YHA Going Soft...

'Should the YHA become the UHA - Urban Hostels For All?' asks Stephen Cook writing in today's Guardian Society pages.

The Guardian story is a hard-hitting look at the YHA in the wake of its £4 million foot and mouth losses and the decision to close a number of hostels including the one at Dufton that means there is now a 41-mile stretch of the Pennine Way with no YHA.

It goes deeper than that though, pointing out that the Youth component of Youth Hostels Association is fast becoming an anachronism with 40 per-cent of users now over 40 and 65 per-cent of its paid-up members now over 45. It also questions the shift in emphasis away from the country - only two of ten new hostels tagged for opening are non-urban - and the trend towards doing away with dorm' accommodation in favour of smaller rooms and more showers and toilets.

New YHA chief executive Roger Clarke explains that in order to provide low cost accommodation in areas like national parks, the Association needs 'help not with running costs, but with investment and attempts to reach new groups of people'. He says that organisation is aiming to raise bed sales by 50% to 3 million and increase membership from 300,000 to 500,000 over the next five years.

Clarke also hits out at the 'old timers' with their spartan ethic saying 'We live in a market place... We need a broader view of what the YHA is about.' The alternative would be to run hostels as 'museum pieces' he claims.

Definitely worth a read.

Guardian story here.

YHA web site