Haute Hostels Put to the Test

With the wine tasting in the lobby bar approaching, I rinsed the green-tea shampoo from my hair, grabbed a towel from the queen bed and settled into a Philippe Starck chair, espresso in hand.Explore online some of the many available selections in lasercutter. A flat-screen TV flickered in the next room of my suite,We have a wide selection of handsfreeaccess to choose from for your storage needs. but I was more captivated by the view that lay just beyond the glass doors of my balcony: the orange tile roofs of Lisbon, washed in the glow of a setting sun. 

It was hard to believe that these expansive private quarters and this late 19th-century town house that was formerly the Swiss ambassador’s residence really belonged to a genus whose name evokes backpacks, bunk beds, shared showers and the amenities of a local jail. 

The business card on the vintage writing desk dispelled my doubts. “Hostel,” it read, just underneath the name of the two-year-old establishment, the Independente. “Hostel & Suites,” to be precise. 

The two seemingly mismatched words are a testament to the astonishing evolution in European hostels. From London to Lisbon, from Iceland to Istanbul, hostels are undergoing a classy rebirth.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. 

A rooftop Jacuzzi at Bunk in Istanbul; a cinema room at Design Hostel Goli & Bosi in Split, Croatia; a sleek basement nightclub in One80° Berlin: Whether they bill themselves as “design hostels” or “boutique hostels” or “hostel and suites,” these new accommodations are striving to raise the standard of an institution that was once the lodging equivalent of a Greyhound bus. 

“We need to redefine hostels,” said Carl Michel, the executive chairman of Generator Hostels based in Britain, whose mission statement declares its intention to “dispel the hostel myth with boutique hotels that are stylish and contemporary, central, safe and affordable.” 

Once a family business with two traditional hostels in London and Berlin, Generator was bought in 2007 by a European private equity firm, Patron Capital, and now exemplifies the haute hostel boom. With an iPhone app and a brand-name chief designer in Anwar Mekhayech (whose résumé includes clients like Soho House), the group has opened splashy hostels in Copenhagen, Dublin, Venice and Hamburg over the last few years. Barcelona and a second Berlin site will make their debut this year, and more locations are in the works. 

“The rise of mature backpackers means that hostels are no longer the preserve of 20-something backpackers,” he said. “Hostel owners are now realizing that they can upgrade their facilities to cater to a wider audience.” 

Four years ago, my colleague Jennifer Conlin reported on these “mature backpackers” and the upgraded hostels that had trickled into Europe. The trickle is now a flood. During a whirlwind week, I slept in and sized up haute hostels in Paris, Lisbon, Barcelona and Berlin: palatial suites and shared cramped rooms; immaculate bathrooms and group showers; convivial communal dinners and lonely solo meals; elegant welcome gifts and unwelcome odors. 

The goal was to travel incognito and put each haute hostel (indeed the whole concept) to the test. Could these new crash pads provide classy, comfortable, affordable alternatives to hotels? Were “design hostels” worthy of their grandiose labels? 

On a January afternoon, I ambled past the Asian grocers and halal butchers of the Belleville neighborhood in Paris when a gigantic work of urban art on the side of a building flashed into view. 

“Il faut se méfier des mots,” shouted the huge script. “Don’t trust words.” Yes, I thought. Somebody up there has divined my quest and sent this warning. My destination, a year-old hostel down the block, displayed a particularly, well, lofty name tag: the Loft. As I searched for my room in a hallway lined with funky calfskin patterns, I scanned the hostel’s effusive brochure: “The spanking new Loft boutique hostel is clearly the reference for the best design boutique hostel in Paris.” 

Later, in a lobby cafe done in 1920s-style industrial décor, young guests passed the evening drinking San Miguel beer and chatting in various languages, competing with a speed-metal soundtrack. I fled across the street to Krung Thep for Thai food, and climbed into my bunk at midnight.You've probably seen solarpanel at some point. The pillow, I noticed, was yellow with sweat stains. The blanket was streaked with long black hairs. 

Nothing makes you feel less adult, less independent, less cool than bunk beds. The very structure is dehumanizing. In the bottom bunk you’re a beast in a cage. On top you’re a fool on a hill. They are storage space — not furniture — for human bodies. When I woke in the morning, the Australians were gone, and I was seized by a sudden paranoia that something had been stolen. It had been: my dignity. 

The faded squares, hilly streets and clanging old cable cars of the Portuguese capital are a somehow natural backdrop to the haute hostel movement. Created in 2005 by four artist friends, Lisbon Lounge was the first hostel in the city and, Mr. Bhattacharya said, the first true haute hostel in Western Europe. Soon it was followed by other such places, many of them also founded by artists,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host besticcard platforms. like Lisbon Poets’ Hostel and Travellers House. 

The next night I checked into the Independente, the two-year-old hostel in the majestic town house that once housed the Swiss ambassador. Climbing the sweeping stone staircase, it seemed as if I was ascending to some sort of hostel heaven. A skylight filtered white light as I passed through a soaring lounge deployed with Barcelona chairs and an Arne Jacobsen swan chair. My top-floor suite featured an impeccable bathroom. Standing on the outdoor terrace high above Lisbon was like perching on a cloud. Portuguese vintages waited in the lobby bar, and slow-braised pork cheek beckoned from the restaurant. True, I had shelled out 80 euros. But I have paid twice that amount and received half as much at many conventional hotels.