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Any tricks in bringing people together?

General Hostel Operations

zomac started this discussion 10 years 12 months ago

Bringing people together is one of the biggest headache for my hostel. We tried to organize them to go to a bar together or go to try some local foods together, but the result was so-so. Not many people were willing to go together.

Then we bought a lot of table games, foosball and a Wii (mainly to play dancing and car racing games and avoid some boring games) because we thought they probably need more warm-up for socializing, but we've experienced two major problems:

1. we need to spend so many time in asking different people to play games all the time. Even the staff felt very tired of it.

2. Many of them bury themselves in iPad and Laptop.

3. Big group (even it's only 3 people) has a devastating effect. They tend to play with their own group mates.

So I'm wondering what other hostels do usually to bring people together? In my hostel, there's no bar, no cafe. Atmosphere rating on hostelworld is 93% but it's declining and we even see some very bad ratings for this.

As the winter time is coming, I think we may need some different approach in bringing people together. Any suggestions are very appreciated.

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Josh Hostels

10 years

Are you allowed to serve alcohol? One technique that I saw in a European hostel was to put a few pitchers of free sangria on the tables in the common area.

At one hostel I worked at, a girl from the front desk would walk from door to door with a bottle of vodka asking if people were going to go on the pub crawl later. That seemed to keep things lively...

Another idea is to cook a free or very cheap dinner -- maybe something not too expensive like soup or spaghetti. The hostel that I thought did this most effectively offered free dinner at something like 9pm in the bar area -- but they didn't actually serve it until something like 10pm. So guests were buying drinks from the bar and socializing for the hour while they waited for dinner to be served. The bar was full every night. :)

Another idea is to provide something traditional from your country. At one hostel guests were offered free hot whiskey. A pension owner in Jerez once offered me some sherry. Something like that might get everyone into the common area and talking with each other. If you aren't allowed to serve alcohol, maybe it could be food or snacks of some kind...

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gordo

10 years

Never underestimate the power of alcohol; for better or worse it's a great social lubricant. You're in China aren't you zomac? Perhaps some sort of traditional (rice?) wine tasting? Incorporate a few drinking games before heading out on the town?

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Troncones Point

10 years

I am just opening a hostel and decided to unplug the internet from 10pm. Like this the people don't have any other choice than going to sleep or socializing. Just make sure there is alcohol.

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slushysnow

10 years

Free food! Always works a charm - we'll do a free BBQ every now and then and it really gets people together. Also, quizzes, movie nights

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Rucksack Brian

10 years

If you’re going to have any kind of event, even if it’s small, you will probably need to advertise it in the hostel to let people know that there is something going on.

Possible ways to advertise:

An activity board (chalkboard, whiteboard, bulletin board, etc.) with daily activities and times. Courtney posted a picture of one in her blog A Home (and Hostel) is Where the Heart Is
Small notices of activities placed in common areas. Mosquito Hostel in Krakow has little display holders on their tables with information on what’s going on each night of the week.
Personal invitations. This could be at check-in (“By the way, tonight everyone is going to meet up for drinks at 9pm. You should join us.”) or you could send someone around the common areas, or even going door to door as Josh mentioned.

Be careful how you invite people. A perfect stranger once approached me in a Lisbon hostel and bombarded me with information about how much fun I was going to have on his paid pub crawl. Then he ran off to harass the other guests into going out and told everyone to hurry up and be ready to leave in 15 minutes. I’m sure he pictured himself as the “Fun Guy” but it wasn’t the least bit appealing. On the other end of the spectrum, a staff member in a Spanish hostel made the rounds through the common area chatting people up and offering everyone some of his sangria. He came across as a friendly and generous person. On his second round, after he had already endeared himself to everyone, he started inviting them to join the pub crawl. Everybody went.

Here’s an older thread that talks about the benefits of organizing events and activities: Fancy activities...are they really necessary?

The group thing is always an issue for me too. They already have their friends, so even if they join your activities they don’t tend to include other travelers. A larger hostel in Paris organized a Backpacker Dinner in a reserved section of their restaurant every night so that solo travelers could meet each other. (They invited them at check-in) The special food deal and an organized opportunity to meet other travelers among the crowd made people feel like they were being taken care of, so they wanted to join. This could work just as well in a neighboring restaurant or bar if you don’t have one of your own.

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BenjaminLim

7 years

The group thing is always an issue for me too. They already have their friends, so even if they join your activities they don’t tend to include other travelers. A larger hostel in Paris organized a Backpacker Dinner in a reserved section of their restaurant every night so that solo travelers could meet each other. (They invited them at check-in) The special food deal and an organized opportunity to meet other travelers among the crowd made people feel like they were being taken care of, so they wanted to join. This could work just as well in a neighboring restaurant or bar if you don’t have one of your own.

I remembered once I stayed in a hostel where people met each other earlier and as a solo traveler, i could not join them for any conversation. I am planning to start my own hostel in 2018, what others way that I can do to prevent this group issue happening in the hostel environment?

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