The North American Hostel Association (NAHA) has announced that its next annual conference will be held in Mexico City, Mexico, on April 6-8, 2027. Casa Pepe Hostel in Mexico City was selected to be the host hostel.
NAHA is a non-profit organization that brings together hostel owners and industry members across the United States, Mexico, and Canada, and has continuously grown to have an active membership of over 100 hostels across North America. The annual NAHA Conference is an opportunity for hostel owners, vendors, and leading industry members to gather for three days of networking, panels, and industry discussions. The 2027 NAHA Conference will be the fourth annual conference, with last year’s NAHA Conference in Montreal being its biggest one to date.
Bobby Dyer, Chair of the NAHA Marketing Committee and a board of directors member for NAHA, spoke about what went into selecting Mexico City as the host and why the organization is eager to hold another conference in Mexico.
“We’re super excited about having the conference in Mexico City,” said Bobby. “We always like to ask the members where they want to have the conference. We also like to rotate the conferences out in different places to have different experiences.”
The second annual NAHA Conference was held in Playa del Carmen in 2025 and was a successful event. The annual conferences take several months to plan, and essentially once one conference is finished, there are already conversations being had about where the next one will take place.
“Planning these conferences takes a lot of logistics and coordination, and we’re lucky to have a great team of volunteers at NAHA who help us put this together,” said Bobby. “We’ve learned how much work goes into hosting these conferences, and we had a lot of success with Che Hostels hosting the 2025 conference in Playa del Carmen, and they’ve put their hand out and wanted to help host again in Mexico.”
With several great candidates and locations to choose from, the decision to host in Mexico City was appealing in many ways, given how easily Mexico City can be reached by flight. It also opens the door for many different post-conference activities, which are a big part of each annual NAHA conference.
“Being a big city, most people can get there with one flight, or at most two flights, so Mexico City checked all the boxes in those regards,” said Bobby. “And we’re excited about growing our membership in Mexico, as well, so hopefully hosting in Mexico will mean we’ll get more members there.”
