Introduce yourself

I forgot to introduce myself when I found and joined this site a few weeks ago!

I am Marta from Spain, working hard trying to open a hostel in northern Spain....hopefully in the next year I will own a hostel and a bank will own me haha.

Thanks a lot for this website, it´s being really helpful to solve doubts, get ideas and share experiences.

Cheers! :)

Hi everyone, this looks a great site! I run a website www.uktrail.com listing most of the hostels in Gt Britain, with opinions based on my own visits where possible, and a summary of other people's reviews when available. I have developed a Sociability Index which assesses the sociability and friendliness of a hostel, which is not the same as the 'fun factor' used by some reviewers. I am aged 64 and have just stayed in my 400th hostel. I have never owned or managed a hostel but I have a great interest in them, and although at my present age I do not want to get into the nitty-gritty of running a hostel, I'd be interested in giving a little help to anyone starting one. I'd really like to see a hostel started in one of the beautiful towns, Shrewsbury or Ludlow, in my county, to replace the ones that the YHA have closed and sold. I am a member of the Elenydd Trust which has just bought two remote Welsh hostels from the YHA, and also of the Gatliff Trust which runs simple hostels in the Outer Hebrides.

I'm particularly interested in the small and/or simple hostels which are the friendliest, and I knew I would like this site when I read Hostels' introduction to the Ideal Hostel thread, including the theme that TVs are NOT a positive attraction to a hostel common room!

Thanks for your interesting comments. I would like to see this forum develop as a 'meeting point' for hostel owners/managers, and as a place where hostels for sale are announced.

Although the site is aimed at hostel staff more than hostel guests, many guests are potential hostel workers/owners, and some will have sufficient interest to put forward their ideas. You could produce a little card and invite hostels to download the card and put it on their notice board to announce this site.

I can see a line of approach, in which websites like mine, this forum, Hostelbookers and GOMIO, and hostel owners might cooperate to mutual benefit -- focusing on the low-budget, smaller but most delightful hostels!

My own site UKTrail has somewhat lost its role. It is intended as a resource for potential guests who want to assess hostels in an area, and then make a booking. Unfortunately this role has been taken over by Hostelworld; at least, it is perceived that way by internet users. Whenever anyone asks in a forum about the best hostels in a city, the advice is nearly always 'Go to Hostelworld where you can look at reviews and then book'. This has tended to squeeze out websites like mine (my bookings have dropped by 90% over 3 years, and feedback from visitors has dropped by 100%), and also other booking agents such as Hostelbookers. At the same time it favours the larger 'chain' hostels who have large turnovers and don't mind the 10% commission they pay to Hostelworld.

I can see the possibility of a different role: the promotion of the small and sociable hostels. In other words, focussing on the low-budget market. Many guests, especially solo travellers, positively want a sociable atmosphere in a hostel, and this is not always easy to identify on the Hostelworld reviews. Many small hostels are not in Hostelworld because they prefer to avoid paying the commission and all the bookwork involved in on-line bookings, although quite a few have their own in-house online booking system accessed from their own website. I like to advise guests to book by phone or email, which suits hostels better but does not enable websites to get any commission. (Getting commission is not essential to me, but it sure is a big incentive!)

It was interesting to see Hostelbookers mentioned; perhaps they might be interested in directing some of their effort towards the low-budget end of the market. If they can't compete with the bigger company on quantity, maybe they could focus on the Quality!

So I would like to see a move towards a cooperative effort between websites such as UKTrail and Small-hostels, and Hostelbookers as an online agent, with active participation by the lower-budget hostels, and this forum to help to tie it all together.

Hi there,

My name is Scott, I am from New Zealand, but Currently living in Brisbane.
I havent ever worked in a Hostel, but am interested in starting one once I have finished travelling in a few years. But have stayed in quite a few over the last couple of years.

I would like to start a hostel in NZ, but there does seem to be so many already, even the small cities now have a minimum of 5 or 6!

In April next year I'm moving to the UK with my partner and we will be looking to work together in a hostel, we are open to where we go, so if you are looking for someone get in touch.

Scott.