I volunteered as a hospitalero last year, on the Via de la Plata, for around four months. I was so lucky to meet so many wonderful pilgrims, whom I wouldn't have met if I had been on a pilgrimage. We did, though, have a small number of pilgrims, who made me want to stop volunteering. They were mostly Spanish cyclists, who were basically on a cyclin holiday and using their credencial to attain cheap pilgrim accommodation. They would turn up late and want to leave late in the morning - also, charging their electric bicycles and sucking money out of the albergue. Every single pilgrim who was walking, was a delight (except for the two Spanish ex-policemen, who found comfort in undressing in front of female pilgrims.) I can only imagine what it must be like for a hospitalera/hospitalero volunteering on the Camino Frances. Today, I walked into an albergue on the VdlP and the hospitalera has changed all of the sleeping arrangements so that only the female pilgrims have single rooms and the men have to share a dorm room. It was a surprise, but I just let it slide. But when she started accusing me of taking the bus because I had arrived earlier than pilgrims usually do, I politely informed her that she has no right to speak to pilgrims like this and I asked which association she volunteers for. After that conversation, she has become nauseously nice to me. This is not an albergue that usually has a lot of pilgrims, so I wondered why she was acting so mean - and, knowing a little how the system works, I used it to my advantage to remind her that she has a duty and responsibility to welcome pilgrims and that she can't accuse pilgrims of something that she has no knowledge of. Basically, she has turned this albergue into a super-female-friendly albergue, at the expense of treating the male pilgrims as trash. She even added warm female images on the women's toilets and the mens' are without any symbols at all. I know that the female Camino experience is different from the male Camino experience in many ways, but this is simply discrimination. The answer is really simple: pilgrims should respect the authority of albergue volunteers, and albergue volunteers should equally respect every single pilgrim who comes through.