Hostelquality: A methodology for assessing the quality of hostels.

This article focuses on the development and application of HOSTELQUALITY, a new methodology designed specifically to evaluate the quality of hostels, addressing the inadequacy of conventional hotel metrics for this sector. HOSTELQUALITY comprises 29 questions across ten dimensions—environment, leadership, security, cleanliness, location, social atmosphere, equipment, staff, price, and customers—and provides a five-level classification from Deficient to Excellent, along with graphical radar outputs. Applied to ten hostels in three Brazilian tourist cities, the method revealed that half of the hostels achieved a good rating, none reached excellence, and common weaknesses included staff training and environmental practices. The study suggests HOSTELQUALITY can aid hostel managers, travelers, institutions, and governments by offering a consistent, interpretable quality assessment tool, while noting limitations such as sample size and reliance on single respondents. Future research is encouraged to refine the methodology by exploring dimension correlations, incorporating behavioral and cultural variables, and integrating artificial intelligence for enhanced evaluation.