Curious how a hostel can help solve your community’s problems such as unemployment or lack of community social spaces? Need to know how to transform local businesses’ skepticism or even hostility towards your project into enthusiastic cooperation? Then join Hostel Hub and the Community Ownership Support Service for this 2-day workshop in Dunkeld where you’ll learn these techniques as well as essential hostel start-up insider...

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Client problem The North East Scotland Preservation Trust and Scottish Traditional Boat Festival charity needed to know whether it would be financially viable to develop an old sail loft into a bunkhouse. They had done extensive work already with an architect, but were unsure whether the layout was the best option for maximising profits. They also lacked the know-how to assess whether their occupancy estimates were realistic. How we helped We...

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A new generation of hostels Modern hostels don’t have to compromise on quality, comfort or community. These photos are from just two of the new generation of high-quality, affordable hostels throughout the world (pictures courtesy of Nomads Hostel Queenstown and Circus Hostel Berlin). The Hostel Hunt campaign We’re on a mission to make hostels desirable to run as community-owned businesses and have been challenged to find our...

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Getting guests to use your hostel as a base is going to be a big part of your campaign to increase occupancy and profit. They may have only planned to stay one night but you are going to make it irresistible to stay more and in fact they should want to never leave. Have this as an objective: Try to get a person who has checked in for one night to come down 10 minutes later and ask if you have vacancies tomorrow night. Then you know you are on...

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The most common worry I hear from community groups is “We need to find another way to make money because charity funds are getting harder and harder to get.” I hear about these problems at training sessions, local meetings, down at the cafe over tea. It’s everywhere. I sympathise with wanting to get away from charity funding because I know what a pain it is to do a grant application, wait weeks or months, then spend what seems...

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“Oh shit – it is Easter and we are nowhere near ready.” The decorating isn’t anywhere near finished, the new staff don’t know anything and there isn’t time to train them (what operations manual?) Sound familiar? Read on! What was worse: we had no beds. We’d taken all the old, metal bunks down in readiness but the delivery of brand new wooden bunks had somehow gone to Northumberland instead of North Wales...

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