A quick note about hostels

I have to admit - for a person maintaining a travel blog, I've stayed in frighteningly few hostels. I've been able to save money for the most part by living with friends in other countries, Couchsurfing-style; and as a result I have had the good fortune to be able to experience a country a lot more locally than the average traveller.

That being said, in the times that I have stayed at a hostel, there are a few things I'd like to note.

#1 Privacy.

Cultural differences, perhaps - but why on earth do some people (men) enjoy walking around in nothing but their underwear?! I've seen all sorts in mixed forms - red skintight boxer briefs being perhaps one of the most painful. It bewilders me why, when staying in a room with other people in them, people don't change in the privacy of a bathroom where there aren't nine other pairs of eyes looking at you.

I admit that it's probably my fault for choosing to stay in mixed gender dorms, but these can be £5 cheaper than female-only dorms - and when you're on a budget trip, that's a BIG difference to be paying every night. Men - I'd like to see you with your pants on, thank you very much, unless you've been trying to show off the size of your junk in which case you might have to try a little harder.

#2 Bathrooms.

Every hostel should have an adequate number of toilets and bathrooms. This goes without saying. When I was in Slovenia, there were 6 rooms in my hostel, sleeping 20 persons, and precisely one bathroom. Yup, you heard me right. 20 people and one bathroom. It was awful every time someone wanted to have a shower, because we'd have to check to make sure that there wasn't someone in there.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the shower would regularly flood during a bath, and then take something like 10 minutes for the water to subside - extremely gross to stand in, as you can probably imagine. I don't doubt that this must in part be due to overuse and choking pipes. Having its only shower to not drain properly is a horrible thing for a hostel to be guilty of.

I don't know if there's any sort of optimal ratio of guests-to-bathrooms, but I think a 20-person facility needs at least 3 bathrooms. Of course, not everyone's going to use the bathroom at the same time - but if you're in need of them, at least there'll probably be at least one empty for you.

#3 Kitchens.

Hostels cater to budget travellers, who oftentimes don't have the money to eat out at every meal. Wherever you go, cooking is almost always cheaper than eating out, even if you only eat at cheap cafés. Budget travellers appreciate kitchen facilities and a nearby supermarket, because this can mean the difference between €7 and €2 a meal.

The kitchen is also a great way to meet other people staying at your hostel, which is a great part of the hostel experience. After all, hostels aren't only about cheap accommodation - people like getting to meet other travellers, and there's no better way to meet others than over a good dinner.

#4 Wifi.

The world is connected by the internet, and to be perfectly honest, being away from the internet for more than 24 hours at a time makes me very, very jittery. I have internet separation anxiety. I am addicted to it, for better or for worse. I don't check Facebook at the dinner-table, but I do tweet fairly frequently and am guilty of sneaking a peak at Facebook in the middle of class - often more than once.

But whether or not you're addicted to the internet, it is necessary for life in the modern world. And it's hella useful when you're travelling, too - keeping all your references and booking numbers neatly stored, a checklist of all the places you want to go, and most of all the miracle that is Google Maps.

Well I suppose you could just buy a map and compass, but I like the portability (and, dare I say, the more environmentally-friendly nature? After all, I'd probably toss the map after I leave the city) of Google Maps. I like checking the map of a place, capturing a screenshot, and then referring to that throughout the rest of my wifi-less day.

Wifi in hostels should be free, strong, and available in every room. This detail will not go unnoticed.

It's also nice for people from home to be able to keep track of where you are.

#5 Power sockets.

We live on phones and computers, both of which have a very limited battery supply. See above for reasons why we need access to fully functioning phones and computers.

In full groups of 8 or 10, having three or four randomly scattered power sockets just isn't going to cut it for a whole room of power-hungry people. At least one or two power sockets per person would be ideal, especially since these babies take a few hours at a time to charge. If this isn't

#6 Laundry.

When you're travelling for long periods of time, you'll probably want laundry facilities so that you can wash your clothes when you run out rather than bring a whole tonne of them with you. No laundry means stinky clothes, and stinky clothes means stinky people. And we really, really don't like turning into stinky people. (Really.)

It would also be nice if these laundry machines were priced at, let's say, €2 or €3 a wash? One of the hostels I stayed at priced their laundry wash 'n' dry at a cool €10. Not happening, momma. Not happening. I expected hostel laundry machines to be priced a bit higher than average for the convenience factor, but €10 was way pushing how much I expected to pay for my bag of laundry.

What are the things you look out for when you stay in hostels?