Maximum age to stay: the age barrier in hostels

When the hostels emerged in 1909 in Germany, were aimed at young people with very little money and school groups on tour.

This view has changed to a great extent. Today, it is not uncommon to find seniors who travel for months or take a gap year. In these situations, there is no budget to support an extended stay in a traditional hotel, with rates that cost at least twice as much as in a shared dormitory.

This goes hand in hand with the increase in citizens aged 60 and over, who, according to the UN Population Division grows faster than any other age group and will account for 13.9% of the world population in 2022.

A portrait of the welcome is the change of name of the largest and oldest network of hostels, the Hostelling International . Until the 1990s, the association was called International Youth Hostel Federation, International Federation of Youth Hostels.

“We changed our name specifically to ensure that all ages feel welcome at our hostels,” explains Danielle Brumfitt Norris, vice president of US dependency.

Establishments should provide an experience for all audiences, “regardless of race, age, ethnicity, ability, sex, religion, sexual orientation and nationality”.

However, there is no mechanism to guarantee universal admission. And it is in this gap of autonomy that the restrictions reside.

An extensive survey carried out by the website The Hostel Helper pointed out in 2020 that 80% of hostels did not have age limitations. But the rest choose to maintain a specific atmosphere, especially when there is a very active bar on the premises and parties are frequent, characterizing them as “party hostels”.

The threshold is typically set for customers aged up to 35, 40, 45 or 65 and there is at least one example of this being applied on each of the five continents, whether in Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, Guatemala, Sweden, Israel, Republic Czech Republic, Morocco, Thailand, Italy, South Africa, India, to name a few.

However, this is more common in Australia and Europe which accounts for 30% of all hostels in the world, according to 2020 data from Hostelworld Customer Survey Data.

In Germany, however, it is not uncommon to find accommodations with a barrier of 35 years, to preserve, in a way, the tradition.

Counterpoints of age limits

the manager of Hans Brinker Hostel Amsterdam In Holland, Sage Scott justifies that most of the complaints they receive come from older people who are annoyed by the noise caused by the celebrations or by other guests.

“They want to keep changing rooms all the time and, sometimes, they are aggressive with the employees”, he says. He adds: “Hans Brinker has been in operation for 52 years and is considered a youth hostel for young travellers. Our policies were elaborated according to several years of experience”.

To confirm a reservation made on the site of the place, the interested party has to accept that he has read the terms and conditions, where it is listed (in a somewhat hidden way), that over 35s are not allowed in shared dorms.

Should an unsuspecting person turn up there, Sage says the protocol is to offer an exchange for a private room, if available, or refund the stay and help search for a compatible establishment.

On the other hand, the Jolly Swagman Backpackers Sydney Hostel, in Australia, it decided to go against the grain and made it clear that the restrictions “end with the diversity of visitors”.

“We want our hostel not only to have a wide variety of nationalities, but also of ages. Older backpackers are sometimes the best people to talk to about recommendations because they have more travel knowledge.”

Jaine Macena agrees with this reasoning. The mato-grossense jokes that she can’t see someone older who is already making friends.

“I’ve only had positive experiences with older people I’ve met in hostels. It’s generally an open-minded crowd with a lot of experiences to share,” she comments.

It was precisely during one of her trips that Jaine met Birgit Ulrich 57 years old, in October 2020. The connection was such that the Brazilian and German traveled 280 km from Camino de Santiago together, living together for 13 days.

The two went through several cities, always staying in hostels, but in Porto, Portugal, they faced a “small” obstacle: the team did not want to allow Birgit to stay there, nor in the separate room, which is where she usually stays. even, under the justification that it was a hostel with a more youthful vibe.

After some convincing work, the stay was allowed only because she was accompanied by someone who fit the desired profile.

noise intolerance

Controversial restrictions are often based on a supposed intolerance to noise and to entering and leaving rooms on the part of older people, or the understanding that they would have greater economic possibilities and would value more comfort .

By occupying economic spaces, they would take the place of someone who really needed to be there. In this case, the priority goes to the students.

There is also an allegation that the presence of much older men alienates the clientele from girls, who would feel more comfortable in environments with people of the same age group.

In traveler discussion forums, there are several reports of unpleasant experiences with individuals who are often defined as “creepy” (something like sinister or scary, in Portuguese), for adopting unusual behaviors in that type of environment, such as walking around in their underwear. in a room full of girls.

The aging and longevity specialist and professor at the Postgraduate Program in Communication and Consumer Practices at ESPM in Sao Paulo, Gisela Castro revolts with limitations.

Today, more and more people are able to reach and live past 100 years. And why then does someone decide that at 45 you can no longer travel? Look how many decades of your life you will be barred!

Gisela Castro, professor at ESPM

And responds: “[Dizem que] An old man is a complainer, but I know a lot of young complainers, who can get aggressive when they want to be heard or want to respect their request. If you don’t want the guest to complain about the noise, you let them know that there’s noise, and ask them to sign a term that agrees with it”.

each in their own right

Certain anti-discrimination and equality laws exist, for example the UK’s Equality Act 2010, which prohibits unequal treatment, deprivation of opportunity or access to services based on criteria such as age without proper justification.

However, this does not prevent enterprises from taking an open position stating that if you do not fit into the established age group, “the hostel reserves the right to cancel the reservation at any time without refund or refuse the reservation upon arrival”.

Scott Swanson found himself in such a situation in 2019. He was prevented from staying at Hostel The Hague in The Hague, Netherlands, and he did not like the restriction at all.

To avoid inconvenience, the procedure indicated is to read the description and all the details of the place before paying. But Scott argues that these “details” were not present in the booking process and the clause that prohibited over 40s only appeared in the confirmation email itself.

At the time, 44 years old, as he did not comply with the rules, he preferred not to try his luck, risking being rejected or poorly received when he arrived, and canceled his stay.

Then came another unpleasant surprise: as the trip was short, he would be charged for the first night, plus a late cancellation fee.

The company contacted Scott on the day of check-in to understand the situation and said he could have been transferred to a sister property that accommodates older people.

“That would also have been a problem, because it wouldn’t be the hostel I had chosen. if they had mentioned [essa informação] before, I could have researched that other place and decided whether to stay there or not”, counters the New Yorker.

Having passed through many hostels around the world, this was the first time he had encountered such a limitation. “I plan to stay in hostels more often in the future and would hate to be refused other spaces because of my age,” he adds.

Currently, on the homepage of the Hostel The Hague website, there is the following description: “Because we are a youth hostel, the maximum age in dormitories is 40 years and there is no age limit for private rooms”.

Only young people like to socialize?

“When you travel, you want everything but to get bored, so sometimes it’s easier to look for another place than to fight with someone who doesn’t want you”, says Gisela Castro.

However, if that establishment really attracts you, for the price, location and amenities, it is worth getting in touch and explaining the situation, as restrictions often apply only to shared spaces.

Gisela indicates that, if there is a system in that city or country that supports the victim, when she feels discriminated against and injured, she can, at a later date, assert her rights through a judicial process or make her indignation public, avoiding guarding it. there for you.

While there is a distinction between young and non-young people by the management of several hostels, Scott Swanson argues that this does not happen among travelers.

“I started staying in hostels when I was 19, and even at that time, I noticed the presence of some older backpackers, sometimes in their 50s and 60s. I also noticed that they were treated the same as all younger guests, especially those in their 20s. Everyone was happy to talk to the older ones, including them at dinners, outings to bars, clubs, etc. Nobody cared how old they were. As the years went by and I got older, I never felt weird about continuing to stay there, because [o acolhimento] remained the same”.

In the same way, Birgit Ulrich says that she always had a good relationship and socialized with the young people, even having immense fun when participating in the parties.

On the other hand, Gisela explains that being comfortable in different environments is not unanimous among the elderly, “there are those who will feel out of place, will not want to stay there and will prefer places with people similar to them”.

The most important thing would be to give the possibility of choice to guests who, with the information available on the internet, can identify the characteristics of the places, such as an atmosphere of greater agitation of the “party hostels” or the calm of the “boutique hostels”.

From there, travelers could book according to their preferences.

“Tourism is the hospitality sector. And there is nothing less hospitable than intolerance. Everyone benefits from a more tolerant environment”, concludes Gisela.