“Hoscar” awards honor world’s best hostels

Award season is here! While Hollywood is honoring people who spend enough money partying one glamorous night away for the average vagabonder to travel for a decade, the independent travel community is handing out some awards of its own.

In addition to the Travvies, the travel community recently honored the world’s best hostels with the “Hoscars.”

Hostelworld announced the Hoscars winners at a professional hosteller conference in Dublin. Hostelworld compiled reviews of the 12,000 properties listed on their site from over 500,000 customers and rated hostels around the world (in security, character, cleanliness, fun, staff, and location) bestowing “Hoscars” on the world’s best hostels.

Jetpak City Hostel in Berlin, Germany, took top honors as the world’s best hostel, also winning two other award categories: Cleanest Hostel and Best Staff.

The first and second overall runners-up were Hostel of the Sun in Naples, Italy, and La Chimba Hostel in Santiago, Chile, respectively.

The Hoscars were part of the third annual Hostel Conference sponsored by Hostelworld, attended by over 300 hostel managers and owners from around the world. This year’s theme was “Travel 2.0 in the Hostelling World”, focusing on the impact that technology is having on the tech-savvy travelers of today.

Ironically, the conference honoring the world’s best hostels was held at Dublin’s Hilton Hotel.