Accommodation for School and Youth Groups

On top of our usual group services we have policies and procedures in place for school and youth groups to make your planning and preparation easier. 

"It was an excellent stay. I was impressed with the cleanliness and the very professional and helpful staff. Your hostel was perfect for an education-based group where there is a need to care for young people away from home."

- Unicef NZ Youth Ambassadors, stayed at YHA Wellington

Safety and Security

YHA’s commitment to your group safety:

• YHA guarantees that your group’s shared rooms will be exclusive to you
• Where required your students will be separated by gender
• For school and youth groups there must be one adult leader of each gender if it is a mixed party, in a ratio of 1:10
• YHA accepts teaching assistants, parents or guardians as sub-leaders, where there is a qualified leader assigned to each gender
• YHA will take all reasonable precautions to ensure the safety and security of your group and property
• A member of staff will be available 24 hours a day
• We operate strict close-down procedures and fire security checks every night
• Hostel staff will brief the group leaders on safety and security
• YHA will assist with providing risk assessment information on request

Please note: While YHA takes the health, safety and welfare of everyone seriously, responsibility for the group rests with the Group Leaders. YHA staff cannot act ‘in loco parentis’ and we will report inappropriate behaviour to Group Leaders for action.

Download YHA's Health and Safety Policy

Risk Assessment Management Systems

To make your planning and preparation easier we have created a simple Health, Safety and Risk document for each key YHA groups hostel which you can easily place into your RAMs and use for board approval. This includes contact information, our groups safety commitment, evacuation procedures and our customer-facing risk register.

North Island

• YHA Auckland City
• YHA Auckland International
• YHA Bay of Islands, Paihia
• YHA Rotorua
• YHA Wellington

South Island

• YHA Aoraki Mt Cook
• YHA Christchurch
• YHA Christchurch Rolleston House
• YHA Lake Tekapo
• YHA Franz Josef
• YHA Nelson
• YHA Queenstown Lakefront
• YHA Te Anau
• YHA Wanaka

Each YHA-managed hostel also has a Crisis Management Plan available on request from the hostel manager. The document identifies potential risks to all site areas along with measures in place to reduce or remove the risk. If required we can also supply copies of forms such as the policy statements, first aid details, recruitment and training policies, and access audit information.

LEOTC Locations

YHA hostels are ideally located near many Learning Experiences Outside of the Classroom (LEOTC) service providers.  If you are stuck for ideas, visit our activities record for LEOTC ideas and nearby YHA hostels.

See nearby LEOTC activities

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Read our group accommodation terms and conditions

Have more questions? Email us: [email protected]