Flexible Group Accommodations: A Smart Alternative to Hotel Blocks

Table of Contents:
1. Why choose hostels over hotels for groups?
2. Flexible room options for groups
3. Exclusive-use dorms: keep your group together
4. Custom room assignments and gender-specific options
5. Private rooms for group leaders and chaperones
6. Central locations
7. How to contact group sales

Booking accommodation for your group trip can feel like an impossible task: how do you find the best combination of price, location, and amenities? How do you keep everyone in your group happy? How do you figure out who sleeps where? And how do you afford it all if you have a limited budget? Planners often struggle to balance cost, location, and room flexibility — especially when hotel blocks or vacation rentals fall short.

If you’ve never considered hostels as a hotel block alternative before, they can be a great option to solve all these problems and more. Here’s your definitive guide to choosing group accommodations — and why hostels are a flexible alternative to hotel blocks.

Group accommodation options compared: hostels vs. hotels vs. vacation rentals

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but compared to traditional group lodging options like hotel blocks or vacation rentals, hostels can offer many types of groups more flexibility in room types, pricing, and shared amenities.

Hostels offer guest kitchens where groups can cook meals together, flexible room types so no one needs to share a bed, free group luggage storage for early check-ins and free or low-cost storage for late check-outs, and spacious lounges where group members can meet informally or spend time doing their own thing. At many HI USA hostels you can also reserve affordable private meeting spaces for longer or more structured group gatherings. You won’t find any of that at most hotels.

When it comes to vacation home rentals, you’ll want to consider hidden fees, location, and bedroom types. Unlike most vacation rentals, HI USA hostels are centrally located in the heart of the cities where we operate. That means your group, no matter how large or small, will have easy access to cultural attractions, diverse cuisines, and public transportation: no staying at a house 30 minutes outside the city to afford your trip, here.

Outside of our large-city hostels, our smaller properties have one-of-a-kind locations where you may find yourself in historic buildings, steps from beautiful beaches, or surrounded by nature. In other words, the kind of locations you’d pay top dollar for on Airbnb or Vrbo.

And when you book with our group sales staff, the price you’re quoted is the price you’ll pay. HI USA doesn’t charge cleaning fees, hosting platform fees, or other junk fees that you only learn about after you’ve already decided to book. Plus, when you stay at a HI USA hostel you can choose your bed types instead of being stuck with a rental home’s standard offerings.

For many travelers, hostels provide group accommodations that combine the flexibility of vacation rentals with the central locations and support typically associated with hotels.

Flexible Room Types and Booking Support for Group Stays

Hostels’ flexible room types generally make it easy to accommodate groups of different sizes. At HI USA hostels, you can buy out entire dorm rooms to keep all the members of your group together while still giving everyone their own bed and their own space. Larger groups can split their members between multiple dorm rooms according to their own preferences, dividing up occupants by gender or however makes the most sense for their specific group. Meanwhile, group leaders can choose to stay in dorms with their group members, or in their own private rooms for a bit more peace and quiet.

But when you book a group stay at a HI USA hostel, you don’t have to figure any of that out on your own: a member of our group sales staff dedicated to your group will help you find the best combination of the best rooms for your group, no matter what you need. They’ll even work to ensure all your rooms are on the same floor in the same area of the hostel, so you can keep the group together.

Can groups book private dorm rooms at hostels?

Our sales team will ensure your group has exclusive use of the rooms you book, meaning your group members are the only guests in a dorm room. In order to guarantee exclusive use, a dedicated member of HI USA’s group sales staff will work with you to book out all of the beds in one or more dorm rooms. Depending on the size of your group, this may mean you use every single bed in a dorm room, or it may mean booking out a few extras. For example, if you have a group of 9 people, you may need to book out an entire 10-bed dorm in order to guarantee only your group members are in that dorm. But don’t worry: your group sales representative will work with you on getting the best price for the rooms that best fit your needs.

Custom Room Assignments for Group Accommodations

HI USA’s group sales staff can customize your room block according to your group’s needs and preferences. Whether that means having separate rooms for participants of different genders on a school trip, keeping family groups together for large reunions, or making sure friends can stay in the same room when traveling together, we’ve got flexible options. Just let your sales team representative know what your group needs!

Private Rooms for Group Leaders, Chaperones, and Organizers

Leading a group trip can be stressful, so it’s understandable that you might want your own private space at the end of a long day! One of the advantages of staying at a HI USA hostel with your group is that you can book private rooms for group leaders instead of putting them in the same dorm rooms as the rest of the group. Our staff will do their best to assign your private rooms close to the larger group’s dorm rooms, so you can still be there when you’re needed.

Private Room Blocks for Group Accommodations

If you’d prefer a block of private rooms for your group, just let our group sales staff know. Private rooms at different HI USA hostels can accommodate anywhere from one to five people with different options for shared or private ensuite bathrooms, so talk to our staff about what might be the best fit for your group. When you stay in private rooms at HI USA hostels, you still get access to all of the hostel amenities like guest kitchens and lounges.

Just keep in mind that at some HI USA hostels, private room availability can be limited, so it’s best to get in touch with our sales team early.

Book Group Accommodations with HI USA Hostels

When the time comes to secure group travel accommodation, HI USA hostels offer effective and practical solutions for diverse needs — from educational tours and school groups to large family reunions and sports teams, and everything in between. We’ll help you solve the logistical headaches of budgeting and location, while improving your overall trip experience with amenities like shared guest kitchens and communal lounges.

Forget worrying about hidden costs: our transparent pricing and dedicated group sales staff ensure you get the flexibility to reserve anything from private rooms for chaperones to exclusive-use dorms for your entire group, all without surprise cleaning or booking fees. Stop settling for less-than-ideal hotel blocks or remote vacation rentals. Visit our groups page today to customize a seamless, affordable, comfortable stay for your group’s next great adventure.

HI USA offers group accommodations in major U.S. cities and smaller destination towns, including:

Major Cities

• Group Accommodations in Boston, MA
• Group Accommodations in Chicago, IL
• Group Accommodations in Los Angeles, CA
• Group Accommodations in New Orleans, LA
• Group Accommodations in New York City, NY
• Group Accommodations in Sacramento, CA
• Group Accommodations in San Diego, CA
• Group Accommodations in Downtown San Francisco, CA
• Group Accommodations near Fisherman’s Wharf San Francisco, CA

Smaller Towns

• Group Accommodations in Hyannis, MA
• Group Accommodations in Martha’s Vineyard, MA
• Group Accommodations in Montara, CA
• Group Accommodations in Pescadero, CA
• Group Accommodations in Truro, MA