Pittsburgh needs a Hostel

[greg42]

Hostels are usually better maintained than a crappy roach motel, as you can see. The tradeoff is you typically share sleeping quarters, or at least share the bathroom.

I don't really know the state of hostels in the US; I haven't kept up. In some instances they wouldn't make sense. With the main means of transportation being driving, something like Motel 6 easily takes on a similar role at what could be a similar cost or not too much more (with the added benefit of a private room and bath). Cities might still have use for a hostel at times. The other place would would be somewhere where people are regularly stopping without traveling by car. Along the Appalachian Trail, for instance, there are some hostels and similar lodgings that cater to the hikers.

Pittsburgh getting a ton of utilization at a hostel might be a stretch. Sounds like this was pretty well covered above. It would have to be pretty small, and somehow set up really inexpensively to be able to cover its costs with the rates these typically command. And it has to be in a spot well-accessible by public transit. It's necessarily not going to be something that works in the most popular or even most up and coming neighborhoods at this point.

[chielgirl]

Pittsburgh had an AYH hostel but it had a bad location. With our lack of good public transport, it failed.

If you're traveling to an area without a hostel, might I suggest that you check out couchsurfing.
It's a viable alternative.