When you are traveling alone the place you sleep makes all the difference. Unless you really want a solitary trip.
After my first nights at the home couch surf hosts, I came to a hotel recommended by other folks living in Cancun. It is fairly convenient as I can walk to the places I wanted to be in Cancun. And it is clean. There are dorms so I thought I would meet travelers. However it is really a hotel. Travelers were far between. Most guests are from other parts of Mexico and while friendly, they are here for the beach, not to exchange travel info and go see a pyramid. Those 8 travelers I met were with one another already and I didn’t fit their agendas.
You might look at a dorm room for 10 and say “No way. I am past that at my age.” I did. I am rethinking that now.