What Hostel Owners can do to Generate Revenue When Times are Slow
In the travel industry, there are peaks and lows. Few destinations have constant traffic, year-round. For most hotel and hostel owners, having slow seasons is inevitable. There are ways, however, to help boost sales and drive revenue when the slow season arrives.
Jim Kennett, one of the owners and co-founders of Northwest Portland Hostel, and someone who has been in the hostel industry for more than four decades, touched on some of the things that they have done over the years to keep traffic flowing to the hostel.
Community Outreach
Building community is something that takes time, but can pay off in many ways. Jim has seen the growth of Northwest Portland Hostel's weekly live music events, which take place every Monday, into something that has not only helped drive traffic to the hostel but also helped establish relationships with local musicians. Many of those musicians have become fixtures at the hostel over the years, and the weekly event has been going strong for 18 years.
“Recently, we had one musician come up with the idea of holding a weekend festival with the different bands and trios that perform at our Monday live events,” said Jim. That idea led to the creation of what will be a two-day event at the Northwest Portland Hostel in June of 2026, which will benefit the hostel.
Having community events like the live music showcases at Northwest Portland Hostel is one of the many ways that hostel owners can establish a presence in their local area. Hosting things like open mics, classes, and live performances, or allowing vendors to sell merchandise on hostel grounds, can be effective ways to extend the outreach into the community by bringing in locals and neighbors.
From there, people are able to find out about the space. That can lead to future bookings from them, and also from the friends and family of those who attend community events at the hostel. As Jim found out, at the Northwest Portland Hostel, events like their Irish jam every Sunday help drive bookings because the attendees often need somewhere local to stay, and the hostel becomes both a convenient and affordable option.
Landing Group Bookings
Like with hosting community events, establishing rapport with certain groups can be big for hostels. At the Northwest Portland Hostel, Jim said they’ve had success with reaching out to local sports teams on the youth and college level to provide an affordable option for their group bookings. When high school teams come to play against the local high school, for instance, the hostel can be an ideal fit since it is more cost-effective than a hotel and has shared kitchens.
“We’ve also gotten on the lodging list for the Oregon Youth Soccer Association. Literally thousands of teams are a part of that, so now when they come into Portland, we’ll be on their list for places to book,” said Jim. Being located close to one of the local high schools makes it easier for the hostel, and now the athletic director and coach know where to send teams when they come into the area to play.
Sports teams are one potential group to target for hostels looking to land group bookings, but there are also youth groups, church groups, retreats, conferences, and other traveling associations that can be marketed to by hostels. Landing group bookings becomes an easy way to fill rooms, and some hostels, like the Northwest Portland Hostel, have separate buildings that can accommodate large groups.
It can also be highly beneficial to network with other hostels in cities nearby to share contacts for large groups. For instance, Portland is close enough to Seattle that when large groups come through Seattle, they sometimes make their way down to Portland. Jim highlighted the relationship that Northwest Portland Hostel has built with the American Hotel Hostel in Seattle as one that helps both hostels land group bookings as they share contacts and create discounts for large groups when they travel between Portland and Seattle and want to stay at both hostels.
Building Ancillary Sales
This is one area of the hostel business that has many tentacles. Whether that means placing vending machines and laundry machines in the hostel, running tours, building out a retail front, or even establishing a cafe or restaurant on-site, building ancillary sales is one of the keys to driving revenue during slow seasons. Not all hostels have the space or the capital to invest in an entirely separate business, but this can be a game-changer.
For Jim, the Hostel Cafe, which is an extension of the Northwest Portland Hostel, has helped keep sales steady when times are slow. The Hostel Cafe, which opened in 2017, features a robust menu of breakfast and lunch items, as well as tap beers, ciders, and wine. The cafe alone has become a community hub.
“The cafe has become very popular in the neighborhood,” said Jim. “We allow different community groups to do different events there. That traffic can turn into overnight bookings, and people also become aware that the hostel is there, because of the cafe.”
Like hosting community events, having something that is built into the hostel, like a restaurant or unique brick-and-mortar spot, can be an organic way for people to find the hostel and recommend it to their friends or family who are visiting. As Jim found out with a restaurant on-site, providing food services like catering for large groups can also significantly boost revenue.
“When big groups book, we find that they like the catering option. Almost all of them do at least breakfast, and a lot of them do our dinner option, too,” said Jim.
Opening a full-scale restaurant is not necessary to boost sales when times are slow, but having something like a small cafe on-site or offering an interesting range of food options that are affordable and portable can lead to more sales. They can also bring people in from the local community and help establish brand loyalty while also building connections through the shared space of a hostel.
