Hi everyone!
I'm happy to have found this site as it appears to be full of useful resources. Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself because I'll probably be on the site a lot.
I'm 23, from Boston, USA; a year out of college where I obtained my hotel management degree, just resigned from my job with a destination management company which I started a month prior to my graduation. I absolutely love traveling and have no desire to start working again for "the man". I'm traveling to Colombia in 1 week mostly just for fun but also to do some on the ground research into starting up my hostel.
Cheers!
below is a link to a previous thread about a question I have related to hotel/tourism statistics...
http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forums/tourismhotel-statistics.html
15 years
I heard Colombia is a great country. I have travelled South America for a year (never made it to Colombia though). Forget statistics. In Latin America, they aren´t very good at these things. I figure you should be able to get much more useful information from some international tour operators or airlines than from the government of Colombia.
15 years
Welcome to the site...
Boston? I'm based in Amherst.
(By the way, the link above isn't working...)
15 years
I think Plato wanted to refer to this one...
http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forums/tourismhotel-statistics.html
15 years
Good idea Santa. You're right, I've found that the official tourism statistics (# tourists a year) to be contradictory and vary considerably throughout the report! (maybe their methodology for counting tourists is inconsistent?) And Aboriginal, thanks for the help with the link.
15 years
In my 4 years studying hotel administration hostels were never mentioned or spoken about. Of course we did learn a little about budget hotel chains etc. My teacher was actually pleasantly surprised when I mentioned hostels as a potential untapped market in many destination in the USA.
But much of what I learned about hotels can certainly be applied to running a hostel. Although guests of a hostel and those of a 4 or 5 star hotel differ with regards to their expectations, values, needs, etc; both types of accommodations are similar in many respects.
15 years
But much of what I learned about hotels can certainly be applied to running a hostel.
No.
We had people who went to hotel school working here. Their de-training took months. Please forget everything you think to know about hotels ASAP.
I am not kidding.
15 years
Santa I'd have to completely disagree with a blanket "No" and to forget about everything I know about hotels and my education. To not apply and adapt what I know would be silly. I'm not talking about specific rules here but general ideas and guidelines. And I assume your just referring to the operations of the hotel and that which supports it, because clearly even what is learned in a general business major in terms of marketing, financials, etc. can be applied to hostels.
But let's take the layout of a hostel into consideration. How should a hostel be laid out so that all elements and facilities within the hostel come together most effectively for the guest? Certainly some lessons can be learned here from hotels such as:
-front desk- should be the first thing the guest sees upon walking through the door.
-BOH kitchen- near the F&B area
-F&B area or restaurant- many important lessons can be learned from hotels/restaurants.
-layout of a single room- may follow the layout of a standard hotel room
-others...
How about guest complaints? They should be more or less handled like the best hotel does.
How about unruly or destructive guests? Yup, same way.
With hotels and hostels your essentially selling a bed/room to a person visiting a destination. How can there not be similarities between the two?
15 years
Sorry to dissapoint you but I´m serious. When you have never seen a screw you will think it´s a nail and use a hammer. That is exactly what hotel people do in hostels. I don´t litterally say forget everything but never forget a hostel is not a hotel.
The fact that they never mentioned hostels in your hotel school says it all.
I have had many occasions when the hotel dude told me "you are doing this wrong. Look, I have been tought to do it this way" and my reply was always "we used to do it your way but it didn´t work. Trust me, we know better".
Some big differences between hostels and hotels:
- Hotels are usually overstaffed, hostels are always understaffed.
- Most hotels belong to huge chains, there is a clear chain of command, decisions are always made at the top, employees are not supposed to use their common sense to solve problems, but ask their manager or look up what to do in the manual/intranet/wherever everything is written down. In contrast, hostels usually pride themselves with their flat hierarchy, staffers usually do their job for fun, not to make career and they can´t do their job without using their common sense. In a hotel, you are supposed to wear a uniform and be polite, in a hostel it´s OK to be the person you are.
- Hotels sell most of their rooms to travel agents, tour operators or corporate clients. Hostels only use a few online booking sites and otherwise sell their beds directly to their guests. The marketing of a hotel is completely different from the marketing of a hostel.
- Hostels habe much less "departmentalism". Hotels have a clear division of labor between reception, cleaning, bar, restaurant, marketing etc. Most hostels don´t. Hotels have things like cleaning outsourced, hostels don´t.
The list goes on and on.
I´d say you run a hostel much more like an indie record shop than like a hotel.
15 years
You do have some very valid points here and I agree with all the differences you have listed. And I'm glad I already have enough common sense/knowledge (and hostel staying experience) to realize most of these differences. I'm sure if I had not personal experiences staying in hostels I certainly would not realize these.
And nice simile : )
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