important figure in the international youth hostel movement spoke of that dream in 1950, as written about in my biography of Catchpool, Youth Hostel Pioneer.

Denmark is an outstanding example of this approach, where “the proprietors [of youth hostels] are local authorities, independent institutions and private owners”. https://www.danhostel.dk/en/about-danhostel