What are your policies regarding guests who want to keep their bike in the room with them? I dont allow them too as we have a secure area where they can lock up them up. My concern is I dont want the carpet in the rooms soiled and they would always ding the walls taking the bike up the stairs. I had a guest who told me recently that I was the first hostel to not let him do that. How about the removal of shoes inside?
Joseph
14 years
I don't think bikes in the room is a good idea if there is another secure place inside to lock them, but maybe it works for some hostels.
The only hostels I've seen that didn't allow shoes inside were in Japan and Taiwan. In Taiwan they sometimes provide slippers to use in the hostel. I like the idea, but it might only work in certain types of hostels.
14 years
In regards to bikes we have a secure lock up in the main lobby as well as lockable posts outside. Would not allow them in any rooms and if someone needed to do maintenance we have a storage room in our lower level that would work. For shoes we have black mats at the entrance to soak up most of the crap people have on their shoes and works well. Tried at a previous place to enforce no shoes especially in winter and well just ended up with wet socks and miserable guests. Thinking of getting a shoe washer at the entrance for this winter which would cut down alot on the crap brought in.
14 years
Speaking as a hostel guest, rather than an operator, I've never been anywhere where people take their bikes into their rooms. It sounds like a really bad idea, not just for what it does to your decor - what about it getting in the way of other guests? What if he blocks the fire escape with it and the worst happens? What if everyone in the dorm wants to bring their bike?
You should have a secure place to store bikes, but I don't think the dorm is that place.
I've been in a couple of hostels where the owner insisted guests take their shoes off to protect their pale carpets. One even wanted us to take our shoes off outside so we didn't walk on her new patio! I think this is a really bad idea, it gives your guests the message "I care more about my carpets than I do about you".
You're running a business that's (hopefully) going to get a lot of foot traffic, so pick a floor covering that's going to cope with that, rather than place extra demands on your guests. If you're not in a part of the world where shoes-off-indoors is part of the local culture (Japan, Korea), you should really avoid this policy in my view.
14 years
I've never been to a hostel where you can bring a bike into a room! We get a lot of guests with bikes as we are on a route that many cyclists take. We have a bike/storage room where guests can leave their bikes. We operate a tagging system so it is more secure than to leave them anywhere else. Perhaps if you get people in the future who want to bring a bike into the rooms - it might be easier to explain it is in their interests to leave a bike in a secure area.
Regarding shoes, I imagine it depends where your hostel is. If its in a city (as we are), then I can't see a no shoe policy working, nor needing one. But in a rural area, or outdoor/hiking location I think it may be a good idea to ask guests to change to other footwear or take them off. Although there is nothing worse than cold feet so it would have to be carpeted or nice and warm there!!
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