Let's pretend I would like to never camp in Spain, France, Germany, and the Benelux Nations. I think that theoretically, it is possible. But I'm wondering if there is some hidden problem other than sticking to an onerous, rigid schedule. I'm thinking about a whole month! I have only hosteled three nights in Scotland, it was secure and very enjoyable, there was always a dedicated locked space for bikes. But I know this is not always the case. I did have my credit card info stolen at one Scottish hostel, though, and I have had three bikes stolen over my many years of riding. Spain is really just a faint possibility. Not being able to camp might be just as pernicious as always camping! In my mind I am headed mainly to the countryside, with only a very few cities. I would love to hear your real-world experiences.

Spain, at least in the south, had plenty of indoor accommodations, even in small towns, though not traditional “hostels”, although some were called “hostals”. Good guide books will list them.

If you want to go REAL rural without civilisation skip Germany and the other north countries. Spain is the place, also the climate here is better, you could include Portugal.
Wild camping is forbidden here in Spain, you will find camp spots everywhere, just hide a bit, I do it all the time.
Attractive tourist destinations have higher hotels and hostels prices, if you stay rural you can travel pretty cheap!
If I go from hostal to hostal I google accommodations the night before in google maps, according to where I have my route planed, aprox where I want to cycle/arrive.

P.S. I never have been in Youth Hosteling, no experience with that.

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.

*****

Only thing to add to that is bring *good* earplugs and a sleep mask. If you're in a common room, you'll find every variation of polite/rude guests, loud/quiet sleepers, early/late risers.

I toured through the Balkans about ten years ago. Overall, they were so happy that someone was choosing to vacation in their countries that I was treated warmly - which was reassuring when it came from machine-gun toting border guards.

Macedonia had slim pickings. One time I slept in the spare room of a Štip TV/radio station that they kept around mainly for guests that traveled to be on a show.

Sarajevo hostel was great, I made friends and explored the abandoned winter olympics village - it was a trip walking through the graffiti-covered luge course.

The whole region was developing at the time, but there are hopefully still regions left 'wild' - after spending months there, rolling in to a fully landscaped/gardened area on coastal Montenegro was a shock.

Heh. Tourist in MSN reminded me of a situation in Minneapolis back in ‘99. We spent two nights in a non-HI Hostel. The place was packed with summer workers. Many were from the UK. From what I could glean, they had jobs at an entertainment/concert venue. Sunday morning, the day were departing, I had to step over sleeping bodies to get to the kitchen. It had to be a code violation.

The HI Hostel at Lake Itasca was closed during the day. We had to wait outside in the rain until the hosts showed up. They were two miserable guys. They were like two drill Sergeants. In the morning they assigned us cleaning assignment and hounded us until we completed them: The HI Hostel in Bar Harbor was also closed from about 9 until 5. Fortunately, the weather was nice the two days I was there.

Definitely bring ear plugs for common sleeping arrangements. I stayed in the huge HI Hostel in Seattle. Not only did a couple of people come home drunk late, one of them was a really loud snorer.

[Depending on the time of the year -- August may be booked solid ] for the countries you mention there should be no problem whatsoever finding accommodation.

1. Hostels can be surprisingly expensive.
2. In many campgrounds you may book shelters.

3. WRT logistics -- I typically use Booking.com. Very good coverage (many AirBnB properties are listed there as well).
4. I'd suggest planning a 'fantasy trip' -- pick a date, a starting location and a rough route plan -- and use some resource (ex: booking.com -- use their map feature) to get a sense of availability and prices.

I have never been asked to perform any work when I was at a hostel, other than clean up after myself. I was expected to strip off the bedding for laundry before I left. And leave the kitchen as clean as it was when I started.

That reminded me, I went to a small non-HI hostel in Iceland, steady rain, they were closed for several more hours, I decided instead to go to the campground and set up my tent in the rain.

A small HI hostel in Iceland, when I got there they were closed, but the door was open and there was a sign with a phone number to call inside.

I gave up on hostels because I always got a cold when I stayed at one.