How to open a hostel

Hi Sergey,

There are two schools of thought when it comes to major expenses in the process of opening of a hostel.

1) Do it right, right from the start. In your case, that would mean begging, borrowing, saving, and collecting all the money you can find until you have enough to buy everything that your hostel should have. Once everything is in place, then you can open your perfect hostel – gorgeous and complete from Day 1.

2) Start small, think big. In your case, that would mean buying only the items that are absolutely necessary in order to get the business up and running and then opening your doors. After you generate some income from your guests, you can continue to invest and develop until you get to that big picture that had in mind for your hostel.

While the first option is tempting, especially for perfectionists like myself, the second option is a far more realistic and attainable way to open your business. Especially if you’re working with very limited funding.

If you’re shooting for the absolute minimum that would be needed to get started, you could probably get away with little more than beds and bedding. I have seen hostels that opened with mattresses on the floor because the owners couldn’t afford bed frames from the beginning, but I don’t recommend this option.

If you have a kitchen, you should have at least the most basic equipment that a guest could use to prepare a meal: refrigerator, microwave, and a hot plate. That’s not exactly a luxury setup, but it will work to cook dinner until you generate the income to buy more.

As a minimum for your social area, two comfortable couches and a table will start you out so that your guests have a place to sit and meet each other. A good second hand furniture store should be able to get you set up with something in good condition without breaking the bank.

A pitfall to avoid is buying something of poor quality in the beginning just because it’s cheap. You’re likely to end up buying that cheap item several times and spending considerably more money than you would have on a decent product. The problem is that after you have bought the cheap one multiple times, you STILL need to replace it with something decent to stop the cycle. It’s better to buy high quality items from the beginning.