Room/Bed Combination

Well, it is rather a financial question, as you have to work out your pricing policy first.

Regarding your room sizes, it will give you a maximum capacity, which can determine the value of your room. The market prices can determine your prices as well, although I'd rather be adventurous to risk about +10% price comparing to average city prices: if you can provide more services than your competition, you can be still successful in business. :cool:

If your city has lot of private rooms, probably the price will be cheaper, if privates are rare, then those prices could be more expensive. Also you may want to check your prices regarding to 3-star hotels, which is the segment competition to hostel private rooms. You may don't want to be more expensive than them, as budget tourists count them as an option. ;)

Then you can do the same-o-same with the dorms, comparing your prices with the city, country, or area prices.

You have to work out your pricing policy for your entire year, calculating off-season and peak season prices, weekend prices, etc. You should be able to upload your pricing at least for the year, so people would be able to book well in advance, which way you can check if your prices are right or too expensive.

When you've got the pricing policy, you can work it out if it is worth to have it as a dorm or rather as a private room. I'd keep your rooms flexible, either on prices or replaceable, so in need you would be able to convert a dorm to private or contra, but the most important thing is to be able to sell all beds at the end of the day. There is no sense if you can't sell a room/bed last minute because a walk-in thinks your prices are too expensive... you can always give some discount or give a private room for dorm price in need.

"The most expensive bed is the unsold bed!"

PS. Asian travelers (esp. female) prefer to have single sex dorms, otherwise you'll be fine with mixed ones. IMHO.

I hope it helped a bit in your question. :cool:

Thanks for your feedback.

I suppose it hadn't really occurred to me to also examine the 3-star hotels, which there are plenty in my town, but they all suck big time. Instead, there are several nice new hostels, many crap 3-stars and the rest are either 4 or 5 star hotels.

I suppose it will be safer to just make rooms big enough for say, 2-3 bunk beds which can be converted to private rooms, depending on the occupancy at the time. The drawback to this will be that the person who is booking for a private may well have to share the bathrooms.

Per your suggestion, I will look into comparing our prices with 3 star hotels in addition to hostels, but seeing the variety in room types offerred by others can be a little overwhelming.

When we launch I hope to reduce our pricing to gain more reviews first then raise them later on several months later.

I think I agree with you on the female bathrooms!!

BTW I find it quite peculiar that you would open an OZ themed hostel in Europe. Is it because you're australian?

Indeed! :D

Emovere:
I work for a hostel chain called "Wombat´s". The idea to start this business was born when our owners travelled Australia - much of our concept was copied from what they saw there. When we started in Vienna in 1999, there were very few independent hostels in Europe - in contrast to Australia.

The Aussie theme has the additional bonus that it attracts travellers from Australia - 25% of our guests. :)