Buy a hostel in Alaska, USA

I wouldn´t mind to live in Alaska at all. I like mountains and I like winter.
Unfortunately, the Mrs likes beaches and summer! :(

Anyway, apart from what the Mrs thinks, with two small children I wouldn´t even consider to move to the USA. I just like our healthcare and education systems too much. For the girls it´ll be much better to stay here.

I have got that idée fixe to eventually run my own hostel since I first worked in a hostel 15 years ago. I guess many people who work in hostels do. But sorry, it won´t be Anchorage. Hawaii? Good idea! I haven´t considered that before. Sounds pretty ideal. Mountains for me and beaches for the Mrs. Decent weather all year round - not too hot and not too cold. It´s as far away as possible from all those annoying aunts! And they don´t have beer in Hawaii (as the proverb goes), which is good because I don´t like beer anyway. :)

I lived in Hawaii for a couple of years on and off. The weather is perfect, except one year when it didn't stop raining.

I think there is still opportunity for hostels there.

The opportunity will have to wait for me for another 15 years. Anyway, I think a really good hostel will always run just fine, regardless of how many other hostels there are. Besides that, who cares for competitors if you´re only doing it for pleasure. I´ll be rich enough already. :)

True. However, an extra disadvantage would be that Hawaii is an island in the middle of a very large ocean, so you don´t have a lot of backpackers coming through. None, to be more precisely. Backpackers "coming through" were the ones who really got us off the ground in Vienna. Everybody goes to Prague and Venice, but most think the trainride between these cities is too long, so they think they´d spend a night in Vienna. We got them to stay three instead. The rest is history.

Without backpackers, you would have to look at a very diverse clientele - springbreakers, flashpackers, surfers and families for example. You would have to have enough space so they don´t molest each other. I guess a setup like Plakian´s with each "room" being a seperate house, the main building as common space and a huge garden would be the right idea. That rules out a downtown area.
So - I´ll be looking for a large lot in a Honululu suburb within walking distance to a beach and a bus stop with direct transport into town in front of the entrance. If you know a piece of real estate meeting my criteria, please let me know. :)

I wouldn´t mind "expensive" as long as it´s not outrageous. I would try very hard to find something in (or near) Honululu because that´s what everybody knows, so you can attract all the people who don´t know their way around (because it´s their first time there) or have only limited time. Beingon an island is a disadvatage big enough, I wouldn´t want to be on the wrong side of it to start with.

An alternative would be to own two places, one in downtown Honululu and a second one ... somewhere. Think about the Flying Pig hostels: their beach hostel would be hopeless without the downtown hostels feeding it with guests.

But then, I won´t want to start a chain - that´s what I´ll want to get away from! :D