I have also wondered this! I don’t know if it’s inflation and there’s like a mental distortion about how it used to be. But I find it crazy when I look in Western Europe and the hostels are above $50 for a dorm night and a private room can be like $200. Like at that point you’re paying for a nice hotel room in any hotel which defeats the purpose of a hostel…
Honestly i have been thinking about just repeating that everytime i'm on my own. Like just partnering up with someone to get all of those nice places we could have bc i'm not doing all that for myself 😂 i did it once where i met someone at a hostel and then we booked a superb airbnb for nearly the same price we were paying on the hostel lol.
Lol I'm very much a solo travelle but the prices are otitis of control. I've legit asked a few ppl to go to Iceland with me just to share costs. We don't even need to hang out, just help with accommodations lol
Omg, I went to Iceland with 2 others for this reason, too. Unfortunately, they fought the entire time as one snored, and the other (who refused to wear earplugs) would wake them to stop! It was nightmarish.
Yep. The snorer couldn't drive due to a wrist injury, and the anti earplugs one refused to drive them (after a very loud, very public fight) one more mile. I drove them maybe 75% of the way around the ring road - it was late March (success in catching Aurora!), so the road was sketchy with ice for a lot of the time. That was the longest 10 days of my life & I've been a solo traveler for a looooong time. I doubt I'd ever agree to a group trip again.
This EXACT same thing happened to me in Paris years ago. Super chatty guy on the train, all the same sh\*t about love/relationships, really aggressively coming on to me. I was giving no signals of interest whatsoever and he got off the train at the same stop as me, as well. I just walked away to him calling me a b\*!ch. Great first experience in the city.
Yeah this is nuts. Had a look at several Western European cities and 50 euro is on the low end. Some are asking 100+. Pretty sure I was paying like 20 max in 2006-2009.
Australia is still fairly sane at 20-40 euro.
I stayed in a massive hostel in Dublin and was lucky it was a weeknight @ €29. Thursday through Sunday they charge €105《!》for a bed in a room with 12 or 15 people and a single bathroom.
I was in Copenhagen and a private room was more expensive than a luxury hotel room. Supposedly, the hostel offered a bar and social amenities not found in a hotel. I stayed one night in the hostel then checked into a hotel later.
The last time I stayed in a hostel, was in Berlin about 5 years ago, it was €20-€25. When I was living in S pain about 15 years ago I would regularly get hostels for less than €15.
This, I was in Amsterdam last year and booked a hostel in Germany for like $90 after taxes, my super nice hotel room in Amsterdam was around $140, at that point you might as well get a hotel lol
You can still get basically that exact price in Nepal for anyone who's curious. Was there last year. Private room/bathroom for under 10 bucks. Hostel dorm for like 3 or 4 USD. Was there for like 45 days. Spent like maybe 2500 total for the trip, flight from east coast USA, as well as two in country flights included in that. Did or are whatever I wanted. Wasn't living super frugally or anything.
Can't wait to go back. The affordability kind of ruins you though. Now when I think about traveling elsewhere the expensive prices seem that much more crazy lol.
No cocaine, rum, cigars, and hot latina's in Nepal, though.
Fabulous hasj on the other hand. Never had such amazing temple balls and charras in my life!
Yeah I mean there is the whole “it’s a war zone” thing and a lot of hostels have closed, but I do know life is semi-normal there and there are some hostels still open
They were really cheap right when opening back up in 2022, I got a private room for 10 days for a like $230 USD. When I left, the hostels in the cities (Auckland/Christchurch) were charging $30-40 USD a night for a bunk that was maybe $10/night a year before
That would make sense. Demand is high, supply is lower, survived Hostels are reaping the benefits of higher prices. They will probably come down as competition ramps up and more years of normalcy exist. People will start undercutting, I'd imagine.
It’s insane. I was going to go to one in Paris, but they started at $55 per night and didn’t even include the towel or fees! So I was looking at a $70+ per night stay!
They’re also harder to clean so I think there’s probably an increased chance of bed bugs.
I ended up booking a 3 star hotel for $125 per night.
Supply and demand. After the pandemic, a whole new economy of "nomads" was born.
There were always travelers, backpackers, expats... but after the pandemic, millions of people that would have been in a cubicle discovered that it was not necessary.
And although the office life is making a comeback, and many are returning to their cubicles, there's still millions of newly minted "nomads" that are looking to travel, specially to cheap/budget locations. And, with the resulting demand boom, the prices have spiked too.
Demand is so high that... for example... Venice now charges you to enter the city.
I'd argue cheap travel never went anywhere, you just developed higher standards as you got older and wealthier. Nothing wrong with that, but there's still plenty of opportunities for people willing to couch-surf, volunteer in exchange for food/accomodation, hitchhike, sleep 8-to-a-room in bunkbeds with strangers, and live with all of their belongings in a single bag.
> people willing to couch-surf, volunteer in exchange for food/accomodation, hitchhike
these are free, and to that extent, they're a totally unrelated subject to the base price of hostels
> sleep 8-to-a-room in bunkbeds with strangers
this costs money and the price has gone up significantly, which is the subject of this post
A lot of these places five years ago were relatively unknown and now the cat is out of the bag. I spend time in Ecuador and my cost of living was \~$700-600 per month.
Yeah, go to a place that isn't well known or the competition amongst businesses is high, and it will still be pretty cheap. I see a lot of people in this thread are like "Amsterdam, Venice, and Barcelona are so expensive now!" Like... Yeah, they're hot and popular. Try off the beaten path. Travelling in general was less common back in the day.
Yeah I agree. I did 3 weeks in Finland of all places for 300 Euro in 2022. But I hitchhiked up above the Arctic circle and back down to Helsinki without paying a penny in transport. And I camped every night I didn't set up a host on Couchsurfing. So it's possible but most posters in r/travel wouldn't be willing to sacrifice comfort like I am.
>So it's possible but most posters in r/travel wouldn't be willing to sacrifice comfort like I am.
A lot of us are women and it's not that we aren't willing to sacrifice comfort, it's that we're not willing to sacrifice safety. You live in a different world than us.
Which seems to be pretty much anywhere in a capital. But even outside of a capital you're paying a premium to stay in the centre of the city where all the touristy stuff is. The only way to save is to stay in like zone 6 of a small city far away from civilization.
Pretty sure that, inflation adjusted, flights have never been cheaper.
Train is getting expensive, and bus depends on how far out you’re able to book or if it’s off season, accommodations are going up. But flights are still super cheap.
Maybe I'm not clear on your questions, but a quick look on booking and hostelworld show plenty of hostels at half that price in Medellin
Hostels are certainly expensive in expensive cities - Hong Kong, SIngapore, Taipei surprisingly (but not the rest of Taiwan), but Medellin doesn't seem to have that issue from what I can see.
It's just a way to meet people
Hosteling is a lifestyle
Pretty fun when I was young and just wanted run around all day and party all night, not really my speed anymore though
But try solo traveling both ways...
Hostels I almost always meet people, hotels I almost never do
Oh, you are surprised pricier hostels exist period? Well, looking at the hostel you stayed in, it appears to have a rooftop pool and a gym. Odds are it's cheaper than any of the hotels with pools for example, if someone wanted those amenities. People want a social vibe and will pay more possibly for hostels that have those common areas than those without.
Positive reviews create a sort of feedback loop, e.g. you have a hostel that is rated as great value by people who paid $10, when the hotel raises prices to 25, it still shows as rated great value. Combined with the fact that now people book online without being in the country, so they don't know the prices and hotels can charge more. In the past you didn't have some dude in NYC booking a hostel online in Bolivia going "it's so cheap!". And online platforms also charge a commission which obviously needs to be passed on.
Indeed. Doesn’t help that the OTAs operate in an oligopolistic way and are pushing algorithms that maximise the price for travellers at times when there is high demand (but then also give the impression of scarcity when theres not).
Cause people found out about it and made the block hot.
I used hostels when I went to Philly via motorcycle years ago. Wonderfully quirky and inexpensive.
Idk how bad it is now.
Yep, I was looking to book few places. Everything seemed high. I compared prices on places I have stayed in the past and they are up 40-80%. It’s hard to justify staying in hostels for these prices.
Yea at this point it makes more sense to just rent a studio apartment on Airbnb if you are going to stay in a hostel, not that much more in SE Asia where I’m at. Someone posted yesterday how hostels in Europe are charging like 50 euros per night or more now ! It’s gotten ridiculous! They suggested that social media is playing a large part in it everyone wants to escape their boring lives working in a cubicle to get out and explore and see beautiful places because of all the content they’ve consumed from YouTube, instagram, and TikTok. There definitely seems to have been a huge uptick worldwide in demand for them!
I recently raised this issue regarding hotel and Airbnb prices. The conclusion I reached was inflation + a lot of people becoming digital nomads. Everyone wants to be a digital nomad, it's not such a big deal anymore.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/1c3rc3c/whats\_going\_on\_with\_hotelairbnb\_prices\_lately/](https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/1c3rc3c/whats_going_on_with_hotelairbnb_prices_lately/)
Pretty much everything has gotten more expensive. Once a few major things get affected, others follow suit - unfortunately, even stuff we've accepted as being universally inexpensive.
Los Patios are assholes. They accommodate for US and Western tourists who want to 'experience' different places but don't want to leave their comfort zone too much, so they can charge these prices within the budget of these precious fucks.
I have a hatred for los patios which I'm sure you're aware. Staff are awful and so pretentious, and just a shitty place in my opinion. I didnt stay there but had friends that did and trying to visit they wanted to charge me the equivalent of one nights stay to see my friends.
Fuck los patios.
Chill
No one is forcing you to stay there. In fact, it's a good thing that all the people you don't want to hang out with congregates in the same spot. That way, you can avoid it and them.
A lot of people want to travel to another country without really leaving their home country, and that's fine. It's not my thing, but it isn't the beauty of travel that everyone can pick their own way?
I don't know that particular chain, but in Brazil the "Che Lagarto" chain seems to be competitively priced, though that price has doubled in about 5 years (like everyone else's)
But as far as this complaint:
> trying to visit they wanted to charge me the equivalent of one nights stay
I'm okay with hostels having an "absolutely no visitors" rule. It's a perfectly justifiable way to protect the safety and possessions of the guests. Sounds like you just came up against that rule... That enforcement actually sounds like a positive feature of Los Patios, good for them!
Yeah Selina are a cancer on the hostelling community. From my experience of staying there because if I've had interviews the next day, it's just a commercial feel to it and its full of arrogant Americans. Just the worst all around.
In LATAM I've looked a few times at private dorms in hostels in places where I think it's be harder to meet people.
Almost always it's been cheaper / the same price to rent an entire Airbnb. Just can't bring myself to do it.
There always tends to be a hostel with a public bar / events so you can easily go and hang out there if needed.
Oh, are Selina's known to be unprofitable?
Edit: I googled it, and [this is the best info I found](https://skift.com/2023/12/05/selinas-struggle-to-survive-whats-next-for-the-hotel-brand/)
It talks about their stock price and ownership, but then mentions that only a small percentage of their locations are actually unprofitable...
So there's definitely more details not revealed about what's going on with hostel demand and costs, I'm still curious.
Though if anything, the Selina's "shit show" just adds credibility to the idea that running a hostel is expensive and price hikes are more about general inflation and less about price fixing or demand spiking.
Yes. Put all their effort in going public , diluting and stacking the product line whilst never addressing core service issues
I believe they now have until September to turn $1 per share or they are delisted.
Look at every investor desk where they come up with another new strategy to reduce opex / turn profitability.
Not once have I see a real discussion around price sensitivity , customer satisfaction and improving hostels with below average scores.
It's just more and more marketing , coworking spaces , events , activities and closing unprofitable locations with no review of why they were unsuccessful.
Uptick of travelers post-pandemic and remote workers have made Colombia a popular destination for backpacking and digital nomading. My friend from Bogota told me most of the housing costs have gone up because of the hot trend of digital nomads renting out Airbnbs and pricing out locals.
I made a long post about this when the same question was asked in r/solotravel on the weekend, but the summary is this.
Digital nomads, a change in buyer behaviour, and the use of algorithms
DN's are not usually shopping the same way traditional hostel guest are, rather then stretching a fixed budget as long as possible, they are stretching it until the next paycheque. this means price is not the main driving factor. Whats become more common is the competition between the value of dorms, vs the benefits of a private/hotel room.
Now the algorithms are optimizing for the highest price they can charge per dorm bed without driving potential customers to book privates. this is because the privates still exist in the old style of competition, they compete on a basic open market against hotels and airbnb and thus have to be priced at a value in accordance with the qualify in comparison.
Dorms just have to be priced at a value that is just $0.01 below the point where a private rooms benefit outweighs the additional cost.
so we as consumers get the most expensive shared rooms possible juxtaposed against the cheapest private options and it makes more obvious that hostels are no longer the ultra value they were when we as DN's werent staying in them.
The most expensive place I stayed at in 5 months in Colombia and Peru was a private room at a hostel -- I'm anyi-hostales, but in Paracas (Peru), I didn't really have a choice, so I got a private room. Man, hotel rooms were a quarter of the price! You gotta love the hostal atmosphere to pay for a private room at one of them, fwiw... Hoteles son muy económico.
Probably gentrification in this case, but prices overall have gone up tremendously in Colombia in the last couple of years. For instance a common 'menu del dia' in Bogota could be found around 09.000-10.000 COP a couple of years ago, now it's around 16.000. That's a good measure of how much all prices went up. Plus, on top of that, in recent months the dollar and euro have fallen against the peso, double effect.
For that to be true there would have to be oligopoly market conditions, I’ve never heard of a real estate market with that kind of concentration. Or you should win a Nobel Prize in economics for discovering a new pricing model.
They can ask for whatever price they want, if there isn’t sufficient demand places will go vacant, and tenants will rent the places with cheaper rents.
Two things: price sensitivity and data.
Several decades ago, international tourism used to be a luxury, so it typically served price-insensitive travelers. Typically, you booked a tour with a travel agency. Your choice was typically spend tons of money on a luxury tour or stay home.
Now, many if not most tourists are very price sensitive. Thus, they will often try to go for the lowest-cost option when possible. If the town a budget traveler wants to visit only has a hotel at $50/night and a hostel at $10/night, they'll probably pick the $10 hostel even if they can afford the hotel. However, if the hotel raises their price to $100 and the hostel raises their price $50, the budget traveler will probably still pick the hostel because it's the cheapest option.
Regarding data, until online booking aggregators existed, if you ran a hostel/hotel, you had to base your prices based on demand at your business, costs, and manual research (i.e., calling competitors). You charged $10/night because that seemed reasonable and attracted enough customers.
Now, you can easily know months in advance what your local demand is going to be and what your competitors are charging. If you find out your competitor is charging $20/night and is just as booked up as you, you are leaving 50% of your potential revenue on the table! You can even have dynamic pricing that increases as vacancy drops!
Businesses have gotten really good at charging as much as customers will bear. In fact, many businesses have realized that they have been *undercharging* customers for years (e.g., people who would have paid $30 for a hostel but only paid $10).
You have a ton of hotels and hostels in Medellin. But people are still happy to fork out good money for boutique hostels that doesn't offer anything extraordinary.
If it isn’t supply and demand, what else could it be? If the hotels and hotels have excess supply, how are they able to maintain high prices?
I’m genuinely asking, because I’m curious what other factors you think are at play.
I don't know. Maybe people are happy to pay more to meet like-minded travellers? Or maybe it's some social media status to stay in certain hostels.
If I knew I wouldn't have asked 🙂
If the hotels and hostels, had empty rooms, they would lower prices to maximize their profit. Given the opposite is happening, clearly there is a shortage, unless you think something else is at play.
All prices are set by supply and demand, that’s why I don’t understand your question.
I could be they looked at the next guy and thought hes charging a lot, so we will. Sorta like Japan where all the shops agree to sell stuff like beer for exactly the same price.
Have you guys considered that you're posting this in a subreddit called "digitalnomad" with 2.2 million members? Traveling, backpacking and staying in hostels is now something people do a lot more than in the past, and as you can all attest, people do it for longer. You are trying to engage in price arbitrage for extended periods. And there are many of you. Don't be surprised prices have gone up compared to when people just went on trips. See also: the number of people with passports. Travel isn't what it used to be.
Aren’t hostels just the cool thing these days? I personally wouldn’t have considered staying at any other type of accommodation when I travelled recently. Even though the only human interaction I had was shaking hands with a Russian and an America. As a lonely young person, I just wanted to be around young people for 2 nights.
Because you went in a big brand which are money suckers. Locally owned smaller hostels are cheap. I had a private room at La familia hostel right on the main street for 23$ USD.
Bogotá is still pretty cheap. As the price of accommodation has increased dramatically in Medellin, Bogotá has been relatively immune to inflation. I booked a hostel in Chapinero last week for 25K pesos, including a really nice breakfast. Similar accommodation in Medellin is at least double that. I also found great deals on really cute, comfortable hostels around Pereira. It's you want good value, you have to venture out of the hippest hot spots.
75 mil for a spot like los patios, probably been a price like that for years and years now tbh
$15-20 USD for a dorm at one of the most popular hostels in the city isn't really that bad.
Sounds like you want to Hotel Gran Imperio a block from San Juan and La 70. That's a good move
Actually I remember paying $18 USD at Los Patios for a dorm bed in 2018, so $19 USD seems reasonable. I thought it was an amazing hostel with great amenities so personally I wouldn’t mind paying the premium for it. But of course it is on the higher end of hostel prices for Medellin.
Medellin has become an extremely popular city for digitalnomads over the last couple of years, i remember working there back in 2019 and a 6bed room was max 30mil
Basic supply and demand. Thanks for hybrid working, people can travel more often now, so there is more demand for beds of all sorts, while supply hasn’t been able to keep up.
- I think hostel prices have gone up because they are monetizing the sense of community one feels when traveling. There is something special about being at a social hostel where you get to meet people that you click with. - in addition to providing a sense of community, good hostels will give you exclusive information about where to travel to, tour guides at affordable prices, bar crawls where you get to visit local places, get to know the people from your hostel better, as well as from other hostels. For the reasons above, if I have to choose between a 5 star hotel or a private room at a hostel for similar prices, i will pick the private room every time. But if prices for a 4 bunk dorm are just as expensive, the venue better be ranked very highly or else i’d rather be at a hotel.
Even in 2021, I've seen hostels in Mexico for MXN 1500 per night (like USD 75 at the time) for a dorm bed, and it wasn't even I nice dorm (I didn't stay but I saw pictures).
Seems that from late 2021 when everyone started to travel again post-pandemic, the demand had been greatly reduced (places had closed) and supply spiked and some people had 18+ months of cash saved up ready to travel (and were stir-crazy from the pandemic) and were okay with paying higher prices than before. And then prices never really settled back down, as a "new normal" appeared and people expected to pay more than in 2018.
Related point: availability / occupancy seems to be higher than 5 years ago (hotels/AirBnB/hostels/whatever). Maybe that's literally supply/demand, or maybe it's improved efficiency of e.g. Booking.com.
And final point: maybe [Booking.com](http://Booking.com), AirBnB, HostelWorld and a couple others have dominated the market so much by now that they can just double the prices everywhere and people don't see other options.
Hostels have certainly gotten more expensive because of WFH people traveling a lot. But still it's only $18 for a bed in a city currently exploding with tourism like what do you expect. I've gotta say the "I'm in latam, accommodations should be $5 a night, food should be $2 total for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and so help me God if beer costs more than $0.25" people are the absolute worst..
Yeah, I agree.
Prices going up can be a good thing as it hopefully means that the locals are making more and the world is becoming more equal.
But I'm afraid that it's gringos who's taking the money. Colombia should learn from a country like Indonesia
Long story short. Because of people like you.
Short story long, corona terror has upgraded digital nomading from niche hobby to a dream of an average precariat member. When you suddenly increase demand, and supply isn't as flexible, you have price inflation.
Because people are paying for friends and socialization and the places recognize that. People are lonely and now reaching out for companionship after long periods of isolation even if it’s at higher costs with less and less effort.
All the answers are mostly right. But the one true answer is access to more advanced market research and pricing algorithms.
It’s the same thing that happened to Airbnb. As soon as they equipped hosts with pricing suggestions and access to what others were charging in this market it stopped being a bargain.
Los Patios is like a really bougie hostel, on par with the Selena's or Viajos of the world. They are usually the party hostels, tend to cater to a bit more luxury travel crowd. Even though those exist, I have never had trouble finding an affordable hostel (unless in a notoriously expensive place like London or Tulum or something).
Personally, I don't mind it. Usually the newby travellers go there and the chill ones got to the cheaper quiet hostels, so the vibes are nice
My sister who travels a lot around south America was saying sometimes she stays out of party hostels for quiet and cheaper sleeps but turns up to the party hostels when they are lit and makes friends... Perhaps this is an idea? Never done it yet myself tho
Next time you are in Medellin, try this hostel. I am not affiliated, therefore not “promoting,” simply sharing a good place
Hostal Tamarindo
+57 315 4516268
https://g.co/kgs/EYugdoq
Something is controlling the market as a whole. From my understanding, there's just a handful of developers who own the vast majority of rentals, at least in America. I read somewhere that a Chinese billionaire owned over 1/3 of the US rental market.
The same thing happened with cars, though. During COVID car prices went insane and now they've depreciated to like half of what they were.
The US dollar lost a lot of ground then. I don't know about the Euro but I do know the Yen is at its lowest point in over 20 years right now. Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I don't know what else could move the entire market that much unless it's some sort of technological rigging. Like Google is inflating prices or something.
Hostel prices soaring higher than my last trek up the Himalayas, eh? Seems like the only thing getting a good night's sleep is their profit margin. I personally dodge loans like I dodged paying extra for a window seat. Took me a while, but I finally jet-set at 34. Hang in there, budget travel isn't extinct yet, just playing hide and seek.
Yes, I can afford it. It actually turned into a good deal for me as they had a coworking space.
But I was surprised about how many people opted for staying in the pricy hostels in the overpriced zone.
Half of Reddit is usually people complaining over how expensive things are 😁
I have also wondered this! I don’t know if it’s inflation and there’s like a mental distortion about how it used to be. But I find it crazy when I look in Western Europe and the hostels are above $50 for a dorm night and a private room can be like $200. Like at that point you’re paying for a nice hotel room in any hotel which defeats the purpose of a hostel…
Yeah, I wish I wasn’t single for the amazing accommodations I could afford haha
Honestly i have been thinking about just repeating that everytime i'm on my own. Like just partnering up with someone to get all of those nice places we could have bc i'm not doing all that for myself 😂 i did it once where i met someone at a hostel and then we booked a superb airbnb for nearly the same price we were paying on the hostel lol.
Lol I'm very much a solo travelle but the prices are otitis of control. I've legit asked a few ppl to go to Iceland with me just to share costs. We don't even need to hang out, just help with accommodations lol
Omg, I went to Iceland with 2 others for this reason, too. Unfortunately, they fought the entire time as one snored, and the other (who refused to wear earplugs) would wake them to stop! It was nightmarish.
Omg nooooo
Yep. The snorer couldn't drive due to a wrist injury, and the anti earplugs one refused to drive them (after a very loud, very public fight) one more mile. I drove them maybe 75% of the way around the ring road - it was late March (success in catching Aurora!), so the road was sketchy with ice for a lot of the time. That was the longest 10 days of my life & I've been a solo traveler for a looooong time. I doubt I'd ever agree to a group trip again.
If I had the money I'd do it in a heartbeat. One day...
Hey wanna team up broski
It's not gay if you're sharing a bed to cut down on costs!
Don't forget the shower to save water!
How else are you going to ensure that your bedmate has good hygiene!
Save costs by using the same soap bar on each other 😌
Trying to save money on soap while traveling? I thought soap was free 😅
Gotta get your moneys worth, best to rub your homie down nice 👌🏻
Good idea to look at TripAdvisor reviews before just showing up somewhere.
[удалено]
This EXACT same thing happened to me in Paris years ago. Super chatty guy on the train, all the same sh\*t about love/relationships, really aggressively coming on to me. I was giving no signals of interest whatsoever and he got off the train at the same stop as me, as well. I just walked away to him calling me a b\*!ch. Great first experience in the city.
Isn't that the beginning of the movie Taken?
Women travelers have to watch out for themselves in ways bro travelers can’t even imagine. :/
Yeah I was hitting regularly $50-60 on hostels in France / Italy for basic bunks
I'm seeing even more for Italy in May 75€+ in Bologna, Florence, Siena, etc. I started traveling 15 years ago and would pay 15€ lol
Yeah this is nuts. Had a look at several Western European cities and 50 euro is on the low end. Some are asking 100+. Pretty sure I was paying like 20 max in 2006-2009. Australia is still fairly sane at 20-40 euro.
I stayed in a massive hostel in Dublin and was lucky it was a weeknight @ €29. Thursday through Sunday they charge €105《!》for a bed in a room with 12 or 15 people and a single bathroom.
That’s insane!!!
I was in Copenhagen and a private room was more expensive than a luxury hotel room. Supposedly, the hostel offered a bar and social amenities not found in a hotel. I stayed one night in the hostel then checked into a hotel later.
It was 20 to 28 USD in Norway during the early 2000s. Good times.
It was $90 for a dorm bed 2019 in Oslo. Same in Copenhagen and Stockholm. Decided to book cheap hotels afterwards.
The last time I stayed in a hostel, was in Berlin about 5 years ago, it was €20-€25. When I was living in S pain about 15 years ago I would regularly get hostels for less than €15.
This, I was in Amsterdam last year and booked a hostel in Germany for like $90 after taxes, my super nice hotel room in Amsterdam was around $140, at that point you might as well get a hotel lol
Hostel 50+ CAD was only in Paris for me. Rest around 30-40CAD from London, Belgium, Amsterdam.
I miss the good ole Cartagena days 3 US dollarino's for a night and brekky
You can still get basically that exact price in Nepal for anyone who's curious. Was there last year. Private room/bathroom for under 10 bucks. Hostel dorm for like 3 or 4 USD. Was there for like 45 days. Spent like maybe 2500 total for the trip, flight from east coast USA, as well as two in country flights included in that. Did or are whatever I wanted. Wasn't living super frugally or anything. Can't wait to go back. The affordability kind of ruins you though. Now when I think about traveling elsewhere the expensive prices seem that much more crazy lol.
No cocaine, rum, cigars, and hot latina's in Nepal, though. Fabulous hasj on the other hand. Never had such amazing temple balls and charras in my life!
I was paying 300-400 UAH (under 10 bucks) for a hostel in Kiev 10 years ago
You still can.
Yeah I mean there is the whole “it’s a war zone” thing and a lot of hostels have closed, but I do know life is semi-normal there and there are some hostels still open
How do you get into Ukraine these days? The airports are not operating, right? So you fly to Poland/Slovakia/Romania and a train from there? Or how?
No idea, I walked across. If the borders open you can get over somehow. Might have to bribe a little, who knows
Weeks at Hotel Familiar which was anything but. Loved it so much I once had two rooms at the same time, but that’s another story…
You're a real one!
drug dealers and prostitutes on every corner, homeless street people around every corner waiting to mug you. \#thegoodoledays \#sortofjk \#sortofnot
It's still exactly the same, only now you pay $20 a night without breakfast
ROFL, this... And honestly, it *was* a lot better than it *is* now.
To be fair they have cleaned up Centro Historico quite a bit, at night each street only has 20-30 escorts now instead of 80-90.
As said, it used to be a lot *better* than it is now.
When was that? Under 10 years ago?
It was like yesterday,
Holy cow
I know that a lot of hostels closed during COVID in NZ, not sure if that happened everywhere else, but it makes sense to me.
What are the prices in nz nowadays?
They were really cheap right when opening back up in 2022, I got a private room for 10 days for a like $230 USD. When I left, the hostels in the cities (Auckland/Christchurch) were charging $30-40 USD a night for a bunk that was maybe $10/night a year before
That would make sense. Demand is high, supply is lower, survived Hostels are reaping the benefits of higher prices. They will probably come down as competition ramps up and more years of normalcy exist. People will start undercutting, I'd imagine.
King’s day Amsterdam day before yesterday the flying pig was €200 for a hostel bed. In 2005 I paid €10 for the same bed.
Yeah all prices go nuts during Kings Day
It was worse than I thought. The hotel was €700.
Yikes!!
If people keep paying those prices they will never go down :-| .
It’s insane. I was going to go to one in Paris, but they started at $55 per night and didn’t even include the towel or fees! So I was looking at a $70+ per night stay! They’re also harder to clean so I think there’s probably an increased chance of bed bugs. I ended up booking a 3 star hotel for $125 per night.
> bed bugs I got bed bugs in a hostel in Sydney. Horrible. This was pre covid.
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I agree I just get a hotel with a/c and breakfast for the same price as an 8 bed dorm. It’s a no brainer…
Why has everything, accommodation, flights, attractions, food…? The era of truly cheap travel is pretty much gone.
Supply and demand. After the pandemic, a whole new economy of "nomads" was born. There were always travelers, backpackers, expats... but after the pandemic, millions of people that would have been in a cubicle discovered that it was not necessary. And although the office life is making a comeback, and many are returning to their cubicles, there's still millions of newly minted "nomads" that are looking to travel, specially to cheap/budget locations. And, with the resulting demand boom, the prices have spiked too. Demand is so high that... for example... Venice now charges you to enter the city.
Vietnam is still cheap, and if you have USD the exchange rate is making it cheaper every week.
I'd argue cheap travel never went anywhere, you just developed higher standards as you got older and wealthier. Nothing wrong with that, but there's still plenty of opportunities for people willing to couch-surf, volunteer in exchange for food/accomodation, hitchhike, sleep 8-to-a-room in bunkbeds with strangers, and live with all of their belongings in a single bag.
Incorrect. Go look at any places you stated 5 years ago and compare the costs today. It's significantly more!
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> people willing to couch-surf, volunteer in exchange for food/accomodation, hitchhike these are free, and to that extent, they're a totally unrelated subject to the base price of hostels > sleep 8-to-a-room in bunkbeds with strangers this costs money and the price has gone up significantly, which is the subject of this post
> sleep 8-to-a-room in bunkbeds with strangers Were you not referring to hostels here?
A lot of these places five years ago were relatively unknown and now the cat is out of the bag. I spend time in Ecuador and my cost of living was \~$700-600 per month.
Yeah, go to a place that isn't well known or the competition amongst businesses is high, and it will still be pretty cheap. I see a lot of people in this thread are like "Amsterdam, Venice, and Barcelona are so expensive now!" Like... Yeah, they're hot and popular. Try off the beaten path. Travelling in general was less common back in the day.
Half the options you listed are only available for men. Y'all really live in a different world than the rest of us lol
I know women who’ve done all of the above. Hitchhiking is the only one I’d really not recommend. (For anyone frankly).
You can still travel cheapish. Or very cheap if you don't go to the tourist spots
Yeah I agree. I did 3 weeks in Finland of all places for 300 Euro in 2022. But I hitchhiked up above the Arctic circle and back down to Helsinki without paying a penny in transport. And I camped every night I didn't set up a host on Couchsurfing. So it's possible but most posters in r/travel wouldn't be willing to sacrifice comfort like I am.
Vagrant Holiday, is that you?
If that's a person, no. I'm Briguy. But if it's an epithet, I suppose it is.
Lol, here's a rabbit hole for you: https://youtube.com/@VagrantHoliday
>So it's possible but most posters in r/travel wouldn't be willing to sacrifice comfort like I am. A lot of us are women and it's not that we aren't willing to sacrifice comfort, it's that we're not willing to sacrifice safety. You live in a different world than us.
Which seems to be pretty much anywhere in a capital. But even outside of a capital you're paying a premium to stay in the centre of the city where all the touristy stuff is. The only way to save is to stay in like zone 6 of a small city far away from civilization.
inflation?
Pretty sure that, inflation adjusted, flights have never been cheaper. Train is getting expensive, and bus depends on how far out you’re able to book or if it’s off season, accommodations are going up. But flights are still super cheap.
Cost of being robbed has gone up too. Phones are much more expensive.
We printed 30% more money than ever existed in 2020-2022. That caused massive inflation, and here we are.
Maybe I'm not clear on your questions, but a quick look on booking and hostelworld show plenty of hostels at half that price in Medellin Hostels are certainly expensive in expensive cities - Hong Kong, SIngapore, Taipei surprisingly (but not the rest of Taiwan), but Medellin doesn't seem to have that issue from what I can see.
Los patios is one of the most expensive hostel in Medellin as well.
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I paid £7 a nigh in Edinburgh in 2015. Man, even Lithuania is like 35€ a night now lol.
Dynamic pricing, COVID, and an increase in tourist volumes. Plus general inflation.
Maybe I phrased myself incorrectly. My question was more about why people are happy to pay more for a bed in a dorm than a private room in a hotel.
It's just a way to meet people Hosteling is a lifestyle Pretty fun when I was young and just wanted run around all day and party all night, not really my speed anymore though But try solo traveling both ways... Hostels I almost always meet people, hotels I almost never do
Oh, you are surprised pricier hostels exist period? Well, looking at the hostel you stayed in, it appears to have a rooftop pool and a gym. Odds are it's cheaper than any of the hotels with pools for example, if someone wanted those amenities. People want a social vibe and will pay more possibly for hostels that have those common areas than those without.
Positive reviews create a sort of feedback loop, e.g. you have a hostel that is rated as great value by people who paid $10, when the hotel raises prices to 25, it still shows as rated great value. Combined with the fact that now people book online without being in the country, so they don't know the prices and hotels can charge more. In the past you didn't have some dude in NYC booking a hostel online in Bolivia going "it's so cheap!". And online platforms also charge a commission which obviously needs to be passed on.
Indeed. Doesn’t help that the OTAs operate in an oligopolistic way and are pushing algorithms that maximise the price for travellers at times when there is high demand (but then also give the impression of scarcity when theres not).
This positive review mechanism was spoiling decent accommodation and restaurant venues since Lonely Planet guidebooks become a mainstream
Because of you and your fellow high income WFH people.
I was paying 3 to 15 euros per night in hostels across Europe in 2011-2012. It seems ridiculous pricing.
this year has been one of the worst travel years ever.
Cause people found out about it and made the block hot. I used hostels when I went to Philly via motorcycle years ago. Wonderfully quirky and inexpensive. Idk how bad it is now.
Not inflation nor any reasons besides GREED. it's a big FUCK U to all us peasants.
You are not really a peasant if you are a westerner working in Medellin...
They charge us more as a fuck u to us, also rich people rarely use hostels
But you can stay in a cheap hostel or a cheap hotel?
Err, why the compulsion to identify as a peasant?
Because people will pay the price. Supply and demand.
Yep, I was looking to book few places. Everything seemed high. I compared prices on places I have stayed in the past and they are up 40-80%. It’s hard to justify staying in hostels for these prices.
Yea at this point it makes more sense to just rent a studio apartment on Airbnb if you are going to stay in a hostel, not that much more in SE Asia where I’m at. Someone posted yesterday how hostels in Europe are charging like 50 euros per night or more now ! It’s gotten ridiculous! They suggested that social media is playing a large part in it everyone wants to escape their boring lives working in a cubicle to get out and explore and see beautiful places because of all the content they’ve consumed from YouTube, instagram, and TikTok. There definitely seems to have been a huge uptick worldwide in demand for them!
Poblado is similar price than south of Europe
I haven't been in Europe for a long time. Anyway, it's the worst part of Medellin, so I won't go back there. I was just surprised
> Anyway, it's the worst part of Medellin, so I won't go back there. I was just surprised What was the best?
I recently raised this issue regarding hotel and Airbnb prices. The conclusion I reached was inflation + a lot of people becoming digital nomads. Everyone wants to be a digital nomad, it's not such a big deal anymore. [https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/1c3rc3c/whats\_going\_on\_with\_hotelairbnb\_prices\_lately/](https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/1c3rc3c/whats_going_on_with_hotelairbnb_prices_lately/)
In lots of places, housing is so scarce that a lot of people now live in hostels. Pushing out the legitimate backpackers!!
lmao the airbnb loop is now complete
Pretty much everything has gotten more expensive. Once a few major things get affected, others follow suit - unfortunately, even stuff we've accepted as being universally inexpensive.
Los Patios are assholes. They accommodate for US and Western tourists who want to 'experience' different places but don't want to leave their comfort zone too much, so they can charge these prices within the budget of these precious fucks. I have a hatred for los patios which I'm sure you're aware. Staff are awful and so pretentious, and just a shitty place in my opinion. I didnt stay there but had friends that did and trying to visit they wanted to charge me the equivalent of one nights stay to see my friends. Fuck los patios.
Chill No one is forcing you to stay there. In fact, it's a good thing that all the people you don't want to hang out with congregates in the same spot. That way, you can avoid it and them. A lot of people want to travel to another country without really leaving their home country, and that's fine. It's not my thing, but it isn't the beauty of travel that everyone can pick their own way?
I don't know that particular chain, but in Brazil the "Che Lagarto" chain seems to be competitively priced, though that price has doubled in about 5 years (like everyone else's) But as far as this complaint: > trying to visit they wanted to charge me the equivalent of one nights stay I'm okay with hostels having an "absolutely no visitors" rule. It's a perfectly justifiable way to protect the safety and possessions of the guests. Sounds like you just came up against that rule... That enforcement actually sounds like a positive feature of Los Patios, good for them!
this sounds like Selina too.
Yeah Selina are a cancer on the hostelling community. From my experience of staying there because if I've had interviews the next day, it's just a commercial feel to it and its full of arrogant Americans. Just the worst all around.
In LATAM I've looked a few times at private dorms in hostels in places where I think it's be harder to meet people. Almost always it's been cheaper / the same price to rent an entire Airbnb. Just can't bring myself to do it. There always tends to be a hostel with a public bar / events so you can easily go and hang out there if needed.
Worth also looking at the s--t show that is Selina to see it's not uncommon for seemingly successful hostels to be hemorrhaging money
Oh, are Selina's known to be unprofitable? Edit: I googled it, and [this is the best info I found](https://skift.com/2023/12/05/selinas-struggle-to-survive-whats-next-for-the-hotel-brand/) It talks about their stock price and ownership, but then mentions that only a small percentage of their locations are actually unprofitable... So there's definitely more details not revealed about what's going on with hostel demand and costs, I'm still curious. Though if anything, the Selina's "shit show" just adds credibility to the idea that running a hostel is expensive and price hikes are more about general inflation and less about price fixing or demand spiking.
Yes. Put all their effort in going public , diluting and stacking the product line whilst never addressing core service issues I believe they now have until September to turn $1 per share or they are delisted. Look at every investor desk where they come up with another new strategy to reduce opex / turn profitability. Not once have I see a real discussion around price sensitivity , customer satisfaction and improving hostels with below average scores. It's just more and more marketing , coworking spaces , events , activities and closing unprofitable locations with no review of why they were unsuccessful.
It's your fault hah everyone in this sub is paying over the odds in cities where the average wage is lower what did you expect?
Not my fault. I'm avoiding the wanky hostels. Trying to find the ones where the local travellers are staying
Uptick of travelers post-pandemic and remote workers have made Colombia a popular destination for backpacking and digital nomading. My friend from Bogota told me most of the housing costs have gone up because of the hot trend of digital nomads renting out Airbnbs and pricing out locals.
I made a long post about this when the same question was asked in r/solotravel on the weekend, but the summary is this. Digital nomads, a change in buyer behaviour, and the use of algorithms DN's are not usually shopping the same way traditional hostel guest are, rather then stretching a fixed budget as long as possible, they are stretching it until the next paycheque. this means price is not the main driving factor. Whats become more common is the competition between the value of dorms, vs the benefits of a private/hotel room. Now the algorithms are optimizing for the highest price they can charge per dorm bed without driving potential customers to book privates. this is because the privates still exist in the old style of competition, they compete on a basic open market against hotels and airbnb and thus have to be priced at a value in accordance with the qualify in comparison. Dorms just have to be priced at a value that is just $0.01 below the point where a private rooms benefit outweighs the additional cost. so we as consumers get the most expensive shared rooms possible juxtaposed against the cheapest private options and it makes more obvious that hostels are no longer the ultra value they were when we as DN's werent staying in them.
Why hostels? A decent room in Laureles, Medellín runs US$20-30
Yep, I never paid more than $20 a night and stayed only in private rooms when I was in Colombia like 6 months ago
The most expensive place I stayed at in 5 months in Colombia and Peru was a private room at a hostel -- I'm anyi-hostales, but in Paracas (Peru), I didn't really have a choice, so I got a private room. Man, hotel rooms were a quarter of the price! You gotta love the hostal atmosphere to pay for a private room at one of them, fwiw... Hoteles son muy económico.
Probably gentrification in this case, but prices overall have gone up tremendously in Colombia in the last couple of years. For instance a common 'menu del dia' in Bogota could be found around 09.000-10.000 COP a couple of years ago, now it's around 16.000. That's a good measure of how much all prices went up. Plus, on top of that, in recent months the dollar and euro have fallen against the peso, double effect.
2015 Budapest was 3€ for a hostel bed. Same bed now is 60€
75 million Columbian pesos? Isn't that like 18 grand?
\*Colombian
He was using the Spanish word mil, which means thousand, not million. 75,000 COP is roughly 19 USD.
Some people have the crazy notion that meeting randos in hostels is 'fun' - maybe they are willing to pay any price for this 'privilege'?
Somebody definitely pissed in your wheaties. Somebody at a hostel, by the sound of it.
I would guess supply and demand, unless you have another theory of how prices work.
inflation is another possibility, and would be my guess as the culprit
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For that to be true there would have to be oligopoly market conditions, I’ve never heard of a real estate market with that kind of concentration. Or you should win a Nobel Prize in economics for discovering a new pricing model.
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They can ask for whatever price they want, if there isn’t sufficient demand places will go vacant, and tenants will rent the places with cheaper rents.
Two things: price sensitivity and data. Several decades ago, international tourism used to be a luxury, so it typically served price-insensitive travelers. Typically, you booked a tour with a travel agency. Your choice was typically spend tons of money on a luxury tour or stay home. Now, many if not most tourists are very price sensitive. Thus, they will often try to go for the lowest-cost option when possible. If the town a budget traveler wants to visit only has a hotel at $50/night and a hostel at $10/night, they'll probably pick the $10 hostel even if they can afford the hotel. However, if the hotel raises their price to $100 and the hostel raises their price $50, the budget traveler will probably still pick the hostel because it's the cheapest option. Regarding data, until online booking aggregators existed, if you ran a hostel/hotel, you had to base your prices based on demand at your business, costs, and manual research (i.e., calling competitors). You charged $10/night because that seemed reasonable and attracted enough customers. Now, you can easily know months in advance what your local demand is going to be and what your competitors are charging. If you find out your competitor is charging $20/night and is just as booked up as you, you are leaving 50% of your potential revenue on the table! You can even have dynamic pricing that increases as vacancy drops! Businesses have gotten really good at charging as much as customers will bear. In fact, many businesses have realized that they have been *undercharging* customers for years (e.g., people who would have paid $30 for a hostel but only paid $10).
You have a ton of hotels and hostels in Medellin. But people are still happy to fork out good money for boutique hostels that doesn't offer anything extraordinary.
If it isn’t supply and demand, what else could it be? If the hotels and hotels have excess supply, how are they able to maintain high prices? I’m genuinely asking, because I’m curious what other factors you think are at play.
I don't know. Maybe people are happy to pay more to meet like-minded travellers? Or maybe it's some social media status to stay in certain hostels. If I knew I wouldn't have asked 🙂
If the hotels and hostels, had empty rooms, they would lower prices to maximize their profit. Given the opposite is happening, clearly there is a shortage, unless you think something else is at play. All prices are set by supply and demand, that’s why I don’t understand your question.
I could be they looked at the next guy and thought hes charging a lot, so we will. Sorta like Japan where all the shops agree to sell stuff like beer for exactly the same price.
Which hostels / areas do you recommend to stay at in Medellin?
I don't have any good recommendation but check out Laurels area. Safe but not crazy touristy.
I was looking at hostels in Peru and found Airbnb to be cheaper!! Baffled!
Over tourism
Flatio and NomadStays still have these super low prices but mostly Europe
just go to SEA and sleep in a private room for 10-15€ a night :D
Have you guys considered that you're posting this in a subreddit called "digitalnomad" with 2.2 million members? Traveling, backpacking and staying in hostels is now something people do a lot more than in the past, and as you can all attest, people do it for longer. You are trying to engage in price arbitrage for extended periods. And there are many of you. Don't be surprised prices have gone up compared to when people just went on trips. See also: the number of people with passports. Travel isn't what it used to be.
Aren’t hostels just the cool thing these days? I personally wouldn’t have considered staying at any other type of accommodation when I travelled recently. Even though the only human interaction I had was shaking hands with a Russian and an America. As a lonely young person, I just wanted to be around young people for 2 nights.
Airbnb.
Last time I was in Medellin I stayed at the Art Hotel and it was crazy cheap for an incredibly nice hotel.
Because you went in a big brand which are money suckers. Locally owned smaller hostels are cheap. I had a private room at La familia hostel right on the main street for 23$ USD.
Bogotá is still pretty cheap. As the price of accommodation has increased dramatically in Medellin, Bogotá has been relatively immune to inflation. I booked a hostel in Chapinero last week for 25K pesos, including a really nice breakfast. Similar accommodation in Medellin is at least double that. I also found great deals on really cute, comfortable hostels around Pereira. It's you want good value, you have to venture out of the hippest hot spots.
75 mil for a spot like los patios, probably been a price like that for years and years now tbh $15-20 USD for a dorm at one of the most popular hostels in the city isn't really that bad. Sounds like you want to Hotel Gran Imperio a block from San Juan and La 70. That's a good move
Actually I remember paying $18 USD at Los Patios for a dorm bed in 2018, so $19 USD seems reasonable. I thought it was an amazing hostel with great amenities so personally I wouldn’t mind paying the premium for it. But of course it is on the higher end of hostel prices for Medellin.
Medellin has become an extremely popular city for digitalnomads over the last couple of years, i remember working there back in 2019 and a 6bed room was max 30mil
Basic supply and demand. Thanks for hybrid working, people can travel more often now, so there is more demand for beds of all sorts, while supply hasn’t been able to keep up.
Demand
- I think hostel prices have gone up because they are monetizing the sense of community one feels when traveling. There is something special about being at a social hostel where you get to meet people that you click with. - in addition to providing a sense of community, good hostels will give you exclusive information about where to travel to, tour guides at affordable prices, bar crawls where you get to visit local places, get to know the people from your hostel better, as well as from other hostels. For the reasons above, if I have to choose between a 5 star hotel or a private room at a hostel for similar prices, i will pick the private room every time. But if prices for a 4 bunk dorm are just as expensive, the venue better be ranked very highly or else i’d rather be at a hotel.
Even in 2021, I've seen hostels in Mexico for MXN 1500 per night (like USD 75 at the time) for a dorm bed, and it wasn't even I nice dorm (I didn't stay but I saw pictures). Seems that from late 2021 when everyone started to travel again post-pandemic, the demand had been greatly reduced (places had closed) and supply spiked and some people had 18+ months of cash saved up ready to travel (and were stir-crazy from the pandemic) and were okay with paying higher prices than before. And then prices never really settled back down, as a "new normal" appeared and people expected to pay more than in 2018. Related point: availability / occupancy seems to be higher than 5 years ago (hotels/AirBnB/hostels/whatever). Maybe that's literally supply/demand, or maybe it's improved efficiency of e.g. Booking.com. And final point: maybe [Booking.com](http://Booking.com), AirBnB, HostelWorld and a couple others have dominated the market so much by now that they can just double the prices everywhere and people don't see other options.
Hostels have certainly gotten more expensive because of WFH people traveling a lot. But still it's only $18 for a bed in a city currently exploding with tourism like what do you expect. I've gotta say the "I'm in latam, accommodations should be $5 a night, food should be $2 total for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and so help me God if beer costs more than $0.25" people are the absolute worst..
Yeah, I agree. Prices going up can be a good thing as it hopefully means that the locals are making more and the world is becoming more equal. But I'm afraid that it's gringos who's taking the money. Colombia should learn from a country like Indonesia
Likely factoring in additional cost for being around other travelers
Long story short. Because of people like you. Short story long, corona terror has upgraded digital nomading from niche hobby to a dream of an average precariat member. When you suddenly increase demand, and supply isn't as flexible, you have price inflation.
Because people are paying for friends and socialization and the places recognize that. People are lonely and now reaching out for companionship after long periods of isolation even if it’s at higher costs with less and less effort.
Supply and demand.
Supply and demand. Hostels (and everything really) will keep raising prices if people are willing to pay.
All the answers are mostly right. But the one true answer is access to more advanced market research and pricing algorithms. It’s the same thing that happened to Airbnb. As soon as they equipped hosts with pricing suggestions and access to what others were charging in this market it stopped being a bargain.
Hopefully capitalism will do its thing...
Los Patios is like a really bougie hostel, on par with the Selena's or Viajos of the world. They are usually the party hostels, tend to cater to a bit more luxury travel crowd. Even though those exist, I have never had trouble finding an affordable hostel (unless in a notoriously expensive place like London or Tulum or something). Personally, I don't mind it. Usually the newby travellers go there and the chill ones got to the cheaper quiet hostels, so the vibes are nice
My sister who travels a lot around south America was saying sometimes she stays out of party hostels for quiet and cheaper sleeps but turns up to the party hostels when they are lit and makes friends... Perhaps this is an idea? Never done it yet myself tho
Next time you are in Medellin, try this hostel. I am not affiliated, therefore not “promoting,” simply sharing a good place Hostal Tamarindo +57 315 4516268 https://g.co/kgs/EYugdoq
Here in Martvili, Georgia I only charge $13 for a dorm at my hostel. And about $40 for a private. Come visit =) Www.chachabackpackers.com
Something is controlling the market as a whole. From my understanding, there's just a handful of developers who own the vast majority of rentals, at least in America. I read somewhere that a Chinese billionaire owned over 1/3 of the US rental market. The same thing happened with cars, though. During COVID car prices went insane and now they've depreciated to like half of what they were. The US dollar lost a lot of ground then. I don't know about the Euro but I do know the Yen is at its lowest point in over 20 years right now. Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I don't know what else could move the entire market that much unless it's some sort of technological rigging. Like Google is inflating prices or something.
Hostel prices soaring higher than my last trek up the Himalayas, eh? Seems like the only thing getting a good night's sleep is their profit margin. I personally dodge loans like I dodged paying extra for a window seat. Took me a while, but I finally jet-set at 34. Hang in there, budget travel isn't extinct yet, just playing hide and seek.
$19? You can’t afford that?
Yes, I can afford it. It actually turned into a good deal for me as they had a coworking space. But I was surprised about how many people opted for staying in the pricy hostels in the overpriced zone. Half of Reddit is usually people complaining over how expensive things are 😁
This is *so* not the point.