Popularity of US hostels going to rise?

Plakian's hostel is a good example of "hostel as a destination". The hostel is in a place that I had never heard of, but a couple of backpackers mentioned it to me when I was in the more-crowded north coast of Crete.

There are a lot of examples of hostels off the main backpacker route that become destinations in their own right. About 15 years ago there was one hostel in Cape Tribulation (a couple of hours north of Cairns, Australia), which became a destination hostel, then other hostels followed and now there are four hostels there. The same could probably be said for Interlaken (although it was always a popular tourist destination it originally wasn't so popular with backpackers).

Another example is the Catlins in New Zealand, which is a rural region with one shop, no banks and nothing to see but there are around 10 hostels there (although the hostels are very small ones).

I just looked at a map and it looks like Gatlinburg is only 1 hour drive from Knoxville. Maybe students there would help fill it on weekends? There are probably a lot of people driving I-40 who would stop and see the Smokies.

I think a small hostel in an area unknown to international travellers needs at least 10 hostels nearby to promote through (but not too close to be competitors). You give the management and staff of those hostels a free weekend so they are familiar with your place and then place posters and flyers around those hostels. If you're lucky and you have an outstanding hostel, then maybe 10% of the guests of those hostels may end up staying at your place.

I think independent hostels will give you more business than HI hostels, many of which tend to promote only places within their own network.

Being close to I-40 will help but it is the hostels in Asheville, Knoxville, Louisville and possibly Washington DC that will be a big source of business until word-of-mouth kicks in.

Good ideas. I added them to the where to open a hostel wiki page.

From reading these forums, it looks like Memphis will be getting another hostel. That's excellent news.

I'll soon start working on a proposal to publish a guidebook to Canada and the USA, but since the only accommodation we include are hostels there will be problems when we write about big cities like Des Moines, Kansas City and Oklahoma City but don't list any accommodation options. Other places like Richmond, VA don't have a hostel but there are places nearby.

Most of the US cities that still don't have hostels are second-tier cities in the minds of most international travellers. But cities like Detroit, Pittsburgh or Richmond, VA do have something that will appeal to many travellers and although places like Des Moines and Kansas City don't have any major sights, but they are conveniently placed, big enough and well-known enough to warrant an overnight stop if you're travelling across the country.

I think any city with at least half a million people could support a hostel, but especially those on the main east-west Interstate highways (I-10, I-40, I-70, I-80 and I-90). Once those destinations have hostels, then it is up to the hostels just outside major national parks - at this point a hostel in Gatlinburg makes perfect sense - and culturally unique areas like Lancaster County, PA.

Some parts of the United States have developed quite good independent hostel networks. It is possible to travel around the West Coast, Alaska and Colorado and find a hostel to stay in most towns and cities. I would probably give it five years before the rest of the country becomes more developed.