15 years
Wow. The place looks great.
I always got an immediate reply when I signed up. Don´t panic. It´s a public holiday and then it´s weekend. Dunno about Ireland (where Hostelworld is), but in the UK (=> Hostelbookers) Monday is a bank holiday.
East Hostel Bucharest introduces itself
Introduce Your Hostel
Hello!
We are a brand new hostel in Bucharest, Romania, and we've been paying close attention to the threads on Hostel Management during the planning stage of nearly a year. Now we are ready to receive our guests and have taken the necessary steps to register with most of the booking sites out there, which brings up the first most important difficulty we are facing:
From your own experience, what would be a normal waiting time to receive membership on a booking engine, specifically on Hostelworld? The 48 hours reply time as stated when you submit the application form have now expired and it makes us wonder... So far, only Gomio has confirmed our membership and allowed us to build our microsite.
We are experiencing mounting pressure to receive reservations as soon as possible and every day counts.
Our place is a splendid restored interior of a late 19th century townhouse with luminous rooms, generously proportioned windows and ceiling heights, numbering four bedrooms (an 8-bed dorm, a 6-bed dorm, a double private room and a single room), a common room as well as two lavish bathrooms with toilets and showers and a delightful self-catering kitchen. We are on the 1st floor and access is from the street through a corridor leading to the reception and then up on a wooden winding staircase. The stairwell has a large period window opening into a lightwell.
Please visit us (for now) on our Gomio microsite:
http://www.gomio.com/hostels/europe/romania/bucharest/east%20hostel/overview.htm
Thank you, and any info or word of advice on the registration process with the booking sites and how long it can take would be greatly appreciated!
- Comments
15 years
If you haven't seen it yet, here's a list of 10 free places to list your hostel online.
(In addition to the booking engines.)
15 years
Thank you for your reply and your feedback:)
Hostelbookers contacted me this afternoon and it comes as a big relief. My bf and I finally managed to bring our dream to life after more than a year of reaserch and 2 months of war against romanian bureaucracy. We are both very young and it wasnt easy,especially since we started with very little money. Thats why we were a bit impatient and worried (and still are :) )
15 years
Great! I wish all the best to your hostel!
I have also build the hostel with my bf, and we are also very young)
...So you expect your bookings only from online reservations?
I don't know if it is a common practice in other countries but in Russia the hostels often has contracts with each other, if one hostel has no beds they can send a guest to another hostel for the commission. Maybe it can be useful when you just start.
Cheers!
15 years
Well that might do the trick in cities where hostels are fully booked. Unfortunately I rarely see a hostel fully booked in Bucharest.
The reason might be that hostels cant really count on the Romanian guests because around here very few know what that is.
Even young people like my friends at university ask me "hostel...whats that?",so mainly foreigners are booking. Not to mention that the idea of "shared facilities" doesnt excite them. It is a paradox since very few Romanians would afford couple of nights in Bucharest at a hotel (which have prices comparable to Paris). I see they are very fond of renting a small flat for the price of 60 euros/night in order to avoid sharing the kitchen or bathroom.
So when did you open your hostel? Very catchy name btw:) We had serious doubts regarding our name which seems to be very common. Even though we came up with different kinds of names, we had to stick to East in the end since Im totally inlove with Eastern Europe.We used pictures from our trips in Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria,Croatia to decorate the interior and we also have a lot of materials about this region.Last but not least, I study south slavic and balkan languages so I am able to provide a lot of infos about neighbouring countries and what to visit next.
Greetings!
15 years
We have the same problem here, almost nobody understands what is it, but i can say now it becomes a little more known, sometimes because of the horror film "Hostel")))). Some young students are don't mind to stay in the hostels with shared facilities in the holidays.
Maybe you can try to explain to the youth that hostelling is much more fun then staying in hotel or renting a flat?
Anyway having lots of locals in the hostel is bad for the atmosphere)
Well, now it is only 10 days since we are open, less then two weeks)
15 years
Hi Julia , hi everyone .
My Name is Andrei and I`m eager to open a hostel . I`ve been reading this forum inside-out .
I have some questions for you, Julia - since I`m Romanian and I want and will open a Hostel in Romania - Brasov to be precise .
First of all, I`m very interested and concerned about our "wonderfull " birocracy . What trouble did you have regarding the authorisation papers ?
Where , much and why did you have to pay "spaga" ? ( spaga=bribe, very common for Romanian authorities ) .
My ideea of an Hostel is ( I have a house my mom is renting ) to make a hostel in the basement . It`s a very big , 5 roomed - modern renovated fully equiped apartment . Another room , above the basement will be the reception . ( Windows are quite small but it has a very comfy feeling ) .
For this ideea, yet again I`m very frustrated. I don`t know if we will get the licence for practice - the Romanian Law prohibites to open a Hostel in a basement or in areas without natural lightning .We called the regional Ministry Of Tourism Representative to ask if it would be ok, and if we could kick the people who are renting and start renovating . She said that she must come and take a look . I personally thing she`s looking for a bribe ("spaga") . Would it be a wise thing to do ? To offer her a bribe for letting us make the Hostel downstairs ? What do you thing , based on your Romanian Hostel oppening experience ?
Do you have any advice ?
PS. Your Hostel looks great ! I will ( when I`ll open ) send customers to your place, if they want to visit Bucharest .
Best Regards,
Andrei
15 years
Hello Andrei,
First of all try to avoid contact with authorities, you need a lawyer to take care of the paper work . The ones for tourism ministery know about hotels and they often make this confusion.
You have to open a firm SRL and define your activity by chosing the appropiate kind of code (CAEN)...of course,there the word hostel isn't mentioned..so you need to pick either "accommodation" or "short term holiday accommodation", you have various options its up to you'.
We've tried on our own,but it was pointless so we had a lawyer to do all these fomalities. I think its the only option and this way I didnt have to pay anything, the lawyer knew exactly how to register me and make everything clear.
As far as i know, many offer accommodation in Romania without any check up by the authorities in advance, if you pay your taxes you can even rent your garage... the standard you are talking about refer to hotels and Im sure the ones from the ministery made this confusion.
Another thing i noticed is that tourist dont really like basments,so you should at least provide more than other hostels in brasov to somehow make-up for the minus. So far I noticed that many people who come to bucharest travel to Brasov aswell.Anyway what matters the most is the staff, if you have a good staff almost any shortcoming can be overcome.
Cheers!
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