Hostelworld Press Room

• Hostelworld.com announces Top Hostels worldwide

  January 26, 2010

  Lisbon's Travellers House collects the award for World's Best Hostel for 2nd year running

  Hostel owners and managers from around the world flocked to Dublin last night to attend the most eagerly anticipated event in the budget accommodation industry calendar. The 8th annual Hoscar (HOStelworld Customer Annual Ratings) awards ceremony took place to recognize the best hostels in the world, voted for by 1 million Hostelworld.com customers in 2009.

  The Portuguese city of Lisbon proved to yet again be the jewel in the crown for budget conscious travellers across the world when it claimed an astonishing 5 of the top 10 spots. For the second year running Lisbon's Travellers House Hostel received the top honour when it was announced as the best hostel in the world. Rossio Hostel and Lisbon Lounge hostel gave the popular backpacking destination an impressive one, two, three. Also featuring in the top ten were hostels from Florence, Budapest, Krakow, Riga and Cardiff. (A full list of all winners can be found below).

  Over 23,000 properties from across the globe featured on Hostelworld.com were eligible for the awards. The winning hostels were voted for by those who matter the most: the Hostelworld.com customers who booked their accommodation online and rated and reviewed the hostels after their stay in 2009 based on six criteria - character, security, location, staff, fun and cleanliness.

  Joao Pires, the manager at Traveller's House Hostel in Lisbon said: "We are very proud to win the top hostel in the world for 2 years in a row - proud for our hostel, proud for our team and proud for the city and all the Portuguese people. It's an honour to be recognized in this way."

  He continued "We work in a very passionate environment. The people who work in our hostel get great enjoyment out of hosting guests and showing them the best our city has to offer. We always try to accommodate people the best we can".

  Alongside the top 10 hostels in the world, Hoscars were awarded for the top 3 hostels on each continent and categories including 'Best location', 'Most fun' and 'Most improved'.

  Hostelworld.com's VP of Accommodation Relations Carmel Dunne commented "The Hoscar awards are extremely important to both hostels around the world and their customers. They are based on user ratings and reviews, a key reason why customers book with us. No other hostel booking site offers the depth and breadth of hostels available to book on www.hostelworld.com or the volume of reviews, made directly by Hostelworld.com customers following their stay. Congratulations to all this years winners".

  The Hoscars took place in conjunction with Hostelworld.com's 6th annual Hostel Conference and was attended by over 400 hostel owners, managers and industry professionals from around the world. This year's conference took a look at the future of travel and what changes are driving the travel industry, in particular social media and mobile marketing. Industry leaders looked at how the 4 billion mobile handsets in use across the world are now an integral tool for the travel marketplace and the effect this will have on the budget travel sector.

  Top 10 Worldwide Hostels
  1. Travellers House, Lisbon, Portugal
  2. Rossio Hostel, Lisbon, Portugal
  3. Living Lounge Hostel, Lisbon, Portugal
  4. Academy Hostel, Florence, Italy
  5. Carpe Noctem, Budapest, Hungary
  6. The Riverhouse Backpackers, Cardiff, Wales
  7. Lisbon Lounge Hostel, Lisbon, Portugal
  8. Greg & Tom Hostel, Krakow, Poland
  9. The Naughty Squirrel Backpackers Hostel, Riga, Latvia
  10. Lisboa Central Hostel, Lisbon, Portugal

  Top Hostels by Continent:

  North America:
  1. ACBB Hostel Niagara, Niagara Falls, Canada
  2. USA Hostels San Diego, San Diego, USA
  3. Clarence Castle, Toronto, Canada

  Latin America:
  1. Hostel Lao, Mendoza, Argentina
  2. American del Sur Hostel Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  3. Hostel Estoril, Buenos Aires, Argentina

  Asia:
  1. Sitting on the City Walls Courtyard Hostel, Beijing, China
  2. Chinese Box Courtyard Hostel, Beijing, China
  3. Nagasaki International Youth Hostel AKARI, Nagasaki, Japan

  Oceania:
  1. Jailhouse Accommodation, Christchurch, New Zealand
  2. Sydney Central YHA, Sydney, Australia
  3. Backpack Oz, Adelaide, Australia

  Africa:
  1. Dahab Dorms, Dahab, Egypt
  2. Riad Massine II, Marrakech, Morocco
  3. The Backpack & Africa Travel Centre, Cape Town, South Africa

  Eastern Europe:
  1. Carpe Noctem, Budapest, Hungary
  2. Greg & Tom Hostel, Krakow, Poland
  3. The Naughty Squirrel Backpackers Hostel, Riga, Latvia

  Special Categories:
  • Cleanest Hostel: Academy Hostel, Florence, Italy
  • Best Staff: Riverhouse Backpackers, Cardiff, Wales
  • Most Secure: Travellers House, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Best Location: Academy Hostel, Florence, Italy
  • Best Character: Living Lounge Hostel, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Most Fun: Carpe Noctem, Budapest, Hungary
  • Most Improved: The South Beach Hostel, Miami, USA

  Best Large Hostel (min 500 beds):
  1. HI Chicago, Chicago, USA
  2. Wake Up! Sydney Central, Australia
  3. SmartCityHostels Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland

  Best Small Hostel (min 50 beds):
  1. Hostel Majdas, Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina
  2. Rossio Hostel, Lisbon, Portugal
  3. Giovanni's Home, Naples, Italy

  Best Hostel Chain:
  1. Wombats
  2. HI USA
  3. Astor Hostels

  Top Tour Company:
  Allens Tours, Belfast, Northern Ireland

  Best Tour:
  Wild Wicklow Tour, Wicklow Ireland

  About Hostelworld.com
  The global market leader for 10 years, Hostelworld.com is the leading provider of online reservations to the budget, independent and youth travel market. It offers confirmed online reservations for over 23,000 hostels and budget hotels in 186 countries worldwide. The site also offers budget travelers over 2.7 million user reviews, free travel videos, podcasts, customized city guides, a travel social network and more. Hostelworld.com is headquartered in Dublin and is fully owned and operated by Web Reservations International Ltd (WRI)
  www.hostelworld.com/press

  For more information please contact Aisling White on aisling@hostelworld.com

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