Hostel reviews and hostel culture

I always write from a position of a hostel, but dramatic change in hostel culture affects both hostels and customers.

1. Hostels have their roots in 1968 "Flower Power" generation that was looking for cheap and unconventional accommodation in US and worldwide. Our other roots are somewhere deep in beginnings of summer camps and boyscout movement (bunk bed story) even earlier than 1960ies. Hostel were NEVER mainstream, and have always had ambition and were part of so called ALTERNATIVE lifestyle. This is where we come from - and we are not HOTELS, and we have nothing to do with corporate profit oriented lifestyle and values. Up until +/-10 years ago when first big online booking engines started to meddle into our affairs trying to make money for themselves. They did not come to help us, but themselves. If we get destroyed in the process - they do not care ... Thank you HW !

2. Hostel reviews have destroyed FREEDOM OF SPEECH. There was once time when hostels were oasis of free speech. Great part of staying in hostels were long discussions about meaning of life, philosophy, god or lack of it, social and environmental issues, religion etc. Nowadays hostels live in fear. Guess what. Hostels I worked in got negative reviews because guests disliked opinion of other guests or staff on something... Best control is self inflicted control. Order of the day is to keep quiet and talk about weather. People will not sacrifice their daily bread for their ideals (most will not). Are we in a hostel or Soviet Union ??? Thank you HB !

Matt,

Don't know where you've worked, but as freedom of speech is a constitutional right here, i would never stifle the opinions of guests or staff. That said, reasonable discussion is one thing, racist or nationalistic comments are another. if i had a staff member, or a guest spewing racist dogma, then we would tell the staff to stop (as after all they WORK here - this is not a street corner) and remind the guest politely that hostels are a place for learning about and coming to understand other cultures. THAT was their original purpose when started in Germany in the 1950s. To foster cross cultural understanding.

We won't stifle opinion, but we won't allow abuse of any guest either.

Now, if comments made in the course of a discussion led to a bad review - then you need to deal with HW or HB to get it resolved. Before the advent of these sites, you'd still have an unhappy customer telling everyone they met how awful their stay way and what an awful place it was. Now you can at least make an owner comment and try to 'balance' the picture.

there's always going to be someone who is unhappy and we have to take it on chin sometimes. I'd rather see it in writing than not know what people are saying. but if clearly ridiculous- like a comment a guest made that San Diego was nice but too full of Mexicans - then we request it be removed. (San Diego IS mexico historically, of course there are a lot of mexican folks here!)

I don't think sites like hostelworld have been a negative overall, but rather generally positive in spreading the word, faster and better than individual hostels can about what hostelling is. In the USA this has lead to more and more guests travelling to hostels. i think this is a good thing as long as we balance our purpose with our profit and make sure our guests are meeting people from other cultures and hopefully coming to understand others more.

You don't have to be a fancy upscale hostel to get great scores. You can still be a hostel that offers community and friendship and kick ass on hostelworld. Just look at Pacific Tradewinds. It's tiny - 40 beds and not fancy at all and it's been a powerhouse on hostelworld for ages. there's always a customer for every hostel as long as that hostel stays true to what it wants to be.

As for hostels becoming 'mainstream', well that's life - rap, country music, even rock and roll weren't mainstream at one time.... as popularity grows, so does the move to the center to become mainstream. such is life.... i guess couch surfing is the 'alternative' for now.... wonder what is next?

I think you and are definitely coming from different places on this. Maybe i am, to your way of thinking, naive, but telling me to 'get a life' was a bit personal dude. I've been in this business for 9 years and travelling hostels for more than 20. Differing opinions is what makes the world so interesting. It's unfortunate that your experiences with booking engines have been so vastly different than our company's experiences.

Of course their main function is to make money, isn't that what most businesses are for? But businesses can also balance that with a vision of who and what they want to be and what kind of experience they want to provide. That is what we do and it makes us successful in our little corner of the world. If it was ONLY for the $$, we wouldn't have to keep re-investing in our product to provide what it is the customer wants. We could just ride it out for years and keep all that $ that come in, not put them back into providing a better product. In the end, every business, even hostels is customer-driven - you have to be accountable to them. Some of them are unfortunately crack pots, or just miserable people who are only happy leaving bad reviews. But the vast majority of them are fair and reasoned individuals leaving reviews that make sense.

There are hostels out there that are not on hostelworld...perhaps you would feel more true to your trade if you are 'off the grid'.

@Ria wrote:

You don't have to be a fancy upscale hostel to get great scores. You can still be a hostel that offers community and friendship and kick ass on hostelworld. Just look at Pacific Tradewinds. It's tiny - 40 beds and not fancy at all and it's been a powerhouse on hostelworld for ages.

there's always a customer for every hostel as long as that hostel stays true to what it wants to be.

Sorry I'm late to this conversation, but I just wanted to say thanks for the kind words and vote of confidence Maria! Yes. I'm sure we have lots of missed opportunity by staying true to our small community hostel vision, but the glowing reviews from travelers who experience true friendship in our hostel make it all worth while to me. We definitely do not please everyone, but those who self-select our hostel because of our intensely social community vibe are almost never disappointed. You may say idealistic hostel owners are dreamers, but we are not the only ones. :)

Darren Overby
Pacific Tradewinds Hostel, LLC
San Francisco