What It’s Like to Stay at a Hostel during COVID
When we went to book our Boston trip, we didn’t realize we had booked flights for the weekend of the Boston Marathon. This made finding a place to stay extremely challenging. In order to not break the bank or stay an hour’s train ride from the heart of the city, we decided to book a hostel. We’ve been cheerleaders for hostels for years and had stayed with this company before. So…what is a hostel like during COVID?
Location vs. Luxury
We booked this hostel solely for the fact that it was right where we wanted to be. A five-minute walk to the metro, close to restaurants and right down the street from the Boston Commons. Finding something affordable in a prime location meant sacrificing a few of the finer things in life.
Different Crowd
One of the reasons we’ve been such huge proponents of hostels is because it’s where we’ve met some of the coolest people and made some of our favorite memories. Heading out on a bar crawl or walking tour with a group of other young travelers bonds you for at least the evening. However, this time we noticed that for a youth hostel, there didn’t seem to be a lot of youth. Our roommates were middle-aged women. While they did have some cool stories and were super pleasant, they were typically up before us and in bed before we were leaving to go back out for the night. We clearly had different schedules and priorities, and didn’t find the same connection we normally experience.
With international travel at a bit of a standstill, hostels have lost that culture of young, penny-pinching travelers. So unfortunately, we didn’t have the same experience or make connections like we have in New York or Budapest.
COVID Precautions
One thing to be prepared for is that you will be required to wear masks everywhere. We were even told that we had to wear masks in our room since it was a shared space. No one actually wore masks in the rooms or in the bathroom as it was easy to space out and you don’t really spend much time in the room, except for sleeping.
Honestly, we left the hostel feeling like COVID had just given them an excuse to charge more and provide less. There were no activities, the cafe in the hostel was closed, and cleaning left a lot to be desired.
*Boston in general was more strict with their mask mandates. These rules may not apply in different states or other hostels across the country. Call the hostel prior to booking to clarify their COVID policies.
Will We Be Back?
Despite our disappointment in this hostel experience, we’re still huge proponents of utilizing hostels as a way to travel cheaply and meet other travelers. While we’ll definitely throw in a hostel every now and then, maybe we won’t do them as much – especially during COVID. It’s becoming harder to ignore how much our bodies hurt from cheap mattresses and using phone flashlights at 4 a.m. is not so fun. Having done luxury travel – like our trip to Mexico – and being able to afford nicer accommodations as we get older, it’s harder to ignore dirty bathrooms, having to pay to make our own beds, etc.
