That would be my nightmare.  I’d never get any sleep[&:]

Damn, haven’t even heard of the place before, and I just live about ten minutes from it…
Wouldn’t be my choice to stay anyway.

For only 10 euro a night, I’d sleep in it.  Probably difficult to find your bed though.  Although the padding on those beds looks a little stiff, but after 7 or 8 pints it shouldn’t bother you. 

Especially after those pints.

If you can call that a “hostel”, The Tent in Munich has more beds. It´s basically a big circus tent with 100 solid beds, but you can also sleep on the floor in your own sleeping bag.
Since there are now lots of hostels in Munich, it´s not that popular any more, but I was there several times in the 90ies and saw at least 300 people sleeping in there. Well, trying to sleep anyway.

Such sleep-ins were quite common in the seventies till the earlie eighties. With the Woodstock era not to far behind us dorms and even showers were often co-ed, not good for the shy people but we had a lot of fun and it were great places to meet people from other countries

Indeed, people expect a lot more nowadays. Everyone books months ahead and wants their ensuite bathrooms. We have even be asked to make special dorms for single travellers who are looking for a shag. I mean, is it too much to ask to walk down to the hostel bar and chat somebody up!?

So long as we’re talking about kids these days, does anyone remember hostels where you were expected to do a chore?

Sure. We ask our guests to bring their bedsheets dowm when they check out! []

It seems that most hostels are just becoming college dorms rather than a traveler’s refuge.  God praise Eastern Europe!

If you want to praise god for the low wages in Eastern Europe then do that – because that´s exactly what makes 20-bed-traveler´s refuges possible in the first place.

As a lone traveller, I allways try to get accommodation in dorms which are larger than 8 bed dorms, such as 10-14 bed dorms.    Though a 126 bed dorm is taking it just a bit far!   Don’t think I’d want to stay in a dorm that big.  Some of the reviews for that hostel say that some dodgy Dutch people stay there a lot.

I stayed in a hostel which had something like a 70 bed capacity somewhere in Australia a few years.  Don’t remember where it was, as it was part of a Oz Experience coach trip which stops off overnight at small towns with funny names(i.e. Mullammaloo, Wagga Wagga) enroute between the major cities/towns.  It wasn’t that bad atall actually.  Though the fact that the only nearby bar in the area closed at midnight, everyone was in bed and asleep not long after that.  So there was no people coming in and out all night.  So got a good night’s sleep.   In a major city though, it would be a little different.

Though not quite on the scale of this 126 bed dorm, there’s some hostels in Berlin which have dorms of 30-50 beds.

I’ve stayed in hostels in both Canada and the UK that required me to do chores.

I stayed in a hostel in Brussels that had about 60 beds in the dorm, I was abit dubious at first, apart from oversize guy checking into the top bunk on the first nite at 1am, I slept like a log both nites
As for chores, that’s a blast from the past, first time I stayed in a hostel was in Earls Court, and they made sure we did a chore each before we went out, I think that is why alot of hostels look rundown cause there is not that little bit of xtra help

Their was a hostel in Shepherds Bush in London right across from the Central Line Tube station that must have had at least 100 beds in a basement dorm.

 
No I’m not praising anyone’s low wages.  But I think the amount of tourists have a lot more to do with the size of hotels/hostels/home-stays than do local wages. 

Wrong. Look at Krakow, Prague or Budapest. Tons of Backpackers go there, yet these cities are full of small hostels (a few big ones as well). Reason: A full-time receptionist costs maybe 500 Euros per month in Poland or Hungary, but around 2.500 Euros in Germany (including taxes and social insurance).

Hence: you need a lot more beds to earn the cash to pay for the 4-5 receptionists you need to man the desk 24/7, the manager/owner and the houskeepers to keep the place tidy.

Hence: there is not a single small hostel in Munich, for example. It just wouldn´t survive.

To be honest, I rather earn 2.500 in a Hostel in Austria than just 500 two hours east of here.