15 years
Simple, really, you just used a gadget called a "telephone". And before that, something called a "letter". Or you just turned up and hoped.
running a hostel before internet and now, communication of hostels
Introduce Yourself
Hello!
I am a communication science student and also this summer have had my first hostel experience. I never stayed in a hostel before, but I nevertheless got an opportunity to work in one. I am from Croatia where hostels are relatively new concept. A lot of people when u tell them about hostels, mistake it for a hotel and when u tell them how hostels work their reaction often is : "You share room with complete strangers?". Another thing is that they have idea of hostels as dirty places, with stinky , moneyless backpackers. That is the reason why I chose to write a project about hostels.
Since I am a communication science student, part of my project has to have a part about communication. So, I have written about making a hostel reservation through Hostelworld, have explained how the whole thing works etc.
But I need also to write about the way how hostels operated before the age of internet. I understand it was mostly through word of mouth, that people had to show up at the place not knowing in advance whether there will be availabilities or not. I have also heard an interesting story about hostels in Hungary, "runners", their bodyguards etc. :)
So, if anyone can help me with that, if someone has been into hosteling before the era of internet, has worked or managed some hostel then and can help me by telling me about their external and internal communication then, I would greatly appreciate it.
Tnx. :)
- Comments
15 years
Those were the days when guide books (Lonely Planet, Let's Go and Rough Guide) were far more important than they are now. It was important to get good reviews in these guides.
From the management point of view life was so much simpler and easier then, IMHO. Fill the hostel with walk-ins and then say sorry to the rest. The hours I now spend at a keyboard each day used to be spent having a beer with the guests!
15 years
Tnx. Yeah, it doesn't seem like I will have a lot to write on that part, about hosteling before, well at least regarding the communication aspect.
Yes, I know about that gadget called telephone :). But where would they get the nmbr from, where were hostels advertised if there was no Internet, Hostelworld, Hostelbookers etc, and not all of them could fit into guidebooks?
In a telephone book?
of course, word of mouth, but what else?
I guess people working for hostel would go out to main squares, bus, train stations and give away flyers ...What again some do today just like before..
So, Plakian, from managing point of view, it was easier before internet? Was there some kind of a special system of managing a hostel?
Were hostels working more closely together, sending guests to one another?
Well, it seems like there is not much to say on that subject..
If someone cares and has a will to write their view of how Internet has affected and changed hosteling I'd be very interested to hear more about it.
Tnx.
15 years
I used to travel a lot in South America in the pre-Internet era.
I never reserved a bed. Not once. Word of mouth was important. You would ask other backpackers where they have been and where they stayed. I had a very good guidebook, called the "South American Handbook". Very few things were not listed in there. I marked things other travellers recommended. This guidebook had a 10 pages long list of freelance contributors everywhere on the continent. Mostly Spanish names - apparently locals.
Many hostels made sure enough of their business cards or fliers were in other hostels in the nearby cities. I always asked the hostel owners if they know a place to sleep they can recommend in the place I was going next. Hostel owners went to the coach stations when buses from other popular backpacker destinations arrived. They offered a free ride to their hostel and a free ride back in case I don´t like it. The message boards in kosher restaurants were gold mines - there were many Israelis travelling there, they all went to "their" restaurants, each of them had large message boards where Israeli travellers put up notes about recommendable places.
15 years
I can go back to managing a hostel without a computer. We used a card index system to record who had paid what and how much they owed.
I think the hostel had the first computer in town. The boss thought it was going to be like the cash register! I couldn't use it much for the first month because he was playing solitaire and pinball all the time!
15 years
I managed a hostel in Scotland before the advent of any internet bookings. The YHA here had a system called "fax a bed ahead" basically this involved paying at one hostel for a booking ahead at another hostel. The customer would pay us, then we would fill in a form which would be faxed to the hostel being booked. The customer would then be given a copy to present on arrival at the hostel, and we'd keep the other copy for our records. The system worked, but obviously was a hassle and involved a a lot of phone calls. These days the system of booking between Scottish YHAs is completely computerised, it is a lot better all round. The only complaint is from people who expect beds to be kept for walk-ups, as used to happen. Obviously this system of faxing was only applicable for a chain of hostels such as the YHA.
The hostel was small and closed during the day between 11 am and 5pm. If customers arrived during these times there was a board with a number of envelopes in it, the same number as number of female and male beds - so say in the morning we had 4 male and 2 female beds left we'd put out that number of envelopes. I can't remember if the customer put in payment and then posted the envelope into to the box or their membership card, but at 5 pm we'd empty it out and those beds were reserved for those people, and any left sold for walk-ups.
I hostelled in the USA and Europe in 1987, and then it was a matter of lining up outside the reception when the hostel opened - usually 5pm, and hoping there was a bed - I remember missing out a few times, and having to find alternatives - the problem was back then that there were very few alternatives - the number of independent backpackers hostels was very limited - and even the availability of cheap hoel beds very limited. People just expected it. I'm constantly surprised by the number of young backpackers who have their accomm booked months in advance. Kills the spontenaiety.
15 years
Thanks guys. That is really helpful.
Can you tell me a bit more about card index system?
I have to ask for help also regarding the story I heard about back in 90-ies how hostels in Hungary were getting guests. Apparently they had these "runners" with bodyguards getting guests from trains and buses. If there is someone on this forum who has experience like that, from that period, I would really like to hear about first hand experience.
Thanks once again to all of you bearing with me :)
And also, was there some place where all hostels, let's say in Europe were listed in? Some magazine or smth? I guess YHA maybe could have had smth? I mean, it is not like hostels were advertised only by word of mouth or one hostel sending guest to another hostel in next destination?
15 years
Back when I first started backpacking in the late 80's early 90's it was Lonely Planet and then word of mouth was the only way to find and trust backpacker places / hostels. You would have to take a chance for the first few until you started to getting to used to it.
You would then try and call up and see if they had a bed or just rocked on up and hoped that something was available. You would sometimes spend a night at a place with your guide and everyone else and their Lonely Planet / Rough Guide and mark down the good and bad of the places you were going and had been to.
This was in based in Asia so I'm not sure on how different it was in Europe as I only started Europe 5 years ago and that was all done via the net! :)
15 years
I have to ask for help also regarding the story I heard about back in 90-ies how hostels in Hungary were getting guests. Apparently they had these "runners" with bodyguards getting guests from trains and buses. If there is someone on this forum who has experience like that, from that period, I would really like to hear about first hand experience.
Those fuckers boarded the train in Györ, the first stop after the border. They wouldn´t leave you alone, it was worse than a Moroccan bazaar. Even if you told them you have reserved a hostel already (i.e. not one of their shitholes), they told you bullshit like "oh, don´t you know this place burned down last week?". When you left the train in Budapest, there were even more of them on the platforms. When you managed to get away from them, there was another trap - they had "tourist information" booths in the station. If you were naive enough to walk into one of these just to ask for a city map or a metro ticket, they would torture you with more bullshit about their "hostels".
I haven´t seen them any more since a few years. I hope they had slow, painful deaths.
15 years
And also, was there some place where all hostels, let's say in Europe were listed in? Some magazine or smth? I guess YHA maybe could have had smth? I mean, it is not like hostels were advertised only by word of mouth or one hostel sending guest to another hostel in next destination?
I used to ask for a list of addresses from the Information counter in train stations and airports when I arrived in a new city. I remember getting laughed at and told I was an idiot for thinking I could find a hostel in the afternoon in Madrid back in 1998. He told me that I had to show up at the front door at 7am, wait in line with everyone else, and hope for the best.
One hostel had a sign saying that if I wanted to stay the next night I had to request it by 10pm the night before at the latest or else my bed would be sold to someone else by the time I woke up in the morning.
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