It makes me sad too. I used hostels loads in the 80s and then when I had younger kids. They were good because they were there to support the sort of journeys and stuff I was doing. They weren’t all posh like hotels and b&bs where you kind of had to be clean, you could dry stuff, cook, hang out in the evening and meet nice people.
But for me they worked best when they were well spaced out along routes you wanted to take, had beds when you needed them (weren’t always booked up) and preferably when you just turned up. The simple ones were the best.
I feel that they started to lose their purpose when most of the visitors were car based and using the hostels as a single centre base; like a cheap hotel, so it was hard to book and you couldn’t just turn up. I guess it was inevitable given the change in people’s habits and demands. If they were still like they used to be I’d use them more now, but it all seems more complicated than it used to. I think I have replaced them by camping more.
