There is no universally accepted definition of what a hostel is. Based on the largest ever survey of UK hostels, this report summarises the characteristics of hostels in the United Kingdom.

Findings in Brief

Most hostels in the UK are small with relatively few bed spaces - around a third of projects had 10 bed spaces or fewer.

Residents in hostels were almost universally offered their own private bedroom, and around a quarter also had access to a private kitchen and bathroom.

Four in five of hostels are mixed-gender and three in four accepted residents of any age between 18 and 55.

Women’s only, and young people’s hostels made up a substantial minority and most hostels provide 24 hour staffing, with three in four offering either waking or sleeping night-time cover.

Only 1 in 10 projects had a ratio of more than 10 residents per staff member and three in five of projects use volunteers in some capacity.

The majority of hostels (61%) allow residents to consume alcohol on the premises, but a significant proportion (37%) do not allow consumption of drugs or alcohol. Notably,23% permit consumption of drugs on the premises.

The most frequent length of stay was between one and two years. Longer stays of two to five years were common. Residents often stayed longer than expected given what the hostels were set up to provide.

Most hostels (62%) had more than 30% moving into long-term housing. Only a relatively small group (28% of hostels) had 20% or more of their clients experience negative outcomes such as eviction, or abandoning their accommodation.

Overall, the data suggests a mixed picture where, for many (if not most) residents, a hostel stay is often not the final step on a pathway to settled housing.

Hostels are primarily publicly funded. 86% received funding from Housing Benefit/Universal Credit and 64% received direct funding from local authorities via housing related support funds. Only 38% of projects received funding from charitable sources such as grants (9%) or donations (29%).

The average cost of a hostel bed per year was £27,785, with the majority costing less than £33,000 per year. Smaller hostels cost more per bed space.

Recommendations in Brief

This survey is a first step towards developing a framework for defining what a hostel is. By describing the characteristics of a large sample of hostels in the UK, this offers a base to build a more sophisticated typology. A typology could seek to explore further some of the relationships identified here, including:

- the relationship between bed space cost, size of project, and outcomes. This could also explore how both very small and very large hostels intersect with other categories of accommodation-based services, such as smaller and more intensively staffed supported housing projects.

- the relationship between approaches to move-on (e.g. duration of stay for different cohorts and support services offered), their outcomes, and costs.

- the relationship between varying types of staffing and support to cater to the needs of different populations, their outcomes, and costs. This could also explore how hostels support individuals with specific needs (e.g. learning disabilities),especially considering many hostels offering accommodation do not explicitly target these groups but accept them in practice.