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Hostel without staff!!

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HostelBelgium started this discussion 14 years 8 months ago

Hi guys,

need you advice on the following:
As we plan to open a (very) small hostel in Belgium (very small to avoid specific rules and regulations and not to be catagorised as a hotel), it's financially impossible to employ someone.
By small I mean 8-10 beds in the 2 rooms on 1 floor (in a building where we live ourselves).

As we both have a full time job, the following question rises: How can we check in guests, or how can they get their key the day they arrive?
During the day (from 8am till 5pm) we won't be able to be at the hostel, after that no worries...

Does someone has experience with or a solution for this?

I've got some things in mind, but they are too expensive so I'm looking for an alternative..

Looking forward to your replies...

Thx!!

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decepe

14 years

Hi HostelBelgium,

I don't want to be a bearer of bad news, but this sounds a bit unfeasible to me. I think its fine for small hostels to not have staff in the evenings and night time, but I think there needs to be a presence in the daytime.

Perhaps you can have an evening check in - bit weird that though, or 1 work for accommodation staff (needs to be very trustworthy). One hostel I know in Australia pins the room key in an envelope on a board when they know a guest is arriving that they can not check in. Could one of you change jobs and get an evening job instead?

I stand corrected though...There are a some clever guys on this forum so perhaps they have a solution.

All the best

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Patrick

14 years

Technically impossible in France: safety regulations require permanent on-site presence of at least one trained staff.

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uktrail

14 years

I've come across several hostels which have a notice on the door: phone this number, or go to the post office 300m away. These rarely have a staff member on site. For guests, it's a bit of a pain. (Scotland, Ireland).

The Elenydd hostels in Wales (1km from nearest tarmac) have a coded lock on their door. If you make a booking, you are told the combination so you can arrive anytime. They are normally staffed until 1000h and from 1700-2200h.

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Josh Hostels

14 years

As we both have a full time job, the following question rises: How can we check in guests, or how can they get their key the day they arrive?
During the day (from 8am till 5pm) we won't be able to be at the hostel, after that no worries...

I worked at a hostel that was closed in the afternoons from maybe 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.. That worked okay for a small hostel.

I think it might be difficult to not have anyone there between 8 a.m. and noon because that is when people check out and cleaning is done. If people check out at 10 a.m., people will be checking in to dirty rooms/bathrooms/kitchen before 5 p.m.

Is no one is there in the morning, people may not check out on time and people will check in before the other people have checked out. With no staff to moderate the situation, some guests might get confused.

Another potential issue is that people will check in at 3 p.m., go out for dinner and come back at 2 a.m. -- then check out the next morning at 10 a.m.. You may never even see the guests.

I'm not saying it's impossible -- only listing a few possible things to watch out for :)

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HostelBelgium

14 years

Technically impossible in France: safety regulations require permanent on-site presence of at least one trained staff.

In Belgium, coz it's small (only 8-10 beds), rules and regulations are according to 'Bed & Breakfast' type of accomodation, and do not need on site presence at all times of someone..

If more than 10 beds/than 2 rooms, according to hotel regulations and indeed need of someone on site.

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HostelBelgium

14 years

I've come across several hostels which have a notice on the door: phone this number, or go to the post office 300m away. These rarely have a staff member on site. For guests, it's a bit of a pain. (Scotland, Ireland).

The Elenydd hostels in Wales (1km from nearest tarmac) have a coded lock on their door. If you make a booking, you are told the combination so you can arrive anytime. They are normally staffed until 1000h and from 1700-2200h.

I've been thinking about a coded lock on the door, too.. However, it's quite expensive (I've been told, at least 800 euros). But definitely sth to keep in mind, thx!

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HostelBelgium

14 years

I worked at a hostel that was closed in the afternoons from maybe 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.. That worked okay for a small hostel.

I think it might be difficult to not have anyone there between 8 a.m. and noon because that is when people check out and cleaning is done. If people check out at 10 a.m., people will be checking in to dirty rooms/bathrooms/kitchen before 5 p.m.

Is no one is there in the morning, people may not check out on time and people will check in before the other people have checked out. With no staff to moderate the situation, some guests might get confused.

Another potential issue is that people will check in at 3 p.m., go out for dinner and come back at 2 a.m. -- then check out the next morning at 10 a.m.. You may never even see the guests.

I'm not saying it's impossible -- only listing a few possible things to watch out for :)

Indeed, very good remarks..
Hmm, this makes it even more complicated!

Asking people to remove their own sheets, ok. But if 50% of them doesn't do this, it's indeed a problem for the next guests..

Let me think about it, i'll post sth later on ;)

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Jeremiasz

14 years

Hey HostelBelgium,

I'm doing something like that in South America, and we make it like this:

Breakfast: Served at 5:50am to everyone, like a buffett.
Checkout: 1:30pm
Check in: 1:30pm - 2:45pm / 7:00pm till 7:00am.

Information: Orientation Videos (about the hostel, the city, tours, key words and phrases for foreigners), Manuals, City Guides, etc.

Doors: Every guest has the key to the front door, the room and bathrooms.

Control: We FB and Google every single guest in order to know a little about them, cause you're opening your place to them, you never know, its better to be cautious. If they don't have a public tracking profile, we cancel the reservation, or we make another reservation for them in other hostel. For the security inside the house, use a webcam connected to your computer, which you can access online (a service like Apple's MobileMe); you'll feel like the Big Brother, but it's quite handy if you have some value stuff that you'd miss if something happens. Also, we work with some taxi companies and private remisses to pick the guests from the airport or bus stations and to know at what time they arrive, we manage the contact by sms's, so its a little bit easier to not get discovered or pissed at work. Payments at the check in, extras, the night before they leave.

And the secret weapon for the summer, (I want to take vacations):
Hire couchsurfers. They will trade housing and food for work.
;)

There's always a way to make the business work. Of course, promote your business as a guesthouse or b&b, because if you promote yourself as a hostel, you're going to be against the wall in relation for the customers reviews (the expectations of a hostel are 1000 times higher, everyone expects a Hostel Boutique).

Good Luck mate!

And remember: Impossible is Nothing, even in business.

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uktrail

14 years

We FB and Google every single guest in order to know a little about them, cause you're opening your place to them, you never know, its better to be cautious. If they don't have a public tracking profile, we cancel the reservation, or we make another reservation for them in other hostel.

So your hostel is only open to guests who are on Facebook or findable on Google? That sounds like discrimination to me!

(If you type in my name on either of these you will find dozens of people with the same name).

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Jeremiasz

14 years

Hi Uktrail,

As I told before, the scenario proposed was for a hostel / guesthouse without a staff, which means that it will work like couchsurfing but having the guests paying for some value driven services. Every single couchsurfing relation is built on trust, it's about empathy and also a profile analysis. The host always check the comments, rates and profiles of the couchsurfers who are asking for a place to stay. Same way can apply in a hostel without a staff due to the lack of controls, and specially because of the promise you have stablished to your guests in your hostel description. Some tools available are FB and Google. We have been using them to know our guests a little bit more, their interests, etc. and insofar, we haven't canceled any reservation in 5 months that we're about to be opened, but it's because we have made a clear description of our services and our facilities, but sometimes this criteria are not read by the guests.

For example, if you're managing a party hostel which your main target are single guests or a group of single guests which you're expecting to takeover your hostel bar and drink till the last drop of alcohol you have available (to maximize your profits and your assets) before they leave to party every single night. But, if you have a couple of volunteers or sociocultural driven travelers who just need a place to rest, the morning after they're going to check out and they're going to rate your hostel between 60% and 80% max leaving not so good comments along produced by their insatisfaction. Likewise if you're managing a chillout b&B or guesthouse for couples and solo travelers and you have by accident a party animal within them. Your place can't have a bar due to district regulations and there's also noise prohibitions because you're in a residential area. He'll feel like being trapped in grandma's house with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Next day he'll checkout too leaving his comments and rating your place between 60% and 80%max in the best case scenario.
As a business, nobody wants that.

That's why you should do a market segmentation, that is a better word than "to discriminate". You should focus your efforts in an specific target, a demographic niche that will fit into your hostel model and is ready to maximize their experience in your place, because it's what they're looking for. And if you have the opportunity to learn a little bit more about your guests, as they're able to know about your place, shouldn't you take the chance in order to bring them the best value driven service and to avoid their frustration if your place is maybe not what they're looking for?

In the end, everything is about them (your guests). You should make them feel comfy, feel safe, to have fun, and to provide a place where they can interact with likeminded people sharing their experiences. And you can only provide that to them if you know their demographics, and their profile. Otherwise you're going to fail.

As a business, on the other hand, you should be looking to maximize your costumer experience and satisfaction (in order with the last paragraph) and at the same time, you should minimize the contingencies and any collateral damage due to costumer insatisfaction and protect your assets against a malicious guest who has broken or stolen something. You can do that with a staff member, a security guard, security cameras and CCTV, or just doing a proper market segmentation.

What we were talking in this thread was about how to make viable a hostel without staff. And security for both sides (guests / assets) is one of the things you should first consider. For that reason the FB and Google options were mentioned. They're quite handy. You can verify if they're real costumers, if they have a real email, if they're not working for the competition, if they're from the district goverment or any other gov. institution sneaking around; also you can be sure you will be able to contact them to offer other services before their arrival, etc.

If this tools are suitable for you will depend on the kind of business you're running and your own beliefs and perceptions. Google, FB and any other social network is a good way to double check if your segmentation strategies are working. And in the hospitality business, a healthy business is the one who can maximize their costumer satisfaction by knowing what your costumers want and what they're expecting of you.

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