I have not been to the countries you cited, but I have stayed at hostels in Iceland, Canada and USA. Stayed at some hostels that were not affiliated with HI, but most of the ones I stayed at were with HI.

Given a choice of a motel or an HI Hostel, I will take the HI Hostel.

Other hostels that are not affiliated with HI, I would have to think about which I would prefer for that occasion, the hostel or a motel.

There are no firm criteria for all HI Hostels.

• The ones in Iceland, you got a discount if you brought your own bedding, but all the others I stayed at did not allow you to use your own bedding.
• Some had a free breakfast of cold cereal, some did not. But all had a kitchen where you could do your own cooking with their equipment, you are expected to clean up after yourself.
• Most expect you to store your food in the kitchen area, not where you sleep.
• Some had bicycle storage, some did not. Bring a good lock. One I stayed at had bike storage indoors in a room that you had to get a room key from the staff, that was quite safe.
• Some larger ones had self serve laundry facilities, commonly coin op machines.
• Shared bathrooms and shower facilities, varying amount of privacy.
• Some had lockers (bring your own padlock) and some did not. I prefer combination locks so I do not worry about key loss. My lock(s) is marked with a unique color so that on a wall of lockers, I can easily spot my padlock(s)
• Larger Hostels were staffed 24 hours, smaller ones might be closed for much of the daytime.
• Some allowed alcohol, some firmly prohibited it.
• Some larger hostels have luggage storage where you can store some luggage. Twice I have done that, once in Iceland where I stored luggage in Reykjavik for a month while I did my tour, but on that trip others at the Hostel had access to the storage so it was not secured. And one trip in Canada where I stored luggage for five weeks while I did my tour, that time the Hostel staff were the only ones that had access to luggage storage. There may or may not have a fee for longer term storage. But do not expect that all hostels have luggage storage.

The thing I like about the hostels, especially if traveling alone is that you could be as social as you wanted, you might go out for meals or an evening with people you never met, or you can stay alone if you so choose. When on a solo bike tour, I liked the ability to spend time meeting other travelers. On one trip, I started my bike tour at a hostel, met a gal there that was starting her bike tour on the same day, we had different destinations but we traveled together for a day and a half before our itineraries diverged. That sort of social behavior is unlikely at a motel.

Some of the hostels fill up. As a rule of thumb, if I knew in advance I wanted to stay at a particular hostel, I made reservations a few days in advance.

If you plan to stay at any HI Hostels, you might want to get a membership several weeks before your trip. Many HI Hostels offer a discount to a member and if making reservations, it is helpful to be a member.

Some on this forum have had bad experiences at hostels, but quite frankly I have had bad experiences in most categories of travel, I do not blame or avoid any particular class of services based on a single or a few bad experiences, I learn from them on how I might avoid a bad experience later.

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