A Day in the Life of a Hostel Manager
Staying at a hostel as a guest is one thing. Working as a volunteer or as a paid staff member is a much different experience. Those who have volunteered at hostels know what goes into making the environment clean, safe, and welcoming. The job of a manager, however, entails a particularly keen eye for detail and is both demanding and rewarding in different ways.
I sat down with Charles Vevea, the manager of the ITH Santa Barbara Surf Hostel, during a short break between housekeeping and guest duties to ask: What's it like to spend a day in the life of a hostel manager?
Manager shifts at a hostel can range in hours and time of day. Typically, manager shifts start at 9 am and go until about 5 or 6 pm, with a break in between. The first order of business as a manager, as Vevea said, is to check in on staff and make sure there are no emergencies to attend to.
"After checking in on staff, I usually do a walk-around of the property to make sure there aren't any issues, like a leaky sink or something that might have been missed by the morning receptionist," said Vevea.
From there, it's about creating a plan of attack for the day, starting with building a bed list for the day. Bed lists help track which beds need to be stripped and flipped in the different shared or private rooms so that there is the correct amount of clean beds for the next wave of arriving guests. Creating an accurate bed list is crucial for having a smooth, successful day of housekeeping, and it helps prevent any confusion later in the day during check-in.
While there are ways to structure the day to make things run smoothly, Vevea said that he takes a particular interest in tackling different special projects around the hostel, as a way to break up some of the mundane tasks that the day can bring.
"I really like to get at least one good special project done each day. That might be something that I've been noticing for a while or fixing something that might have just become an issue," said Vevea. "I look for things that will improve the hostel in some way."
Amidst keeping busy with special projects, assigning staff to certain tasks, flipping beds, answering emails, phone calls, and guest reviews, Vevea said that he usually finds himself thinking about the big picture as it pertains to the hostel. The day-to-day operations are important and are what the guests see and remember from their hostel stay, but there can also be overarching issues to resolve or kinks to iron out as a manager. That can be things like thinking of different ways to add revenue or increase sales, or even managing guests and staff relations.
"If it's not a good day, I might have to be talking to guests or staff about behavior and conduct," said Vevea. "It's not often that that happens, but it does happen."
A good example of this might be having to have a private conversation with a guest who might have been given leniency on the 14-day policy at the hostel, but now has to be told that they cannot extend any longer because they've gotten too comfortable. Perhaps the guest has been breaking certain house rules or even making others at the hostel uncomfortable with their behavior. Those conversations can be tough, but it's the job of the manager to make sure things are running smoothly and that everyone at the hostel is safe and having fun.
Most days run without any hiccups or hard conversations. More often than not, things run smoothly, and the staff understands the level of expectation that's set by the management team, meaning there's time to focus on other things that might get overlooked, or to plan activities at the hostel to help create an even better environment for the next guest that checks in. For Vevea, that means working with his staff to make sure that all the assigned tasks are completed in full, so that the hostel is showing its best.
By the time five or six o'clock rolls around, it's time to get the evening receptionist set up for success. Creating strong lines of communication, as Vevea said, is key for any hostel staff to run a smooth operation.
"It's important that everyone is on the same page about things going on at the hostel, whether that's sharing guest notes or understanding the procedures at the hostel," said Vevea. "Then, we get to do it all again tomorrow."
