Thanks, I’ll chase it up with Hostelbookers and see what they say. Interesting discussion anyway.

Thanks,

Paul @
TravMonkey.com

Here is a 12-page discussion about it involving people from the hostel industry around the world:
http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forum/f15/definition-hostel-284.html

The condensed version extracted from that discussion is here:
http://www.hostelmanagement.com/glossary/hostel.html

The largest hostel booking engine in the world claims to list “29,439 Hostels and other cheap places to stay worldwide”. I’m guessing that only about one third of their properties are actually hostels (i.e., ~8,000 to 10,000). There are many hostels that aren’t listed on that specific website, but it’s in the hundreds, not millions.

That’s why I think it has to be a typo…

Yeh post the links, it would be an interesting read. To be honest I would have no idea how many hostels there are .

Thanks,

Paul @
TravMonkey.com

I can only imagine that it’s a typo or a mistake that their editor missed. I’ve been in the hostel industry for 8 years and the “2 million” number is just not anywhere close to reality.

A guesthouse is a completely different class of accommodation than a hostel. Hostels have shared accommodation. There is sometimes overlap (a property might be a “guesthouse and hostel”), but properties without shared accommodation are not hostels. I could send you some links to discussions about it if you are interested…

You better ask HostelBookers.com the guys from their blog wrote the article. I’m not sure, it depends what you class as a hostel really. If you include guest houses, there are probably a huge amount.

Thanks,

Paul @
TravMonkey.com

I think HostelBookers have it labelled incorrectly on their flickr account!

Paul @
TravMonkey.com

Photo 8

http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/czech-republic/prague/18665/