What is the difference between a hostel and a guest house. What is the difference between a hostel and a hotel? Shared rooms, or Dormitory

How is a hostel different from a hotel?

What is the main difference between hostels and hotels? Of course, this is their availability. Cheap hostels in st. petersburg can offer reasonable accommodation at minimal prices. In order to be able to offer such affordable accommodation, they usually offer a fairly compact accommodation and a minimum of equipment. Deciding to move in here, you often rent a bed in a complex with additional services, and not a room. True, if you decide to travel with a large company, then this opportunity is also an advantage. But even if you live alone, cheap hostels in St. Petersburg can provide a great opportunity to meet new people and have plenty of conversation. There are cases when you can even settle here for free, having done some work on cleaning the territory, washing, and so on. This is a good opportunity for young people who love to travel, but there is not enough money for everything.

A standard room can accommodate from two to eight people. But there are other rooms that can accommodate a much larger number of people - from ten to twenty people. Such rooms in world practice are called dormitories. Many St. Petersburg hostels offer the opportunity to cook your own meals in the kitchens available here. True, there are cases when an included breakfast is offered here for an additional fee. Hostel owners can also offer bed linen for an additional fee. Since it settles here a large number of people, here you can not do without individual lockers for valuables. In most cases, separate lockers are provided, access to a separate of which is allowed only to the guest, who will store his things there. Rooms are often divided by gender. Women are housed separately and men separately. Mixed rooms with special changing rooms are quite rare.

Places for communication are a very important advantage that this housing has. In such common rooms, guests can get acquainted, communicate and exchange various information with each other. So we can mark communication as one of the main conditions of stay. There is often fun, laughter and funny jokes are heard.

Unlike classic hotels, hostels pay great attention to high-quality sound insulation. After all, a large number of young people in a relatively small area can produce a fairly large amount of noise. Often, as a present, guests are offered earplugs, which additionally allow for a comfortable sound level.

As you can see, hostels in St. Petersburg have many differences from standard hotels. They find an increasing number of fans every year and are gaining significant popularity. In the future, Russia plans to significantly increase the number of hostels in different cities in the coming years.

A hostel is a temporary accommodation option in which the guest is offered a bed in the absence of additional amenities in the room. It is something between an apartment building in Russia, a motel in America and an apartment in Europe.

Features of accommodation in the hostel

The punning word hostel is formed by the merger of the two stems host (translated as host) and hotel (hotel). Literally, this is a private hotel in the form of a hostel, equipped on site former apartment or other premises.

Accommodation prices are 4-5 times lower than in a regular hotel. But this does not mean that torn wallpaper and shabby linoleum are waiting for you. It's cozy, clean and safe. And it’s also interesting, because people who are keen on traveling prefer to stay in the hostel. Such mini-hotels are popular abroad, and only among Russian tourists who do not quite understand how it works, they are associated with housing for the homeless.

Rooms can be female, male, common, individual. Traditionally, there are two types of hostels:

  • The former serve as a cheap hotel.
  • The latter are designed for long-term residence of students, specialists or workers of certain categories, people who have temporarily lost their homes.


One room can accommodate up to 15-20 people. Such rooms are called dorms. But there are also rooms designed for one, two or three people. Women's rooms are called Female Dorm, and common rooms are called Mixed Dorm. As a rule, the mini-hotel has a common common room in which guests can gather for communication.

Hostel Benefits

Hostels have significant advantages over other accommodation options:


Abroad, capsule hotels and hostels are gaining popularity. Their only difference is a capsule instead of a bed. Thus, the guest receives his own isolated space.

Cons of hostels

But there are also disadvantages. Among them are the Spartan conditions in some hotels, because the gentleman's set is simple: a bunk, linen and a locker. A major drawback is the shared bathroom. There is always a chance to get into an unpleasant company.

Despite the fact that most of these establishments offer luggage storage to their guests, thefts in hostels are not uncommon. The more people in the room, the more dangerous it is to leave your belongings unattended.

Another disadvantage is the limitation of personal space: a shared bathroom, a queue in the kitchen, the inability to sleep due to the late return of roommates, etc.

The hostel is not very convenient for families with children to stay, unless they are offered to stay in a 3-4-bed room.

How it all began

The first hostel hotel appeared in Germany in 1909. It exists to this day. The idea of ​​an inexpensive and small hotel for unpretentious guests was born in the head of the school teacher Richard Schirmann. On weekends, he took his students out of town. Almost all the children were from poor families and were unable to pay for hotel accommodation. Schirmann negotiated with colleagues from schools located along the travel route on the placement of wards for the night in classrooms.

After some time, he opened a hostel in his native school. After classes, schoolchildren took out their desks and brought in makeshift beds - bags of hay. And the next morning it was the other way around. Over time, the hostel moved to Alten Castle, where it still operates.

Regulatory regulation of the hostel

In Russia, the functioning of hostels is described in GOST 56184:2015. The document obliges the hosteler to establish the rules for staying at the hotel and bring to the knowledge of the guests how to live in it. It is not allowed to place hostels in basements and basements. If the building of the mini-hotel is separate, a parking lot is equipped next to it. If they are located in an apartment building, they may not have a separate entrance.

How to live in it - conditions or what to expect


What is the difference between a hostel and a hotel

There are several features that distinguish a hostel from a hotel:

  1. The price is 4-5 times lower and this is the main advantage
  2. The room can sometimes accommodate up to 15 people, in order to save space, the beds are usually bunk beds.
  3. The bathroom and kitchen are shared by all rooms.

But the main difference is the restrictions for residents, due to the desire to provide relaxing holiday guests. For example, they may not let you into the room after one in the morning.

Book a place in the hostel should be in advance. This is especially true for the peak periods of the year: summer and new year holidays. As for wi-fi, it is provided by default in all hotels as a mandatory additional service. But in order not to get into force majeure, you should clarify this point when booking a bed.

Every tourist needs a place for temporary accommodation. It can be either a cozy room in the private sector, or a huge apartment in luxury hotel. The choice of option directly depends on the financial possibilities that the traveler has. In this article, we will give a comparative description of two accommodation facilities that are very popular among modern tourists.

Definitions

Hostel

Hostel- European way of accommodation, in which the guest is provided with a bed in a room without additional amenities. The first facility of this type was founded in Germany in 1909. Historically, hostels were a kind of symbiosis of Russian tenement houses, European apartments and American motels. All of these places hundreds of years ago offered undemanding travelers a relatively cheap place to spend the night.

Hostel room

Hotel

Hotel- a hotel-type service enterprise that provides services for the accommodation of guests for a certain period. These objects are divided into many categories depending on the number of stars, type of food, orientation, etc. In the Middle Ages, a hotel meant an ordinary house in the city, where noble people stayed during their travels. The modern type of service facilities was formed only in the 19th century with the onset of the industrial revolution.


Hotel room

Comparison

The first accommodation option is budget. As a rule, hostels are not designed for long stays and are more adapted for undemanding young people. However, sports teams, pilgrims, etc. often stop in them. Several people who do not know each other can live in the same room. Sometimes young people move into a hostel with a whole company, completely buying out a multi-bed room. There is also the possibility of living in a separate room, but it will cost several times more. In whatever room the guest stays, he is forced to share a bathroom, toilet, kitchen and living room with the rest of the guests. All of these are common areas. That is, in fact, only the bed is rented out. By the way, the lion's share of hostels opens in ordinary apartments.

Thus, the main difference between a hostel and a hotel lies in its accessibility. The second accommodation option is much more expensive. But the service in it is at a higher level. The hotels offer their guests comfortable rooms with all amenities. Often, the cost of living includes meals and the use of various benefits of civilization: a swimming pool, a beach, a bar, etc. A wide range of additional services. Often on the territory of hotels there are laundries, hairdressers, fitness clubs, conference rooms and other establishments. Due to this, they can be called multifunctional accommodation facilities.

The table below will give you a better idea of ​​what is the difference between a hostel and a hotel.

Hostel Hotel
Budget accommodation option for young peopleA more expensive type of residence for people of average and high incomes
Accommodation in a shared roomRent of an individual room
Kitchen, bathroom, toilet and living room are designed for all guestsA bathroom is present in each room, meals are provided in the restaurant and are often included in the bill.
It has a modest number of rooms, often located in an ordinary city apartmentIt is a separate building with an impressive number of rooms.
Lack of additional servicesOffers guests a wide range of services

More and more travelers today prefer budget holiday and rely on the impressions and emotions of the trip, and not on luxury and the price of living. This is why hostels and mini-hotels have become so popular. Many people often confuse these two concepts. However, despite the common feature - not expensive accommodation, hostels and mini-hotels are very different.

Features of mini-hotels

Mini-hotels are a popular alternative to large and expensive hotels. In mini-hotels, as a rule, there are not many rooms. Often there are no more than ten of them, it is generally accepted that a mini-hotel cannot have more than 25 rooms. Such establishments are located in ready-made buildings - residential buildings.

Service in mini-hotels is no different from service in large hotels. Rooms have bathrooms, equipped with necessary furniture and appliances. A person lives in a room alone or with friends and relatives. Meals are usually hotel - free breakfast. In general, the differences between mini-hotels and hotels are only in size and, accordingly, in a lower price for accommodation.

Hostel features

Hostels are more different from mini-hotels and hotels. In such establishments, all guests live in common rooms, where there are several beds (in some cases, two-story). Rooms are divided into women's and men's. In the common rooms, each guest can count on their own locker, which is locked with a key. You can put your things there and not be afraid for their safety. The hostels have a kitchen where each guest cooks for himself at any time of the day. So food and accommodation is much cheaper. In addition, no one depends on the menu and does what he loves and knows how to cook. Kitchens are equipped with the necessary appliances and utensils. There is a stove, refrigerator, kitchen utensils and more. All this is freely available to every guest and absolutely free.

The hostels have washing machines, hair dryers, irons and other appliances for a comfortable stay of the guest, which he can freely use also for free. If we talk about the bathroom, then it is shared, and this may cause some inconvenience for lovers of comfortable living.

It is worth noting that the level of security in hostels is no different from the security in a mini-hotel. The establishments are also equipped with cameras and security. The administration has a safe in which any guest can hide valuables.

In the hostel, as well as in mini-hotels, people can live as long as they want. Establishments do not limit guests by length of stay.

Very different people gather in hostels, and most of the guests stay in hostels precisely for the sake of free communication. Here you will surely find many new and interesting acquaintances. And the main advantage of hostels is their price. Hostels are many times cheaper than even the same mini-hotels. Therefore, if price and free communication are important for you, then hostels are exactly what you need!

Hotel or hostel for rent - what's the difference?

Each of us, when it comes time to go on a business trip or vacation, thinks about where he will spend the night. If this is a package trip, then of course there are no problems in this case: the place is determined in the package itself. But when we ourselves have to make a choice, then, as a rule, we take into account two criteria - the price and quality of housing. Not many of us want to overpay for an overnight stay. But the budget for our trips is almost always limited. So how do you save on housing without losing comfort?

A good option may be to choose not a hotel or a hotel, but a hostel. Hostels are now a low-cost alternative to hotels and apartments around the world, making travel more affordable for young people, students, and those whose earnings can be considered “average”. They allow you to save on the trip, providing very acceptable living conditions. In this article, we will try to figure out how a hostel differs from a hotel and how

The main difference between a hostel and a hotel is that guests live in common rooms, and all amenities in the form of bathrooms, showers and a kitchen or dining room are shared. It looks more like a hostel, but unlike the common understanding of the hostel, the size of the hostel is much smaller. Most often in Russia there are hostels ranging from 25 to 50 beds.

Hostels are quite comfortable. Even in Russia, where this area is not yet as developed as in the West, in most hostels you are provided with a clean bed, a locker for storing things, free WiFi, and the necessary amenities in common use.

Hostel cost

The cost of a day in a hostel largely depends on the number of beds in the room. More often, the price starts from 300 rubles in an 8-10- or 12-bed room. The location of the hostel also affects the price. For example, in Moscow it is important whether the hostel is located in the center and how close the hostel is to the metro. To rent in the center and not far from the metro costs from 500 rubles per place per day. Hostels of the highest category with designer renovation and high quality services and additional services can offer seats costing up to 1500-2000 rubles per day.

Neighbours

Until quite recently, many in our country had not yet heard of such establishments or imagined them as a reception for the homeless. Thanks to the widespread dissemination of information and popular programs on television (the most famous "Eagle and Reshka" on the STS channel), knowledge and opinion about hostels began to change. Now we know that the hostel is not a social institution, and even more so, it has nothing to do with "hospice". The owners usually value the reputation of the hostel and carefully monitor its work and the contingent of residents.

The hostel in Moscow can be attributed more to the option of a temporary overnight stay for budget travel in the company of friends or single tourists and business travelers. In addition, many people consider a hostel as an option for an initial stay in Moscow, since even just renting an apartment or a room is not easy. Therefore, if we do not take into account hostels and hostels with an extremely low cost (less than 300 rubles per day), in which, as a rule, work teams live not only from Russia, but also from countries near and far abroad, then the contingent becomes quite decent and even interesting.

Hostel as culture

Hostels have been popular throughout Europe for half a century as a budget option for travel. The standards of keeping there have long been regulated and correspond to the necessary standards of an economical stay. Over the years, a certain culture has developed in relation to hostels. Today it is not just about saving money. The small size of hostels, unlike dormitories, allows hostel guests to feel not like in a hostel, but like in a large apartment, and often a member of a large family. After all, living together in hostels pushes people to get to know each other and communicate. Many make friends here. Tourists from all over the world are specifically looking for rest and accommodation in the company of like-minded people, and find it among the guests of hostels.

Of course, hotels and hotels have a whole range of advantages over the hostel. First of all, this is the isolation of residence, its own bathroom, bath or shower, TV, and so on. In addition, hotels offer many services that you will not find in a hostel: a restaurant, a gym. But, as always, everything has its price and you have to pay for it. And here the hostel with its budget economy completely outperforms the hotel.

In conclusion, it can be noted that both the experience gained in the hostel and in the hotel is valuable. Which is better: renting a bed in a hostel or booking a double room in a hotel, only you can tell after you try both of these options.