Main Difference
The main difference between Hostel and Dormitory is that the Hostel is a cheap, sociable accommodation and Dormitory is a sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters
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Hostel
Hostels provide lower-priced, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, and private rooms may also be available.
Many hostels are family owned or run, and are often cheaper for both the operator and occupants than hotels; hostels may have long-term residents who they employ as desk agents or housekeeping staff in exchange for the experience or discounted accommodation.
In the Indian subcontinent and South Africa, hostel also refers to boarding schools or student dormitories in resident colleges and universities. In other parts of the world, the word hostel mainly refers to properties offering shared accommodation to backpackers or other low-budget travellers.
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Dormitory
A dormitory (originated from the Latin word dormitorium, often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university students. In some countries, it can also refer to a room containing several beds accommodating people.
Worldwide, dormitories are often single sex, or sexes are accommodated on separate floors or in separate rooms in some cases. It is unusual for unrelated mixed sex occupancy of a bedroom except temporarily (for example in a [travel] hostel or a railway sleeping car). Where this does occur, it is so remarkable as to be newsworthy (for example the mixed sex sharing of bedrooms in the Norwegian Army).
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Hostel (noun)
A commercial overnight lodging place, with dormitory accommodation and shared facilities, especially a youth hostel
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Hostel (noun)
A temporary refuge for the homeless providing a bed and sometimes food
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Hostel (noun)
A small, unendowed college in Oxford or Cambridge.
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Hostel (verb)
to stay in a hostel as part of a travel
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Dormitory (noun)
A room containing a number of beds (and often some other furniture and/or utilities) for sleeping, often applied to student and backpacker accommodation of this kind.
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Dormitory (noun)
A building or part of a building which houses students, soldiers, monks etc. who sleep there and use communal further facilities.
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Dormitory (noun)
A dormitory town.
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Dormitory (noun)
a large bedroom for a number of people in a school or institution
“he visited the boarders in their dormitory”
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Dormitory (noun)
a university or college hall of residence or hostel.
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Dormitory (noun)
a small town or suburb providing a residential area for those who work in a nearby city
“a dormitory town”