Pittsburgh needs a Hostel (Indiana, Green Tree: hotel, income, restaurants)

[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.

[MathmanMathman]

I don't now if this KDKA report was noted but

New Hostel To Open Up On South Side « CBS Pittsburgh

The new Hostel looks promising. It looks similar to the Green Tortoise hostel in Seattle as it is above street level retail. A lot of those old buildings have unused space above them. And Hostelling International is interested.

HI Hostels

You can see that a real hostel is more than a cheap hotel. It's not really necessary to be associated with HI but an association with it will direct more lodgers to it as budget travelers will look to HI first for hostel locations. Green Tortoise is not associated with HI but I'd hope the Pittsburgh Hostel would be something like it and its cousin in San Francisco.

Seattle Hostel - Green Tortoise

I just hope that the Pittsburgh community sees it as a cultural asset rather than a business which means that regular donations and sponsorships will come in to keep it going. It's more than just a bed. It's a place for young budget travelers to stay and meet other travelers, and the good hostels will engage with its guests to help show them the town such as pub crawls and sampling foods around town. It's an entirely different experience than staying in a hotel/motel.

And whatever you do, don't let social services use it as a convenient halfway house for troubled youth.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by Rodeno

Pretty much every city in the USA that sees a significant amount of tourists offer hostels. Are Pittsburghers anti European? For a city that has a very European vibe to it (neighborhood setup) you wouldn't think this.

That's really not true, I was looking at the Hostelling Int'l website.

American Youth Hostels – Travel USA in USA Hostels with Cheap Lodging - HIUSA


No hostels along the Atlantic or Gulf Coasts south of NY, none in Florida, none in Vegas, Reno, New Orleans, Nashville, Branson or a lot of other places that enjoy a lot of tourist traffic.

[PIT2MAD]

Is Pittsburgh still really without a hostel?

I think this says it all:

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

I think what is different about the U.S., is that you have so few backpacker types going through the U.S. We just don't have the infrastructure - amtrack trains and greyhounds are pretty weak, and their stations are usually in scuzzy uninteresting areas. Plus things are so car dependent...that I think most backpackers bypass us.

More important than lack of rail infrastructure (the US is so vast) but the advent of low cost airlines in Europe like Ryan Air which provide so many flights for as low as 10-20 Euros one way. The US can't compete with that.

Many of the major urban destinations sought out by tourists from overseas also happen to have great subway/passenger rail networks that facilitate moving around without a car, as backpackers overwhelmingly are. I have never met a tourist who goes to NY or Chicago for the first time and takes a bus everywhere he goes. Much more daunting the first time in a new system.

In closing, I have no idea if Pittsburgh could support a hostel but it'd be cool if someone tried in the East End somewhere.

[punctus_contra_punctum]

Yes, Pittsburgh is still without a hostel (other than 'Not another Hostel"), and it remains to be seen if Pittsburgh could support one. The East End and Southside would seem to be the two most rational places to place one, so let's hope the one planned for above the Beehive can get finished.

The story behind the old hostels is rather unfortunate. The Pittsburgh chapter of American Youth Hostels (the old name for Hostelling International) was started way back in 1955. Unlike most hostelling groups, the Pittsburgh group was much more outdoors-focused, which explains the hostel down in Ohiopyle. Hiking, climbing, kayaking, x-c skiing, canoeing, caving -- AYH led trips in all of these activities, long before they became as popular as they are now. At least in later years, weekly meetings were held in an outbuilding at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, which was also used for storing equipment.

The activities were quite inexpensive, but because everyone running things was a volunteer, pretty much the only expenses were for gear, mailings and for the Ohiopyle hostel. That hostel pretty much always lost money, but it was cheap to run and in a good location for outdoor activities, so the group was willing to subsidize the facility. Activity fees, combined with membership dues and the sales of outdoor guidebooks allowed the group to buildup a fair bit of money over the decades.

In the early to mid 1990s, a new board was installed, and (for reasons I will not go into here) made a strategic decision to operate more like a 'traditional' hostelling group, with a big hostel somewhere in the city. They tried to get the city firehouse on the Boulevard of the Allies, but that fell through, and they ended up with the building in Allentown, which opened in 1997. It bled money, and the travel falloff caused by 9/11 killed it. Enough money was lost so that the entire group went under.

Much of the outdoors stuff survived -- Venture Outdoors has taken up much of it, and the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh as well, and the books are now published by the Allegheny Chapter of the Sierra Club.

There is still the remnants of the web site: Hostelling International - Pittsburgh Council AYH
which is updated once or twice a year, but nothing really new there. It was a very unfortunate situation, and I'm sure it is not helping the new facility getting started.

[ny789987]

Whenever I am on Amtrak, I see European and Asian backpackers all the time. If the location was within walking distance of the train station and Greyhound, I think it could do quite well. Opening a hostel in Allentown was a bad idea. High crime neighborhood in an inconvenient location.

[onwardandupward]

Honestly, with Airbnb so easily available I'm not sure we even need a hostel.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by ny789987

Whenever I am on Amtrak, I see European and Asian backpackers all the time. If the location was within walking distance of the train station and Greyhound, I think it could do quite well. Opening a hostel in Allentown was a bad idea. High crime neighborhood in an inconvenient location.

If these European and Asian backpackers can't afford to stay in a hotel, why spend a lot of money to attract them here?

Pittsburgh needs visitors with discretionary cash to spend.


When I was driving a cab 20 years ago, I saw a lot more action with conventioneers going places when we had 1000 physicists or eye doctors, than we did with 20,000 Baptist ministers. The ministers just didn't want to go to expensive restaurants or gentlemens clubs like the more affluent visitors that we need to attract.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

If these European and Asian backpackers can't afford to stay in a hotel, why spend a lot of money to attract them here?

Let them stay at the City Vista.