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Do I have a right to select the people which I want ?

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Peter started this discussion 17 years 1 month ago

I would like to open a hostel , but I do not want to take every body.
I would like to select the people.
They must be backpackers.
That sort of backpackers who confess a kind of backpackers philiosophy.
I mean the people who have a backpack , who are educated and travelling seeing the world , the cultural things ....

I wouldn't take the people who do not know what the backpacker is , and who come just for drinking and parties.

Do I have a right to write on my advertising board ( I mean internet or turists books advertisements.) that I select the people ?
Thank you.

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uktrail

17 years

Peter: I very much sympathise with your wishes, if I was running a hostel I would wish the same. I think the strict answer is: No.

But in practice you can do so if you make your hostel in a style that would suit your preferred clientele more than others. So make the hostel small and cosy, with a friendly common room, no TV, and a good kitchen. The hostels on www.small-hostels.com are mostly of this type. Don't have a bar, but allow people to bring their own drinks. Some hostels won't take bookings from groups of more than 6; that would reduce the problems that noisy groups can cause. Some hostels won't take citizens of their own country; if you are in a city popular with people who like party weekends, you need to do this. You can have a minimum age of 18, then you won't get families.

I saw an Australian hostel that would only take backpackers. What is a backpacker? Someone carrying a backpack!!

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gordo

17 years

theres a hostel in korcula - one love, run by a weird south african dude (ziggy or something) - that makes quite a point about selecting the guests. you HAVE to be down in the bar or he wont hesitate to boot you out. (almost the opposite of what youre looking for) of course, it only opens for like 3-4 months a year and theres enough demand during that time to be exclusive.

as far as the legal grounds go - im guessing its like a bar or a nightclub. as long as you're not discriminating on the basis of race or sex or whatever a 'management reserves the right to refuse entry' sign should be enough. whether that limits your market too much is up to you though. marketing can be a very powerful tool - the people who stay at the pink palace in corfu arent the same that stay at the poets corner in olomouc. if you give yourself the right image then you should realy only be attracting the sort of people you want.

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Andy08

17 years

I read an article about an Italian guy who would select his guests while walking around train stations etc. I imagine it would be very time consuming, and you may come across as a little weird but you'd have complete control over who stays in your hostel.

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Peter

17 years

Yes , the hostels running seems old fashioned already especially when there is such a thing as internet and when your hostel is legal.

In my case , if the custommers will be drunk or noisy , the trouble can be with the neighbours.
The educated people no matter their nationality , race or orientation , they are always pleasant and beautiful !

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Ria

17 years

hahahahaha. It's a nice fantasy to want to only take the guests that you like.

While i wish we could refuse service to anyone dragging rolly luggage who wants our staff to carry it up the stairs for them, if we tried to limit our guests we'd either get sued or go bankrupt.

Look around...the old time backpacker (like i am) is fading away...at least from mainstream locations. The real backpackers are going further afield...like i did this year, to undeveloped places like Vanuatu and places with more adventure. But in many major places in the world backpackers are giving way to 'flashpackers'...

so if you want to make any cash at this business, you'll have to take everyone. And to be fair, keep in mind that every single one of us in the backpacking/hostel world started out as a naive traveller. Perhaps staying in a cool backpackers and meeting awesome 'real' travellers helps people to grow and change their views and dump the rolly luggage and grab a backpack. Hostelling is about TOLERANCE...the german principle when it was started was to bring young people together from all over the world to grow understanding...and i think today it means even those somewhat annoying guests...because through a good experience we can help change them into appreciative and informed travellers.

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santa klaus

17 years

hahahahaha. It's a nice fantasy to want to only take the guests that you like.

While i wish we could refuse service to anyone dragging rolly luggage who wants our staff to carry it up the stairs for them, if we tried to limit our guests we'd either get sued or go bankrupt.

That could be different from country to country. I assume the HI hostels have not much choice as their statute says they have to accomodate anyone with a membership.
Apart from that - in the countries where we operate we have certainly the right to send someone away and we´re doing it all the time - you can´t put "old smelly farts" in dormitory rooms with Korean girls, for example.

Look around...the old time backpacker (like i am) is fading away...at least from mainstream locations. The real backpackers are going further afield...like i did this year, to undeveloped places like Vanuatu and places with more adventure. But in many major places in the world backpackers are giving way to 'flashpackers'...

I couldn´t agree more.

Perhaps staying in a cool backpackers and meeting awesome 'real' travellers helps people to grow and change their views and dump the rolly luggage and grab a backpack. Hostelling is about TOLERANCE...the german principle when it was started was to bring young people together from all over the world to grow understanding...and i think today it means even those somewhat annoying guests...because through a good experience we can help change them into appreciative and informed travellers.

I have no ambition of changing anyone´s views. Rather the other way round. Our guests pay for my service, so they have all the right to tell me what I should do better. Would you care to listen to someone who is 20 years older telling you what "real travelling" is???

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Josh Hostels

17 years

Apart from that - in the countries where we operate we have certainly the right to send someone away and we´re doing it all the time - you can´t put "old smelly farts" in dormitory rooms with Korean girls, for example.

At the hostels I've worked at we would have certain rooms unofficially designated for certain kinds of people. One female dorm might unofficially be for older women travellers, and one mixed dorm might unofficially become "older guys room" or "male only room" (for people with religious reasons). Maybe one room for "shady people that you don't want to check in but the owner tells you to check them in". :confused:

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Ria

17 years

I think i may have mislead some readers on my thoughts. I when i said you cannot turn away people i did not mean the obvious concerns. In CA innkeepers have the right to refuse service to anyone as long as it's not voilating discrimination laws. So of course if someone dodgy shows up you can be 'full' and if a room is designated female we won't check a male in.

but it sounded like me that the poster wanted to turn away anyone he/.she decided was not a backpacker to his liking....For instance, since i am not 20 something some hostel owner might decide i'm too 'old' and don't look the part and turn me away...but i've a ton of hostel experience...so how do you judge by looking who is 'right' and who is not?

To say that the guest must profess a backpacker philosophy...what philosophy is that? some backpackers believe that you are not a 'real' backpacker unless you eat noodles everyday and pay the cheapest price you can for accomodation and you only go to places where no other backpacker is....and some people who 'backpack' are willing to pay more money for clean safe accomodation, spend cash to find healthy organic foods and enjoy a party as much as visiting a museum and volunteering in the local community and immersing themselves in the local life.

I cannot even imagine how it would feel to be told at the door "you are not good enough to say here".

Would I qualify with years of hostelling experience and 38 countries and 100's of hostels visited? or would i be displaced by someone who has visited 50 countries in 10 years and stayed at 500 hostels?

also, on the comment about letting people stay in hopes it changes the view...i was not saying we are in a position to actively change views, i wouldn't want anyone trying to change mine, i'm saying that education comes from more than books. If you get different kinds of people together it opens up eyes for some and they see another view on the world and another way of doing things and that can influence them and have an effect on the KIND of traveller they are...like learning the etiquette of not flipping on the lights in the middle of the night or packing at 4am...that kind of thing.

I'm not trying to change anyone, i'm simply saying that hostels were originally built to foster understanding across lines. If we discriminate against a legit traveller simply because they dont fit our world view then we are not living up to hostels original purpose to bring different kinds of people together.

they sort it out when they get there. we simply provide the means.

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Peter

17 years

There are not a few people who think that hostel is the place where they can do any thing just because they paid the money.
Of course . No body can say to the people , : - You are not good enough for my hostel.

But excuse me for my rough language .
There are the kinds of people who seems not just need education , the way they behave it looks like they need a doctor before they need education.
These kinds of people just remind me the Bulgakov's Sharikovs.
Not all the hostels managers are running their hostels just for the money.
The money is the secondary thing.
For example in the countries of the West Europe the people who run the small hostels do not really need the money.
In many of those countries , the business its when the people
have meaning , and to behave like educated human being is just a normal.
And there is no ammount which can be the compensation for the brutality and vulgarity.
Of course it has nothing to do with where the people come from.
It has to do with education.

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flaviopezzini

14 years

I kinda get what the thread starter was meaning. Just the way to do it is different.

It's not mainly that you are going to tell people you're full when you're not actually full just because they're stinking or something. It's different. It's the way you market yourself. If you have pictures of modern, character-less building made in white and light-gray, and a 46 inches tv you'll get that sort of public.

If you show a nice, cozy, TV-less common room with people having fun you'll get different public. That goes on and on.

Marketing yourself to reach that niche is the best way to achieve your objective.

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