Hostels

Hostels provide budget-oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, sometimes a bunk bed in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available. Hostels are generally cheaper for both the operator and the occupants; many hostels employ their long-term residents as desk clerks or housekeeping staff in exchange for free accommodation.
An effort should be made to distinguish between establishments providing longer-term accommodation (often to specific classes of clientèle such as nurses, students, drug addicts) where the hostels are sometimes run by Housing Associations and charities) and those offering short-term accommodation to travellers or backpackers.
The traditional hostel format involved dormitory style accommodation. Some newer hostels include en-suite accommodation with single, double or quad occupancy rooms, though to be considered a hostel they must also provide dormitory accommodation[1][2]. In recent years, the numbers of independent and backpackers' hostels have increased greatly to cater for the greater numbers of overland, multi-destination travellers (such as gap-year travellers, and rail-trippers).
The quality of such places has also improved dramatically. While a few hostels do still insist on a curfew, daytime lockouts, and/or require occupants to do chores, this is becoming the exception rather than the rule, as hostels adapt to meet the changing expectations of guests.