I recently traveled around Southeast Asia for two months and stayed at over 15 different hostels. For the most part, I really enjoyed the hostels. Since the hostel concept is relatively new in Asia compared to other parts of the world, the facilities tend to be new and clean. But if you don’t know what to look for, especially in terms of price, you can still be in for a long night. And you’ll be asking yourself “Why did I book this place?”

Aside from comfort — good beds, clean bathrooms, hot showers, nice social atmosphere — the biggest consideration for many, including myself, is price. As I spent many nights planning where to go to next, I used Hostel World a lot to look for places to stay in Siem Reap, Luang Prabang, and 18 other cities.

Even now that I am back home, I still look at it to see how much a single bed would cost in Tokyo, Buenos Aires, or Prague for my next trip. As I looked at more and more hostels around the world, I decided to collect the data and show the costs on a map (see below).

Not surprisingly, I want to travel more because this exercise made me realize that some cities aren’t that expensive by hostel standards. For example, in Lisbon, Portugal, a single bed at a top 10 rated hostel costs on average $20. The average rating of a top 10 rated hostel in Lisbon was 9.8 out of 10. In Hostel World, 9.0 and above is considered “superb” — great facilities, fantastic location, amazing safety, and etc. So only $20 for a 9.8 hostel experience? I’m definitely adding Lisbon to my list because I can can easily be paying $40 or more a night in other cities with lower quality hostels. Where you ask?

How about New York City?! New York City boasted the world’s highest average bed price, $48, across its top 10 rated hostels. The average rating was 8.4 not 9.8! And in Europe, Geneva, Switzerland had the highest average bed price, $44. The average rating of their top 10 rated hostels? 8.4. The difference between 9.8 and 8.4 can actually be a really cramped dorm room or one with a couch and a TV. Believe me, such a room exists! I couldn’t believe it myself when I checked into one. It was incredibly spacious for 8 people. It was amazing!

On the other hand, if ratings don’t matter to you and you want the cheapest bed in the world, go to Vang Vieng, Laos. Vang Vieng had the lowest average price for a bed, $5. But beware, the average rating of its top 10 hostels comes in at just 7.5. It’s the lowest rating in my sample size of 62 cities across 40 countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Hostel World considers hostels rated in the 7s as “Very Good”. But trust me, I’ve been to a 7-ish with over 100 reviews and the place was terrible. The bathrooms were TINY and dirty. The place was crazy with rowdy parties too. But of course not all 7s are the same, so do your due diligence!

One last fun tidbit from my data (for now), if you just want to make sure you have a place to stay, then go to Rome. Rome offers the most options with 493 hostels while Vientiane, Laos only has 7.

Note this is a “study” in its early stages. More non-Asian cities need to be added in order to create a more balanced dataset and review. Hostels from Hostel World were included in this dataset if they were (1) ranked in the city’s top 10 hostels by users and (2) a single bed was available for May 11, 2016.

Check out the map below! It’s color coded by price range. Green is good. Red is relatively pricey. I hope it helps with your 2016–2017 travel plans.