Hostel owners and managers from around the world flocked to Dublin on Monday night, January 25th to attend the most eagerly anticipated event in the budget accommodation industry calendar. The 8th annual Hoscar (HOStelworld Customer Annual Ratings) awards ceremony took place to recognize the best hostels in the world, voted for by 1 million Hostelworld.com customers in 2009.

The Portuguese city of Lisbon proved to yet again be the jewel in the crown for budget conscious travellers across the world when it claimed an astonishing 5 of the top 10 spots. For the second year running Lisbon's Travellers House Hostel received the top honour when it was announced as the best hostel in the world. Rossio Hostel and Lisbon Lounge hostel gave the popular backpacking destination an impressive one, two, three. Also featuring in the top ten were hostels from Florence, Budapest, Krakow, Riga and Cardiff. (A full list of all winners can be found below).

Over 23,000 properties from across the globe featured on Hostelworld.com were eligible for the awards. The winning hostels were voted for by those who matter the most: the Hostelworld.com customers who booked their accommodation online and rated and reviewed the hostels after their stay in 2009 based on six criteria - character, security, location, staff, fun and cleanliness.

Joao Pires, the manager at Traveller's House Hostel in Lisbon said: "We are very proud to win the top hostel in the world for 2 years in a row - proud for our hostel, proud for our team and proud for the city and all the Portuguese people. It's an honour to be recognized in this way."

He continued "We work in a very passionate environment. The people who work in our hostel get great enjoyment out of hosting guests and showing them the best our city has to offer. We always try to accommodate people the best we can".

Alongside the top 10 hostels in the world, Hoscars were awarded for the top 3 hostels on each continent and categories including 'Best location', 'Most fun' and 'Most improved'.

Hostelworld.com's VP of Accommodation Relations Carmel Dunne commented "The Hoscar awards are extremely important to both hostels around the world and their customers. They are based on user ratings and reviews, a key reason why customers book with us. No other hostel booking site offers the depth and breadth of hostels available to book on www.hostelworld.com or the volume of reviews, made directly by Hostelworld.com customers following their stay. Congratulations to all this years winners".

Top 10 Worldwide Hostels: