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Hoscars

Hostel Trends and News

gordo started this discussion 16 years 9 months ago

well, the hoscars have been awarded - seems like lisbon and budapest are the places to be these days. this is the first year where i havent stayed at any of the top 10. :(
could be time for another trip back to europe - interesting theyre all from europe, im still hoping to see a couple of aussie hostels in there.

so, heres the top 10. crawl through the HW website for the other awards (big, small, chain etc)
10. goat hostel - budapest
9. home made hostel - budapest
8. mambo tango backpackers - barcelona
7. jump inn - warsaw
6. lisbon lounge - not sure where :P
5. hostel of the sun - naples
4. greg-tom hostel - krakow
3. rossio plaza - lisbon
2. the traveller house - lisbon
*drum roll*

1. the loft hostel - budapest.

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Josh Hostels

16 years

Is that the 2007 list or for a different year?

I think these were the 2007 hoscar winners:
1. Flamingo Hostel, Krakow, Poland
2. Mama's Hostel, Krakow, Poland
3. Clarence Castle, Toronto, Canada
4. Jetpak City Hostel, Berlin, Germany
5. Hostel Estoril, Buenos Aires, Argentina
6. Hilux Valencia Feetup Hostels, Valencia, Spain
7. Hostel of the Sun, Naples, Italy
8. Travellers House, Lisbon, Portugal
9. Backpacker Hostel K's house, Tokyo, Japan
10. East Seven Berlin Hostel, Berlin, Germany

I haven't been to any in either list, but I'm going to try to spend next year living in Spain and will try to do some backpacking. Also may stop by K's House in Tokyo and Kyoto next month.

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santa klaus

16 years

Gordo´s list seems to be only January 2008.
Hostels´ list are the recent (2007) Hoscar winners.

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gordo

16 years

Gordo´s list seems to be only January 2008.
Hostels´ list are the recent (2007) Hoscar winners.

hey yeah, it is too - why did HW send me a fancy-pants email about announcing the new hoscars then? friggin hostelworld...

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maelinva

16 years

I have only been in one hostel from that list, the Hostel of the Sun in Naples...and I have to say that's the perfect example of how a hostel gains a good reputation based almost only in their staff.

The hostel is in a flat, well located but not that easy to find and it's quite small, common areas are a kitchen and a separated living room right at the entry together with the reception, no garden or bigger terrace...but the staff where as nice and helpful as it can get.

It's nice seeing smaller independent hostels rating so high :)

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santa klaus

16 years

It's nice seeing smaller independent hostels rating so high :)

I´ll admit at once it´s not so nice for someone like me who works for a chain of big hostels.

I just checked the sizes of these top 10 hostels - the average number of beds (according to hostels.com) is 47. The biggest (by far) is Estoril in Buenos Aires with 90 beds, second is K´s House, Tokyo, with 60 beds.

Those popular small hostels are a quite new phenomenon IMHO, but I guess it´s a trend.

Of course it´s much easier to really take care of every single guest if there are just 20 or 30 of them instead of 300. Have a look at the Hostelworld user comments about Budapest Bubble, the top rated Hostel in Budapest - it has a straight 100% staff rating and 7 of the last 10 comments say what a great host Olga is.

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maelinva

16 years

Well, it's good news for me because mine will be a small hostel so it's good seeing the hostel market isn't being eaten out by bigger chains/hostels and there is room for me there also :)

You pointed out (and Budapest Bubble is the perfect example according to those reviews...though a bit extreme, since it's a very small hostel) how the main and probably only advantage for smaller hostels versus bigger ones is the personal treatment.

Still bigger hostels will always have an advantage regarding many other aspects.

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santa klaus

16 years

The market is far from being eaten out by chains. There are some cities (like Munich) which are entirely dominated by chains (not a single small hostel there) but then there are also places like Budapest.

The big hostels have one very significant advantage: they allow their owners and staff to have a life. I wonder how many days off Olga had in the last year. I enjoy my life very much - bedides I have a family who needs me, so I can´t hang out in a hostel 24/7. That´s why I prefer to be an employee instead starting my own hostel.

On the other side, I think a 300-bed house can´t possibly score 97%-ratings like Olga´s. When so many beds are sold through Hostelworld that´s a major handicap. We (at Wombats) are giving it an honest effort to deliver a very good service at reasonable rates, and I´m not aware of many other hostels with 200+ beds and ratings around 90%, but these 90% wouldn´t even put us into the upper midfield in Budapest. If we opened a hostel there, we wouldn´t have a chance to fill it.

I´m not saying that´s bad news. I think it´s a trend. I think it´ll continue with the hotel sector as well. Small B&B´s and Boarding Houses will bite deep into the market which is still dominated by chains like Accor and Hilton. Sites like Hostelworld will make it happen.

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maelinva

16 years

they allow their owners and staff to have a life

The "lack of a life" is one of the things that scared me about this project and have made me wait until now to decide jumping into it...not the most important one for me though, meaning other aspects scare me more, but facing at least a couple of years without a single day off isn't too appealing no matter how much you like what you are doing.

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Plakian

16 years

The "lack of a life" is one of the things that scared me about this project

An ex girlfriend once told me "It is impossible to have a relationship with you, Chris, you are already married - to the hostel!" But then, I am of an an age, approaching 60, where I don't care.

The relationships can wait until I retire!

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