Eileen Jones
The views expressed in this post are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of all members of the Gritstone co-operative.
The world is a very different place now, than it was two years ago. Who would have thought then that a week’s holiday in the Lake District would cost more than a trip to Italy, for example. That was the finding of a study by the consumer group Which? after accommodation prices soared in “staycation hot-spots” following the global pandemic.
Hotel and guest-house owners justified their increases after losing billions during the 2020 season because of Covid-19. Though it was self-catering and private accommodation providers who saw the greatest increases in both demand and prices this summer, across all of the UK’s holiday areas.
It’s leading to a concerning trend in many regions – notably Cumbria – as homeowners, eager to cash in, are putting their properties to rent on Air B&B, with some flouting the local occupancy rules in doing so. Which means even fewer homes for local people and the local workforce. It’s an issue which has been taken up on parliament by the Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron. Certainly the home-tourism boom looks set to stay until overseas travel is freed from all restrictions.
But there’s another impact which has had far less prominence. Those on limited budgets are being priced out of holidays at all, unable to meet the higher costs of renting a cottage by the sea or in the countryside. And the most affordable holidays of all have simply disappeared, along with any element of spontaneity.
Camping was the easiest and cheapest option for a holiday in the Lakes, in the Dales, in the Peak District. Forecast looking good? Let’s bundle the kids into the car and get away for a weekend. But now, even with the advent of temporary “pop-up” camp-sites in the most popular areas, a holiday under canvas has to be planned months in advance. With no access to the beaches of Spain and Greece, every holidaymaker in Britain was forced to stay at home, many of them camping for the first time. (And if eavesdropped conversations recently are anything to go by, maybe the last!)
We did manage four wet nights on a site in Wales, at “only” four weeks’ notice, after ringing round dozens of places that were fully booked. That’s post-Covid spontaneity for you. The site was adequate, and a modern-day bargain at £16 a night, and it was packed with enormous “jousting” tents which were being pitched straight out of the Amazon packaging, with varying degrees of success. We felt dwarfed in two perfectly functional and adequate tents that didn’t take all afternoon to put up, but we had on-site entertainment, and the rain did stop, one day.
But the saddest loss for lovers of the countryside are the wonderful and basic hostel dormitories which provided more-than-adequate shelter AND companionship for the solo traveller. One of my favourite holidays in recent times was a hostelling trip along the south coast, staying just one night at each location, meeting different people at each place. Wasn’t that why hostels were established in the first place, as refuge on the journey, delightful because of their unpredictability?
Walking in the western fells last weekend we looked down on Black Sail, the most perfectly located hostel of them all, recalling a night when we turned up dripping wet, feasted on Cumberland sausage in the communal dining/sitting/drying room, and slept in bunks alongside other adventurers.
Now Black Sail is available for exclusive hire only, that is, you and your family or other group can book the whole place, but if you’re walking solo on the Coast to Coast path, the door is shut to you now. At the flagship Ambleside YHA, with its public bar and café and smaller dormitories – some even en suite – a solo traveller can have a couple of nights in November for £90, in a private room.
Some independent hostels are trying to find ways of opening up their communal accommodation, and there are still bunkhouses which can be booked cheaply by organised groups. Climbing clubs are opening their huts again to members and guests, with provisos. This is a typical condition:
It is still important that all those who visit a hut take appropriate precautions to minimise the chance of contracting the virus whilst there. I would ask anyone who is not prepared to follow these guidelines not to attend a hut at this time. Whilst following the stated precautions will make the huts as safe as possible it will not eliminate the chance of contracting Covid at one of our huts and anyone who is not comfortable with attending given this risk should not do so.
But one independent hostel owner said they were not offering dorm rooms for the foreseeable future “and research into our peer group for pricing purposes seems to indicate that others aren’t either. We are very keen to keep attracting sole travellers and have just set our single occupancy rate for a twin room in 2022 at 33% off the price for two people. There certainly doesn’t seem any demand to reopen the dorm rooms yet, but we are getting a lot of sole travellers, some are even prepared to pay for large rooms (4-bed) for sole occupancy booked online and without asking any questions.”
What’s YOUR experience? How has the staycation boom affected your visits to the countryside? Have you found accommodation easily? Let us know…
Header image: Hostel at Elterwater © Eileen Jones
