Opinion
Who’s the creepy old guy staying in a backpacker hostel? It’s me
Ben Groundwater
Travel writerI used to have a golden rule when staying in hostel dorms: if you can’t figure out who the creepy old guy is, then it’s probably you.
Because there always seemed to be at least one creepy old guy. In retrospect that guy was probably not creepy at all, and definitely not what I would now classify as “old”; but still, if you did a quick scan of the bunk beds you could usually figure out who it was. And, as I moved towards the latter stages of my dorm-staying career, I increasingly had to realise that that person was me.
Some younger travellers apparently have problems sharing hostels with older guests.Credit: iStock
The thing is, there’s nothing inherently wrong with being the token old person in the hostel. As travel prices skyrocket around the world, as does the cost of living at home, these basic, comfortable, sociable accommodation options should most definitely be considered by travellers of all vintages, particularly if you’re happy to come to them with the right attitude.
That, however, doesn’t mean all the young backpackers lolling around the dorm room are going to appreciate your presence.
A few weeks ago I was alerted to a TikTok video (wait, is that right? Are they TikTok videos? Or are they just TikToks? Sigh) of a young Australian woman called Lucy sharing her experiences of staying in hostels while travelling. And, spoiler alert, there’s a certain cohort of fellow guests that has been annoying her.
“Staying in hostels is making me ageist,” Lucy begins. “I’ve been staying in a lot of hostels lately, and I specifically selected female hostels, and the main reason I selected them is other girls were telling me you should always pick the female hostels not just for safety but also for snoring, because women don’t tend to snore as much as men do. (Watch it below)
“And while women may not snore as much in general, I’ll tell you who does snore: old women. And it’s getting to the point where I’ll see an old woman walking into my dorm room, and I’ll think, oh my God, why are you here? They do all seem to snore, which is interesting – but they’re also just so disrespectful of other people in the dorm.”
The video goes on with a litany of complaints. And on (the comments are also brutal). There’s a lot to unpack, though obviously one of the most horrifying things for people like me to consider is: just how old are these “old women” she’s talking about?
Are they 80? Or 70? That seems highly unlikely. What’s far more probable is that they’re 50, or 40, or oh-my-God maybe they’re even 30.
I should admit to you right now that I’m not actually on TikTok, which should be the first indication that I’m one of the old people Lucy is talking about.
As if it wasn’t already obvious that I would be the creepy old guy in the dorm room to her. I would be the annoying one. I don’t snore all the time, but I definitely snore sometimes. I would be the one whose presence all the hip young things in the other bunks would be chafing against. Urgh, who’s the daggy bald guy killing our buzz?
This video, I think, taps into the principal fear that many older travellers have when it comes to staying in a hostel. You might fancy the social nature of this style of travel. You might be more than happy to rough it in no-frills accommodation with shared facilities in the same way you used to. You might like the idea of sipping cheap beers at the on-site bar with a bunch of people from around the world.
But what if all those people secretly hate you?
I’ve said before that there’s no need to worry about this sort of stuff. Plenty of older travellers stay in hostels now, particularly those hostels that are a little more expensive, and tend to focus on the “flashpacker” crowd. And anyway, most of the kids don’t even travel with backpacks these days – there are no cultural reasons why you shouldn’t fit in just fine.
You also never know who you will be sharing a room with, which is both the great and scary thing about hostel life. You walk into a dorm and you don’t know anyone’s age, their nationalities, their hygiene habits, their sleep schedules, their political leanings, their relationship with drugs and alcohol (though you’ll soon find out). All sorts of people from all walks of life are thrown together in these places and just expected to get along.
Some of your fellow travellers’ quirks and peccadillos will begin to bother you after a while, but I don’t think those things are determined by age. I’ve shared dorms with plenty of plastic-bag rustlers and bunk-bed shaggers and midnight chatters and I’ve never identified a particular age range for them.
Maybe the Lucys of the world will have a knee-jerk reaction against you purely because of your age. But I’m also going to go out on a limb here and say that maybe some people in the dorm will also not love the Lucys of the world, the sort of people who need to buy better earplugs and relax a bit.
“I was not built for the hostel life,” Lucy concludes in her video. “It’s tarnishing my view of middle-aged women. I will not be the same person when I return from this holiday.”
Which, you think, may not be so terrible.
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