Guesthouse vs Hostel
Accommodation is a big problem for travelers, students, tourists, and businessmen when they are in a foreign city or a different city than their own in their country. There are many different kinds of accommodation facilities known by different names such as hotel, guest house, hostel, B&B, and so on. In this article, we will discuss two of those; guest house and hostel, which are confusing because of their similarities. However, there are many differences between these two accommodation facilities depending upon which part of the world you are in. Let us take a closer look.
Guesthouse
A guesthouse or a guest house as it is spelled in some places is a lodging facility that provides a place to stay at night to tourists and travelers. As the name implies, it is a house for the guests and in earlier times, out house built outside the main house was referred to as a guest house. In some countries, a guest house provides mere accommodation facility while, in other places, food and lodging are both included in the facilities provided to the guests. In any case, guest houses are cheaper than hotels in all parts of the world. A guest house looks like a private home in many countries with separate rooms that are provided to visitors on a daily rent basis.
A guest house is a business facility meant to earn money in exchange for providing accommodation to visitors. In sharp contrast to hotels, guests do not have the facility of room service or any other staff inside guest houses though there is privacy in terms of separate rooms.
Hostel
A hostel is a building that is used to provide accommodation facilities to visitors. Hostels contain many rooms that contain several beds to provide sleeping facilities to several people. Generally hostels have common bathrooms in a floor, and some hostels also have kitchen facilities to provide food to the inmates. In many Asian countries, hostels are meant to provide long term accommodation to students, and it is common to see buildings with hostel names inside educational institutions where students coming from faraway places live while they are studying. In the western world, the word hostel refers to a kind of cheap accommodation that provides lodging facilities to students, backpackers, and other travelers who are ready to share the room with each other. In addition to sharing of room, guests have to share bathrooms as well in these hostels.
Guesthouse vs Hostel
• Guesthouses and hostels are similar accommodation facilities for travelers and students who cannot afford high tariffs of hotels.
• Guesthouse provides a separate room to the inmate whereas one may have to share the room with others in a hostel.
• Guest house looks like a private home with many different rooms.
• Hostels are cheap accommodation for longer duration with students living in these facilities for the duration of their courses in colleges and universities.
• For more privacy and comfort, guesthouse is a better option. On the other hand, hostels are cheaper but noisier, and one has to be prepared for least privacy, as well.