Scottish Youth Hostels Association

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The Scottish Youth Hostels Association (SYHA), founded in 1931, is part of Hostelling International and provides over 70 youth hostels in Scotland. It claims over 30,000 current members, and is used by many visitors from outwith Scotland.

Accommodation is generally dormitory-style, with common bathrooms and a kitchen for self-catering. Some of the hostels provide meals for extra charge. Most maintain a 'free food shelf', where food left by guests who were moving on and didn't want to carry it with them is available for general consumption. Many hostels will also have a lounge or sitting room of some variety, often provided with a selection of books of various qualities.

Over 70 Scottish Hostels are currently available, varying from modern purpose-built premises to historic buildings and country cottages, sited in major towns and cities as well as in rural locations, including remote islands. The atmosphere varies greatly from one hostel to another, affected as it is by variables including the locations (from the Highlands and Islands to the bustle of Edinburgh), and the personality of the current warden.

The SYHA is run as a self-governing voluntary organisation, and as a not-for-profit business invests any surplus back into the organisation, both to develop the network and to improve older hostels. Changing demands and limited resources have led to the closure in the last few decades of many smaller hostels which had been failing to attract many visitors, and hostels nowadays provide facilities undreamt of in the more spartan days of half a century ago. Both points as well as the cost of accommodation have often proved controversial, but for many the hostels continue to do a good job of providing reasonably priced facilities with the bonus of the opportunity to socialise with other hostellers.

It has been claimed that it has left its roots as a working class movement to "provide accommodation to people of limited means" behind, and become too expensive. The SYHA's defenders, including Allan Wilson MSP, point out that hostellers today require higher levels of comfort than when the hostelling movement began ^[1].

The principal objective of the Association is: 'To help all, but especially young people, to experience and appreciate the Scottish countryside and places of historic and cultural interest in Scotland, and to promote their health, recreation and education, particularly by providing low cost accommodation for them on their travels.