hostelz

I don't know if I'm qualified to answer questions about Predator. I will, however, discuss Rampart.

Well, there are party hostels where it seems like everyone is 18-22 years old and you might feel a little out of place at that kind of hostel.

So it's all about finding the right kind of hostel. You can usually get a pretty good idea what the hostel is like from the photos and reviews (on Hostelz.com you can also click the "suitable for" menu button on the city pages, and choose "quiet rest" as one option to look for). It's getting to be that more and more older travelers are staying in hostels, and 40 is about the average age at some kinds of hostels. Hostelling International (a non-profit hostel group) hostels in particular tend to attract older travellers, including everyone from families with kids to the elderly.

By the way, if you're only goal is saving money, when you're a couple hostels are often cheaper than hotels, but not always. In some countries and some cities you can get a decent cheap hotel room for almost the same as you would pay for two dorm beds in a hostel. Most if you like the idea of interacting with other people, most people prefer hostels because of the social atmosphere and the interactions you can have with people from lots of different countries. I will say that when you're a couple, it is also nice to have a private room just to yourselves now and then.

As far as your items, nearly all hostels have somewhere safe for you to store your valuables. It's getting to be very common for most hostels to have lockers where you can often fit your whole backpack in the locker and lock it. At worst, some hostels just offer to hold your valuables in a safe or secure place at the reception desk. That's not as convenient, but at least your stuff will be safe.

It's amazing how many people leave their laptops and valuables just sitting in a dorm room while they're out for the day, and theft isn't super common in hostels, so usually their stuff doesn't get stolen. But it's always best to put your valuables somewhere secure.

As far as personal safety, there are tons of young solo female travelers who stay in hostels. In most hostels you'll usually feel more secure than staying at a hotel because you're always surrounded by not just the staff and security, but also other travelers who are typically the kind of people who look out for each other. I usually feel less safe if I'm in a cheap hotel in a foreign country just alone in a room with soundproof walls than I do if I'm staying in a hostel dorm room with a bunch of friendly people from various places. Of course, if you ever don't feel right about the situation you should ask to move to a different room. And hostels do also usually offer private rooms.

You ask such good questions! I'm not sure if you really want to know the answer to every one of the sample questions from my post, but I will answer the first one at least.

These are the average prices in USD$ for one dorm bed for one night based on price data of hostels in Paris from the past 12 months:

• January $24.82
• February $25.27
• March $26.85
• April $27.41
• May $27.28
• June $26.74
• July $27.49
• August $27.64
• September $26.91
• October $26.61
• November $25.64
• December $26.04

So January is the cheapest, with November being a close second place. So, go now!

Ok, here's a completely different kind of creepy. A while back I was travelling to Portland, Oregon and decided to stay at the McMenamins Edgefield since they offer dorm beds and I wanted to try something different than the other hostels that I had already stayed at. So it's located far from the city center, pretty much in the middle of a rural area, and I ended up in a big dorm room with probably 16 beds in it... and no one else was staying there, I was completely alone. Now what really made it creepy is the building is an old, old building that was once a jail and hospital (a mental hospital is what I was told) and the receptionist mentioned something about it being haunted when I asked about the place. The walls are all covered with creepy art like this. So it was just a big empty dark room, with creepy paintings staring at me, and apparently not another living person staying on the whole floor as far as I could tell. It definitely wasn't the hostel experience I was used to. I guess the only danger was in my mind, but I was happy to switch to a different place in the central part of the city the next morning.

Edit: I also found this just now when I was Googling it: http://www.advocate-online.net/lifestyle/the-spooky-side-of-mcmenamins-edgefield-2255/