So I looked over the article... 'high-end furniture' is a relative term, hopefully.

Sure a long way from the hostels of my youth, though I must admit beer and tasty cheap food was never very far away.

I'll be in her bunk.

That's bullshiat.  Hostels should be low-cost almost by sheer definition.

This is some stupid luxury bullshiat.  HINO if you will.

My hippy father?  My father who has prominent hips?

Maybe be was a hippy hippie?

When I travel the last thing I want to do is talk to anyone. Much less share a room with total strangers.

ElLoco: So I looked over the article... 'high-end furniture' is a relative term, hopefully.

Typically, when you're managing affordable housing, "high end" means more expensive in the sense that you're spending more money to get furniture that's almost physically impossible for the residents to break.  Since Hostels are relatively short-term housing, that's a pretty high bar, idiots do all sorts of destructive bullshiat to short-term space, and solid steel everything can end up with a pretty large initial investment.

Rain showers are the dumbest thing to have if you actually want to wash yourself. It's like washing your car by pointing the hose straight at the grill and hoping the sides will get clean.

mr_fulano: Rain showers are the dumbest thing to have if you actually want to wash yourself. It's like washing your car by pointing the hose straight at the grill and hoping the sides will get clean.

Depends where your reservoir is in relation to the shower-head.

Bernoulli's law: v^2 = 2*g*height difference, minus some frictional losses in the pipe and showerhead.  You can get some pretty solid spray velocities out of a rooftop reservoir and a first-floor shower, if that's your thing.

//Also, if that's your thing, you should probably be informed that showers don't actually work that way if you're using soap.  So long as you get soap/water lather on a spot, agitate it, and then rinse it, you'll be equally clean whether the rinse is sprayed like a fire-hose or dripped gently like morning dew from the leaves.

//Sometimes I think my profession makes me an expert in too many things.

Like God's own mercy

so rich people are taking beds meant as a place for younger less funded people
 Dicks

This is why I hate youth hostels.

Brilliant idea. Wealthy kids who want to the community aspect of hostels but don't want to give up the comforts they've gotten used to at home.

whidbey: That's bullshiat.  Hostels should be low-cost almost by sheer definition.

This is some stupid luxury bullshiat.  HINO if you will.

$16 per night is still pretty reasonable

On the other hand, some of the American ones listed are...not so reasonable.

I was shocked when I arrived here in Guatemala City. Apparently there are a couple of hostels that have followed this style for 5 years by now. It's an interesting niche to tap, and good on New York for finally $tarting to catch up with the time$.

kevinatilusa: whidbey: That's bullshiat.  Hostels should be low-cost almost by sheer definition.

This is some stupid luxury bullshiat.  HINO if you will.

$16 per night is still pretty reasonable

Yeah but it's in a real scary shiathole of a city I wouldn't visit anyway.  Reykjavik, sure.

I stayed at the Melbourne Intl. Hostel in Denver.  Scary neighborhood, sketchy clientele in the dorm rooms.  Jailhouse bar doors on every room protecting the wooden doors. $16 to $34 per night.  Free WiFi, communal kitchen. Laundromat downstairs - in the Mexican bus depot.

Goddam bus pulled up at 6 a.m. and woke everybody up,  spewing diesel fumes.  Passengers piled their luggage and children against the street exit door.  I learned to bang on the door very loudly before opening it to avoid knocking some little ol' senora into the street.

But it was two blocks from light rail and five minutes from the convention center.  Place drew self-employed professionals who were spending their own money, and the teachers convention packed the joint.  Also, the Mercury Cafe was half a block away; great pagan jazz venue. :-)

That's a hostel.

I've worked in and stayed in hostels, and the thing that chaps my ass are the people who speak their own language exclusively. The three Francophones in one corner, the two Germans in one corner, the 3 Chinese kids in one corner......way to expand your horizons, douches.

......And God help you if you approach someone and attempt a "ca va?" or a "guten targ".

ModernLuddite: I've worked in and stayed in hostels, and the thing that chaps my ass are the people who speak their own language exclusively. The three Francophones in one corner, the two Germans in one corner, the 3 Chinese kids in one corner......way to expand your horizons, douches.

......And God help you if you approach someone and attempt a "ca va?" or a "guten targ".

Clarification: I meant people who travel to an area that speaks Language X predominately/exclusively, but only socializes in Language Y, and who actually gets offended when people who speak X attempt to speak in Y to engage them.