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Common room 'magic'

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uktrail started this discussion 15 years 7 months ago

In the 'New York Times' thread, the slide show link shows a pleasant common room at Urbany, Barcelona. It looks comfortable, but social??? No. People at computers, a person reading, one playing the guitar, all facing away from each other!

Does there have to be some 'magic' to make a common room social? The best 'magic' is an owner or manager coming by frequently and saying something of general interest, or even better, something that will draw people together, like introducing people to each other.

The furniture arrangement is also very important. One or two large tables is a good start. The YHA have got it quite wrong with their little cafe-style tables.

These things are much better achieved, in general, in a small hostel.

Does anyone have any special tricks for improving social contact among guests?

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gordo

15 years

big tables, big couches - facing each other with a coffee table in the middle. kitchens are great common areas - food and drink bring people together.

often having something to do helps - board games, pool, cooking, even watching a movie. oh, and booze. lets face it, its called a social lubricant for a reason.

we dont really have a 'common room' per se, but we have a busy kitchen, internet room with couches and a TV, a bar with pool tables - bar area is open 24/6 but doesnt serve all the time - and a cinema room. something for everyone i hope.

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Fountainrunner

15 years

The same picture is on the hostel's website but with a better view of the full common area. It looks very social to me, however, from my experience no matter how social the arrangement of the furnishings are, it doesn't necessarily make the people in it want to socialize. Sometimes folks just want to enjoy their alone time and don't want a hostel owner or staffer coming over to introduce them or say something interesting to mix things up. I stayed at a wonderful hostel with a beautiful common room. By all accounts I'd say it had magic but from time to time it'd be full of various individuals doing their own thing from reading a book, watching TV, taking a catnap, playing the guitar, and smoking. Everyone seemed to enjoy that alone time and when the mood of the room changed to a more social scene it went from alone time to party time. I noticed a lot of times it really depended on the time of day. I believe that one picture was taken during a relax period.

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santa klaus

15 years

The best common room I have seen was at the Kabul Hostel in Barcelona, years ago. Just a big room next to the reception with a nice view of the plaza, big tables and beer vending machines. I once went to Barcelona for a week just to hang out in Kabul´s common room every day. It was absolutely crazy every night - without the hostel doing anything for it.
I haven´t been there for years, I wonder what´s it like now. They have added a bar on the roof (maybe less people in the common room now?) and probably everybody joins those stupid pub crawls. What bothers me most are all the people with their laptops - it´s totally antisocial. I sometimes count 30 of them in our lobby in Vienna.

Our winter garden patio in Munich delivers a lot of common room magic IMHO. Unfortunately we don´t have a kitchen there.

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Josh Hostels

15 years

It looks comfortable, but social??? No. People at computers, a person reading, one playing the guitar, all facing away from each other!

It looks like they redesigned since I was there. I wonder if the photographer moved the couches in order to get everyone in the photo?

There is a better photo of that area in their blog.

This is what it looked like when I was there:
http://www.barcelonaurbany.com/images/galeria/IMG_0833.jpg

It fills up with people, and there's a rooftop patio just outside. I can't remember, but I think they served alcohol.

It's an interesting hostel -- check out the exterior of the building...

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santa klaus

15 years

This hostel is weird. It looks like an A&O on LSD.

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Stefan

15 years

This hostel is weird. It looks like an A&O on LSD.

I won't even imagine how this looks like, sounds like a real bad trip :D

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gordo

15 years

The best common room I have seen was at the Kabul Hostel in Barcelona, years ago. Just a big room next to the reception with a nice view of the plaza, big tables and beer vending machines. I once went to Barcelona for a week just to hang out in Kabul´s common room every day. It was absolutely crazy every night - without the hostel doing anything for it.
I haven´t been there for years, I wonder what´s it like now. They have added a bar on the roof (maybe less people in the common room now?) and probably everybody joins those stupid pub crawls. What bothers me most are all the people with their laptops - it´s totally antisocial. I sometimes count 30 of them in our lobby in Vienna.

Our winter garden patio in Munich delivers a lot of common room magic IMHO. Unfortunately we don´t have a kitchen there.

i see taht all the time aswell - havent seen 30 of them in a room but we do have wifi all over the building rather than just the common areas. but i have counted 17 laptops in the bar one day... and it was sunny outside!!?!?!? whats with people?!?!

kabul was great fun when i was there a few years ago - except for that lousy voucher system. you had to buy beer tokens from a machine and then trade them for your pint... all well and good but you could only buy 1 token at a time and the change the machine gave was always coins. so if you put a 20 euro note in for a 2 euro beer... well, you ended up with very heavy pockets.

other than that, absolute blast - and yeah, the hostel didnt seem to actually DO anything. often its a matter of attracting the 'right' crowd.

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santa klaus

15 years

I won't even imagine how this looks like, sounds like a real bad trip :D

Indeed! :)

other than that, absolute blast - and yeah, the hostel didnt seem to actually DO anything. often its a matter of attracting the 'right' crowd.

They used wo print "if you want to sleep, stay elsewhere" on their flyers. Absolutely adorable! :D

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soi1david

14 years

sorry about re-opening a few older threads but I'm trying to build up to 50 post.

Common room Magic, good thread starter.
Myself I like a good party crowd, not so much for the bar profit which is nice, But I like to party. When we can and when we get the right crowd I often take them all on a pub crawl ( no charge for this though many say I should) go out all night. which in turn slims down the chance for any Bar action the next night,

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