Sorry to hear about your father madame cholet
In the summer my 17 yr old daughter and I had a weekend away at Borth YHA which made me question the previous discount structure.
We have family membership so got the per night discount but the stupid thing was our dorm beds were the same price, but as my daughter was only 17 she only got £1.50 per night off whereas I got £3 per night off making the price for a 17 year old unwaged A level student more expensive than that for me a working adult. How is that a way to encourage young people into travel and the outdoors?
I spoke to the owner/manager (Borth is one of the YHAs that was sold off and is now an affiliate-it's a great place by the way...) and he said it was under review so I've been waiting to see what they come up with.
So I've just done a comparison of old and new structures. The beds were £18 per person per night and we stayed for two nights giving a total of £72 (it was August bank holiday weekend so a pricey time of year!)
The old discount of £3 per night for me and £1.50 per night for U18 gave us £9 off so final price of £63
Under the new structure we would have had a 15% discount as the party included someone under 26 so discount on £72 would be £10.80 making the cost £61.20 so marginally cheaper but not much in it.
If I was travelling alone instead of £3 per night off I'd have got £1.80 per night off so I'd have paid more.
Given the YHA is a charity that is supposed to support young people, then youths getting more discount is surely the way to go.
I was disappointed in 2018 that they didn't run the activity holidays that my younger daughter has attended for the previous two years in the summer hols though. She really enjoyed them.
I have always sung the praises of the YHA, had some super cheap nights in their hostels. But lately I haven't been able to find one in the right place and at the right time, that has beds available
I do agree with you here Ilona, especially in the colder months when I want to hostel rather than camp so many are exclusive hire at the weekend, it's very frustrating.