About the organisation

Goals and means
A hostel offers good quality overnight accommodation that also meets the needs of guests for unconstrained, cosy social time together, experiences and activities (outdoor life, culture and sport) and, most important of all, a good night’s sleep. The modern hostel also provides a setting for meetings and courses – at a reasonable price.

The hostels on this website are all members of the Danhostel chain. Behind this chain is an organisation that works tirelessly on the maintenance and development of the hostels. Today, the hostels are either privately or publicly owned – either by the local authority or as independent institutions. The number of private hostels is on the increase.

The board of the Danhostel chain is responsible for the policies of chain operations and consists of representatives from hostel hosts, hostel owners and hostel users – 9 members in total. Originally, Danhostel Danmarks Vandrerhjem was organised as a standard association, but as the hostels have become an ever greater part of Danish tourism, the demand for a professional and commercial operation has increased. The association receives no public funding, but is financed entirely by the chain’s hostels, via membership fees.

Turnover at the hostels is high and, with the exception of hotel guests, there are no tourists with as high a daily consumption as hostel guests. A special area of activity is conferences and courses that typically take place during the winter months. An increasing number of hostels are now used for meetings and courses, and this is proving very successful, especially with regard to catering.

The Danhostel chain is a voluntary chain and the amount of impact it can have is dependent upon a united approach among the hostels. Accordingly, the main task of the board is product development and marketing, to ensure consistently high quality throughout the chain, without impinging on the individual character of the hostels. The Danhostel hostels are therefore under constant development in accordance with our guests’ expectations.