Hostels in Russia

The hostel is the optimal type of accommodation abroad not only for young people from different countries but also for the people of different ages and professions who like traveling and do not want to spend too much money for an accommodation. That is why it is not by the chance that hostel accommodation becomes more and more popular in our days, the hostel movement has covered the entire world and currently International Youth Hostel Federation includes around 4.5 thousands of hostels in almost 60 countries. The specific feature of hostels in Russia is that they work together with a travel agency. According to Russian law a hostel could not be considered as a separate legal entity. Usually Russian hostels are founded by a travel agency and work on the base of the travel license. Besides the accommodation in Russian hostels you could get a wide range of different travel services such as visa support, organization of tours, sale of tickets for planes and trains, and developing of special tours all over Russia. Generally such hostels are created on the base of another already existing accommodation (usually a dormitory) occupying one or several floors. For hostel clients a travel agency fixes its own accommodation service, kitchen, common lounge, provides with such services as Internet access and interpreter assistance. For example, travel agency “Baikaler” in Irkutsk city offers its own mini-hostel on the lake Baikal with maximum capacity of 7 beds. Within the year the number of beds is planed to be increased till 15. Another popular system of work in Russia is the promotion of the budget hotels and dormitories in the international market under the title of hostel. In this case hosting establishments act in their own name and the accommodation there compares favorably with the accommodation in other hotels only by the price. The first Russian Hostel was opened in 1992 in St. Petersburg. Russian Youth Hostel Assosiation (RYHA) was founded one year later. Currently it unites hostels in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Irkutsk and Petrozavodsk. The hostel movement is developing more rapidly in the two capitals – Moscow and St. Petersburg (they say that St. Petersburg is a second cultural capital of Russia). In St. Petersburg now there are seven establishments: Metro-Tour, Antonio House, Griboedova 71, Zimmer Ertel, Cuba Hostel, Sleep Cheap and Nord Hostel. In Moscow the first hostel appeared in 1993. In other Russian cities the development of new hostels is baulked by the low tourists’ flow. On average the period of stay in Russian hostels is 1-2 nights. For St. Petersburg this number is a little higher (2-3 nights). The first priority for Russian hostels is the foreign guests. In general they take around 60-90% of the accommodation in a hostel. The remaining percentage is Russian clients mainly presented by the school and university groups. In order to attract additional tourists in Russia RYHA is developing a program “Hostel Baltic Triangle”. This project aims to unite budget establishment in St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Helsinki. The Tourists will be able to have a complex visiting program of three countries. In the futures national hostel associations of Germany, Latvia and Lithuania are planning to join the project.