Does Berlin need another hostel?
Business Partners
Hello everyone,
Being a former frequent traveller, I probably spent way more than one year of my 29 in hostels, small and big, clean or dirty, run by a single owner or by hordes of staff, in beach hostel resorts or pakced high rise city hostels. Anyway I'm now naive enough to think that I know enough about the industry to open a hostel.
So I'm looking for one or two business partners to remotely explore the idea to open (yet another) hostel in Berlin, Germany.
My background is IT & business, in which I have a near full-time job that I would want to keep. I have some money to invest, time to spare, and ideas to implement - but I cannot (and dont want to) do it on my own.
My ideas revolve around a hostel that is small and boutique, but still economically feasible. Where its owners do frequent shifts at the front desk, welcome guests personally, give advice and help out with any other task - be it barkeeping or housekeeping.
I dont have a business plan, I dont believe in them, but I would very well know how to create one. I know few things about the social media, marketing, accounting, and the hospitality industry - from 0 star to 5 stars. Bits and pieces here and there, but my ideas and skills are definitely not sufficicent, that is why I'm looking for like-minded partners. Partners that have a good potential to become good friends in the process.
Send me a message if you think alike,
Alex
- Comments
13 years
Hey Alex,
Like yourself, I am an avid traveler and have been thinking about opening a hostel. I have a formal education in Fianance and Internationa Business, and two citizenships in U.S. and Belarus. Since U.S. is not very "hostel-friendly", I have been considering opening a hostel in Minsk. There is one hostel there that has opened up recently (you can see on hostelworld or hostels.com), however it is not very "hostellish"- it seems that it is being run by older folks, so it looks like a soviet-style hotel with bunked beds, more than anything...
Now, if I go with it (I am checking on laws and regulations right now), the time frame is somewhere closer to a year from now. This way the traffic is lighter in the fall, and I have time for streamlining operations by New Year tourist season, and even more so by the Summer of 2013.
There is a family condo there, which has tenants until July. I am planning to sell it to partially fund my venture. I am also allocating some additional funds to supplement the real estate sale proceeds. Thus, I believe I have at least a half of the money needed to start a hostel.
From spending two summers there, and as you probably know, there are both positives and negatives in opening one in Belarus. The westerners have mostly heard the negatives: dictator, terrible bureaucracy, need for a visa for most foreigners, lack of owner rights protections, recent crises.
Now, apparently, there are also positives. This type of a business, where there are under 15 employees (and I will be running it myself for at least several years) falls under "micro-business" definition, and can take advantage of simplified tax filing and tax burden (8% total).
Also, since the recent financial crises (recession with currency devaluation), the cost of labor has declined. Finally, since there was very little expenditure in this field since the fall of Soviet Union, there is still a shortage of hotels in Minsk and across the country. Now there were several deals signed where hotels will be constructed over the next 5-10 years, there is no reason to expect that the pricing will come down.
Since, Minsk is not very far from Berlin, I invite you and anybody else reading this for cooperation and to the future hostel is I open it:))
There are multiple ways to cooperate. I would welcome both help with business knowledge, marketing, part-ownership, referrals, etc.
Shoot me an email if you have any ideas.
Best,
Alek
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