A bit of a mug’s game

Youth hostel prices in the 1930s

I’ve often puzzled over how low prices in youth hostels really were. Budget prices are often cited as the reason for their success in the 1930s. Low prices were their reason for being. In this article I find some answers.

The magic shilling

Low prices at youth hostels were a draw but understanding youth hostel prices in today’s terms is difficult. One night in a youth hostel cost one shilling, the magic shilling as it was called.

Finding the value of that shilling today is difficult. Inflation and the cost of living muddle comparisons of then and now. The shilling a night was about 1.42% of the average weekly earnings of a male manual worker, or put another way, one shilling then would be the equivalent of £2.52 today. But, “[u]sing price indices over long periods is … “a bit of a mug’s game”. [Economist 20 March 2025]

Comparing

It’s best we assume that prices were low and that youth hostels were good value. That’s best seen by comparing prices at other forms of accommodation at the time.

Butlins probably charged 30 shillings per person for a week which included three meals a day, terms which seem to have been known as boarding. Hotels often offered the same kind of terms but, as youth hostels did not, comparisons using those prices are difficult.

Luxury

Hotels did offer room and breakfast prices. We’d call that bed and breakfast today. The 1932/33 Ward Lock guide for Dartmouth and South Devon has hotels offering a range of prices.

The Downs in Babbacombe offered room and breakfast at five shillings. The art deco luxury hotel at Burgh Island, linked with Agatha Christie, offered room and breakfast at 15 shillings. A temperance hotel in Totnes offered the lowest price of them all at 4/3.

The shilling a night at a youth hostel was a big saving on these prices. Though breakfast was not included, a guest could buy breakfast at some hostels for anything from one shilling to 1/6.

Greater savings

A youth hostel guest therefore could expect to pay no more than 2/6 for a night with breakfast, almost 41% of the lowest price in the Temperance Hotel in Babbacombe.

Self catering offered greater savings. Hilary Hughes’ reckoned that she bought and cooked her breakfast, lunch and supper for two shillings each day. Youth hostels were clear winners in providing the lowest prices for a tourist.

Membership did complicate comparisons further because, on top of the cost of a youth hostel stay, members paid a membership fee.

Discounting loyalty

An adult over 25 years of age joined YHA for five shillings whilst the 18-24 year olds paid half that, two and a half shillings, a half a crown as it was called then.

Younger members paid even less, one shilling. for a juvenile membership, first introduced in 1935. Their shilling included a copy of the national handbook, worth six pence to anyone else.

The more often anyone stayed in a youth hostel in one particular year, the lower the price they paid. Membership rewarded loyalty like my season ticket at my local lido.

Notes

Image, Wilderhope Manor Youth Hostel, courtesy YHA Archive at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.