What resourses should I use to determine tourism rates...And how to go about purchasing a property

Part of your research will just come from getting a feel for a city, but that can be very deceptive. You would be much better off with hard numbers, even if they’re not entirely accurate. In Eastern Europe I have the feeling that a lot of the official statistics are a little distorted, either by the reporting authorities or by the properties themselves. Still, it’s better than nothing. Most of those countries have a Statistics Department that keeps track of tourism. The local Chamber of Commerce might also have some statistics.

Also, check with the local Tourism Bureau and Info centers. They might have some information about the tourists that use their services. This probably won’t get you accurate numbers of how many tourists visit the city, but you could get some useful demographics out of it, like the percentage of each nationality, average age, which months have large spikes or dips in tourism, etc.

You can also check the public tax records of the hostels in a particular city to get an idea of how the business environment really is.

Hostels in feeder cities that are likely to send you guests might be more willing to share their occupancy data than your future competitors. Their impressions of how good or bad the market is in your desired city may not be entirely accurate though. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, so you may get overestimations of the real situation.

As far as funding goes, you should probably hit up banks in the US as well as Europe, and take the one that makes you the best offer (if any of them do). The Small Business Administration might be able to help you with the process of planning out the business, but unfortunately they will not help you secure a loan for a business that operates overseas.

It’s hard to say how much is a realistic amount of money to start up, because it would depend on too many factors. I have heard several people in this forum mention that they had a small hostel at one time and a medium hostel at another time. Frequently the smaller hostels were more profitable and easier to run, because the expenses and staffing costs go up as the hostel gets larger. There is sometimes a black zone in the mid-sized hostels where the costs outweigh the revenue, so it’s best to either go bigger or smaller in order to come out ahead financially. In EE the labor costs are lower than many other areas, so that helps you to afford a bigger place with more beds. The trade off is that the price of each bed is frequently lower too. If your funds are limited and your debts are already high, then it will probably be easier for you to start up a smaller place (at least at first). In this case renting also becomes a more feasible option.