my friends and i are having a hard time finding hostels in sparta, olympia, or patra. if anyone could help us with ideas because we will soon be stuck in greece with no place to stay.
You can procede directly to the local TI when you arrive. They should have plenty of good connections there. I doubt you'll find yourselves stranded.
Can't help with Sparta or Patras, but we stayed at the hostel in Olympia. There is only one and we were the only ones there at the end of June last year. I think it's called something very original like "olympia youth hostel". We called the night before and reserved a room - I can't remember the name of the hostel, but it's run by a littld old man and was about €12/night I think. About a 3 min. walk from train station. Olympia's very tiny, you should be able to find it by asking anyone.