Hostel vs. Pension — What's the Difference?

A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared bathrooms.

A pension (, from Latin pensiō, "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments. A pension may be a "defined benefit plan", where a fixed sum is paid regularly to a person, or a "defined contribution plan", under which a fixed sum is invested that then becomes available at retirement age.

A supervised, inexpensive lodging place for travelers, especially young travelers.

A regular payment made by the state to people of or above the official retirement age and to some widows and disabled people

An inn; a hotel.

A small hotel or boarding house in France and other European countries.

To stay at hostels while traveling.

Dismiss someone from employment, typically because of age or ill health, and pay them a pension

A commercial overnight lodging place, with dormitory accommodation and shared facilities, especially a youth hostel

A sum of money paid regularly as a retirement benefit or by way of patronage.

(not US) A temporary refuge for the homeless providing a bed and sometimes food

A boarding house or small hotel in Europe

(obsolete) A small, unendowed college in Oxford or Cambridge.

Accommodations or the payment for accommodations, especially at a boarding house or small hotel in Europe.

(intransitive) To stay in a hostel during one's travels.

Room and board.

(transitive) To lodge (a person) in a hostel.

To grant a pension to.

An inn.

To retire or dismiss with a pension

A small, unendowed college in Oxford or Cambridge.

An annuity paid regularly as benefit due to a retired employee, serviceman etc. in consideration of past services, originally and chiefly by a government but also by various private pension schemes.

A hotel providing overnight lodging for travelers

A boarding house or small hotel, especially in continental Europe, which typically offers lodging and certain meals and services.

Inexpensive supervised lodging (especially for youths on bicycling trips)

(obsolete) A wage or fee.

(obsolete) A charge or expense of some kind; a tax.

A sum paid to a clergyman in place of tithes.

A regular allowance paid to support a royal favourite, or as patronage of an artist or scholar.

(obsolete) A boarding school in France, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.

(transitive) To grant a pension to.

(transitive) To force (someone) to retire on a pension.

A payment; a tribute; something paid or given.

A stated allowance to a person in consideration of past services; payment made to one retired from service, on account of age, disability, or other cause; also, a regular stipend paid by a government to retired public officers, disabled soldiers, the families of soldiers killed in service, or to meritorious authors, or the like.

A certain sum of money paid to a clergyman in lieu of tithes.

A boarding house or boarding school in France, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.

To grant a pension to; to pay a regular stipend to; in consideration of service already performed; - sometimes followed by off; as, to pension off a servant.

A regular payment to a person that iis intended to allow them to subsist without working

Grant a pension to