Alright muckers? Lomax here.
Introduce Yourself
I've registered here to work out if my idea of starting a hostel is:
a) a good idea;
b) possible; and
c) viable.
I was made redundant from my job as a town planner in May. I'm currently in Thailand doing 6 months volunteer teaching. I've travelled, to an extent, through eastern Europe using hostels along the way.
Opening a hostel seems to me to be an excellent way to meet many people, provide accommodation to those on a budget and provide a friendly face to those that may be a long way from home.
I'm using this forum as a platform to discover what I need to consider when opening a hostel; how likely I will be to survive (and ideally thrive); and simply for ideas. I come here with NO experience in hostel or accommodation management but with a willingness to learn. I have strong ideas about what I want in a hostel and how I want it to look - a 'fantasy' perhaps - but you need those to aim for.
I have limited my location to towns I know well, and have plumped for two possible locations within the UK. One is a large urban area close to a National Park, in northern England, which has no existing hostel accommodation. It has a thriving music scene and is slowly pulling itself out of the doldrums it has suffered from for the last 30 years or so. The other location is a small country town nestled close to the Lake District and the Pennines. Again there is no existing hostel, although I suspect that hostels within the Lake District itself will suck possible guests away from this town. I would also consider the small country town to be ripe for something 'new' to re-invigorate it - which may require a longer term, strategic plan involving businesses across the town. It has all the requisite parts to be 'special' but seems to fail. Maybe its just too sleepy.
anyway, in a nutshell, I'm here to get help!
Expect to see naive posts and questions with strikingly obvious answers (for those in the know!).
Toodle-pip!
- Comments
14 years
Hi Lomax:
Yes, you do need to ask yourself and others a lot of questions, but you're making the right start.
I suspect it would be hard going to start a hostel where none has been before. There are certainly places in Britain where there ought to be a hostel but isn't, and 2 country towns in my county (Shropshire) come to my mind. Both these towns had YHA hostels, and if I am right about the country town you are thinking of, that also had one.
"Strategic plan involving businesses around the town.."? Fine idea, but businesses are unlikely to get very interested unless there is something specific in it for them -- I suppose pubs and restaurants could be interested. Most people in businesses probably know next to nothing about backpacker hostels.
The places you are thinking about are not too far from where I live, and if you have any specific questions I'd be willing to give an opinion on them.
Peter.
14 years
Oow I'm curious, I'm a Bolton lad. How far north for the first location? Peak District, Yorkshire Dales or Northumberland National Park? or did you just mean Lakes? I think all these locations could with some more independent, backpacker friendly hostels rather than YHA, something a little like Deepdale perhaps? just thinking out loud.
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