Youth hostels in five German states will temporarily accommodate 3800 refugees beginning on October 1, the head of the German Youth Hostel Association says.
Hostels in North Rhine Westphalia, Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony and Bremen will clear entire houses for the new arrivals and have recruited additional staff, chief executive Bernd Dohn said.
The gesture is meant to prevent refugees from having to sleep in tents as the cold winter months approach.
"We have rebooked other guests by mutual agreement and have stopped accepting reservations," Dohn said.
"Many (of the guests) had complete understanding."
Hostels in Bremen and Lower Saxony's Zeven, among others, have already planned to take in refugees.
The refugees will be able to stay in the hostels until the end of January.
Unaccompanied children who arrive at the hostels will be supervised around the clock and looked after.
There are more than 500 hostels across Germany, according to the association.
