Thanks for welcoming me in your community.

Hi everybody,

My name is Karel Mondt, independant owner and manager of the Sleephere Hostel in Brussels.

My story is quite amusing. Never I could have imagined doing what I am doing now, and yet, I enjoy it very much.
As one of my guests wrote one day: "Running Sleephere seems to be like a life mission for Karel"
This might sound stupid, but if I think about it, it's quite true!

My biggest fear? : grow too much and loose direct contact with each of my guests.

Here comes the story about how it all started:

The “Sleephere B&B” Saga
Written by Karel, the greatest guy ever (!?) with his even greater dog César.....

Chapter one: How everything began...

Like myself, most MBA graduates learn that when you want to launch a new business you start first doing a market analysis, then you make a business case, then you start promoting and then you pray God.
Well, I can tell you this is not the way Sleephere B&B was created.

Here comes the story…..

Once upon a while I came back in my house from a mission in Africa. All of a sudden I occupied all alone a house with 4 bedrooms of which only one I used for myself.
So, I thought: maybe I could rent one or two rooms to students?
That’s how all started. I started advertising on sites for rooms to let and very soon I got several demands. Not only local students, but also and mainly students travelling to Brussels for couple of months to do research or to obtain a degree during summer classes, etc…

Having these people around me made me happy. I always enjoyed having lots of people in my house. I started making friends, we talked a lot, I took these people out to discover the good places in the city, but I also helped those who had an issue or felt sick. It was such a great feeling. We literally lived together sharing the entire house and I didn’t mind the privacy at all.

All of a sudden I felt very useful, proposing a concept which I always missed when I was travelling: a home away from home, a place you can trust, a place where the owner thinks in the first place about you and not about him/her-self, a place where guests could experience and enjoy the real Belgian/Brussels way of living, not (only) the touristic way.

After a couple of months, I liked it soo much that I wondered if I could maybe turn my house into a B&B. Many of my friends said “Yes, why not”, but I understood clearly they didn’t believe it would work out, especially since my house was not so well located in connection to the historic center of the town. I knew they were a bit laughing behind my back, but I didn’t let the idea down!

As I was looking for a name (not being so inventive for that myself), one of my friends proposed to call it simply “Sleep Here , and get breakfast and more”. It seemed a stupid name at first sight, but I thought this name covered exactly what the place was meant to be. So, the name “Sleephere B&B ” was born.

I started defining the concept, gathering pictures, publishing on different booking sites, and off it went. The first bookings came in, and the guests were introduced in the house exactly in the same way as I did with the students. Guests started to experience the real life in Brussels/Belgium, living with me, and they enjoyed it!!!

Quickly the feed-back was great and this encouraged me to move on, and on and on.
This new activity (at that time not yet a “business”) became by baby and my proud.
The concept became so successful that, a couple of months later, I was all the time fully booked. First 4/5 beds, then 6, then 7, and 8, and people ended up asking me if they could sleep on a sofa if there was no space left. And they were happy to do so!

Second episode next week! Stay connected!