List of Hostel Chains Worldwide
This thread is an attempt to list hostel chains worldwide (or at least any hostel with two or more locations).
I think it would be an interesting list. If you add to the list please note any hostel chains that are owned by hotel chains and put the number of hostels in parenthesis.
I'll start a brief list that can be expanded. There might be too many to list all of them, but when the list is large enough I will compile it into one document sorted by country.
- Jazz Hostels, USA (6 hostels)
- USA Hostels (4 hostels)
- Green Tortoise, Seattle and San Francisco, USA (2 hostels)
- Floyd's Hostel & Fort Lauderdale Beach Hostel, Florida, USA (2 hostels)
- Nomads World, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji (9 hostels?)
- Base Backpackers, New Zealand & Australia (11 hostels?)
- Wombats, Germany, Austria (4 hostels?)
- Hostels Oasis, Spain and Portugal (3 hostels)
- Home Hostels, Spain (3 hostels?)
- Flying Pig Hostels, Netherlands (3 hostels)
- Comments
16 years
I know of hostels in the USA that are profitable with cleanliness ratings that sometimes drop into the 40's (%) on Hostelworld. :confused:
There are hostels that do fine in the USA with overall ratings in the 65% range.
That was one of the original motivations for creating HostelManagement.com. I don't think it's that difficult to increase ratings. There is just sometimes a lack of vision for what is possible.
Lack of competition makes hostel owners lazy. Look at Paris, it´s the same there. I often read hostel reviews just to have a good laugh. Like: "The toilet is blocked" - "What am I supposed to do about it? Your fault! You made too big shit!" or "Refund? This is Paris, you don´t get any refund". They can get away with anything there.
Is that famoushostels.com? I noticed that they were moving through different content management systems over the past year or two. Drupal and now Typo3. I liked the older Drupal version...
Yes. I haven´t looked at their website a while.
one thing that would bug me about a hostel in the US is the liquor laws - 21 to drink!? there are a lot of backpackers out there between 18-21 and i wouldnt want to limit the market of the bar by excluding them, or having to be so uber-vigilant about checking ID in the bar.
Ah, you´re right. I didn´t think of that. I guess that keeps a lot of first-time travellers away from the USA.
16 years
"The toilet is blocked" - "What am I supposed to do about it? Your fault! You made too big shit!"
That is funny...
Customer service at its best...
Ah, you´re right. I didn´t think of that. I guess that keeps a lot of first-time travellers away from the USA.
There is plenty of underage drinking here in the USA -- it's just harder to do in the bars and clubs if you are under 21.
In the US it's ok for an 18 year old to go to war or buy guns at Walmart without a permit, but no alcohol allowed. Very strange...
16 years
That is funny...
Customer service at its best...
The whole thing: (quite a scroller, but worth reading! :D)
GermanPaddy from Germany stayed here on 20th September 2007
A mate of mine and myself stayed with this company when we went to Paris for the Rugby World Cup in September. The meeting-point where we were to meet the hostel representative was pretty easy to find. The bloke who picked us up, albeit over half an hour late (due to people checking into another apartment before us being late), was nice and friendly. This was pretty much the most satisfactory point about my stay at the hostel. We were then walked to our aparment house and shown our flat on the sixth floor of a six story building with no elevator whatsoever. The room consisted of a small hallway, two small rooms, an even smaller bathroom and a kitchen that was probably the size of a big cardboard box, if that. We got a good sleep in the beds provided and the fact that we stayed with a couple of backpackers of our age was pretty cool as well. Generally, the flat smelled a bit rank and it didn\'t seem as if it got cleaned everyday. The fact that it was just close by a school with children shouting and screaming all day was, bearing the price in mind, not too bad. But what happened to us on the second morning of our stay was easily the worst thing that has happened to me in my life when staying abroad. We woke up in the morning and went to the bathroom where after brushing my teeth and using the toilet I witnessed my toilet flush coming up through the shower. In full awareness about the rules posted for toilet/bathroom use, we then proceded to call the number we were given with our booking confirmation. The lady seemed understanding and we agreed that one member of her staff would drop by and have the problem sorted once we got back from the activities we had planned for the day. When we got back nothing had changed. It had, in fact, got a lot worse. This basicly resulted in us having to walk down six flights of stairs and walk to the cafe on the corner to have a coffee and go for a piss. We couldn\'t shower either and had to use the kitchen sink to wash \"body parts with an advanced factor of transpiration\" and brush our teeth. We called the lady again the next morning and she became rude. She told us how the whole dilemma was down to us making \"too big shit\" and that French people generally make smaller shits. We thought that was pretty harsh, considering the fact that none of the people living in the apartment had used the toilet for any type of \"big business\". My friend and I then decided to pack up and make our way to the head office to meet the lady face to face, explain our problem and concerns to her, kindly ask for a refund and find somewhere nicer to stay. In the office, we met a man who was talking to us and seemed to understand our point. He then dialed the \"magic number\" to reach the lady everybody only seems to know over the phone. After a couple of minutes of French conversation between the two he passed the phone to us and we were once again told about how this was Paris and not Ireland or Australia and the toilet habits of the French people. We expressed our desire to check out and find somewhere better to stay. The lady then told us that we should know that we were in France where refunds weren\'t possible. We were offered to be picked up by a member of staff to be walked to another apartment where we could have a shower and go to the toilet, which we declined, as the times offered didn\'t fit us as we were going to see a rugby match that night.
"French people generally make smaller shits." :D
16 years
... which brings us to the question of hostel reviews. That particular hostel is known to have several rave reviews (which presumably attracted the correspondent) and several on the lines of the above. But this is a whole other subject -- I'll start a separate thread for it if you like!
16 years
She told us how the whole dilemma was down to us making "too big shit" and that French people generally make smaller shits.
[...]
The lady then told us that we should know that we were in France where refunds weren't possible.
Great story... :D
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