Sleep-inns and Slum Hostels

This is one accommodation option that you may only want to try if everything else is unavailable. Genuine sleep-inns, at least in my experience, open only in the summers, and are mainly there to keep people from sleeping on the streets when the local hostels are overrun (Amsterdam’s “Sleep-Inn” is an exception and is open year-round). They are apdy named, since there is little to do but sleep in one of these places, and a bed is pretty much all they provide. Expect huge, crowded dorms full to the rafters. Imagine two doors, one saying “Beds 1-75″, and the other “Beds 76-150″. That’s when you pray for the ghost of John Wesley Hardin to make an appearance, and with plenty of ammunition.

These places are better than nothing, but are not real hostels - and sometimes they’re not even much of a cost-saver. For example, in Copenhagen, the Amager hostel has only two- and five-bed rooms, and charges 120 crowns (about USD 18) for breakfast and a bed in a five-bed room. It has a kitchen, laundry, playground, TV room, serves a hot dinner, and so on. The City Public Hostel, actually a sleep-inn, has the two dorms just mentioned, and a few smaller rooms, and charges 135 crowns (USD 20), with breakfast. The point is not that sleep-inns are run by bad people; they fill a need as best they can. However, if you end up in one of these places, get out as soon as possible. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all hostels are like this or that once in a place like this, you’re stuck.

The same goes for some of the private “hostels” that appear like mushrooms after rain all over congested summertime Europe -slum hostels, basically. Imagine paying Pound Sterling 20 (about USD 18) to sleep in a basement, with forty other people in one room, on dirty mattresses that are either on the floor or thrown on pallets. I don’t have to imagine, because I’ve done it, and every single one of the other beds was full, so a lot of other people have, too. No facilities whatsoever, just a mattress and a bathroom.

These places are opened up, often temporarily, by greedy people who see a need and want to fill it as cheaply and profitably as possible. Their natural prey are those who wait until they arrive in town to find accommodations, and especially those who arrive late in the day, tired, loaded with stuff, and willing to take anything just to end the housing search and keep from sleeping in the train station that night. As I have said before, if you are going to a major city, especially in July or August, plan ahead, make reservations, and you may avoid having to join them.