Hello everyone and welcome back to the Hostel Road Trip Podcast.
The podcast that literally takes its show on the road.
Listen in as James Black and Bobby Dyer, owners of International Travelers House Hostels,
travel around the country to learn about these great locations and incredible people
that come together to provide a unique and exciting experience for travelers from all over the world.
Welcome back to Hostel Road Trip.
We are here in beautiful Tahoe at the Mellow Mountain Hostel.
After a very interesting recording I'll have to say down in Truckee at the red light.
I think we're all still scratching our head a bit on how we're going to edit that episode, but we'll do our best.
But we are so happy to be here in the fine hands of Audrey Paraskevich.
That's me, thank you guys.
Another Greek goddess that we are interviewing and I will have the challenge of getting that last name right throughout this episode.
You did great.
We are going to talk a little bit first though about Audrey's personal journey and how you found your way into hosteling.
As we talked a little bit before, our goal here is to bring awareness to the millennial demographic in America in particular.
You are a millennial.
I am.
You are American.
And here we are and you're managing a hostel.
And I think it's so cool that you started out in hospitality management and started out in more of the hotel setup experience.
So tell us a bit about your journey before hosteling.
So it's been a long journey since I decided that hospitality was my route.
I tried a bunch of things like food and beverage and catering and that kind of stuff.
And I realized that where I found my niche was in the travel industry and leisure.
You get these people and they want to have a good experience.
From there I went into a little corporate world and Marriott's and trying to work my way through that.
Where I found my biggest niche was I worked for a private hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
And I just loved that homey feel.
In moving from New Jersey to Lake Tahoe, I started again in corporate and found just not having that satisfaction at the end of the day.
Had a bad day at work and started applying for other jobs.
Alright!
So when the owners of this place called me and I came in for an interview and it was in this very room and at this very table, it felt like personal.
It felt like I would have pride in this at the end of the day.
Had you stayed in hostels before? Did you know what they were?
Only one. I knew what they were.
But when I studied abroad in Australia, I had stayed at a hostel there and didn't really ever think about that again.
It was never like...
Fell off the radar.
I knew that on a career basis what I wanted to do was open my own something.
Bed and breakfast, small thing, something.
And now the idea has transformed into a hostel.
It has. It doesn't mean I'm set there. I change my mind every five minutes.
Sure, sure. As young people do.
But this is very realistic for me. This is so much more online with my career path than...
It's so enjoyable when the travelers come in on vacation and you get to host them on such an intimate kind of homey setting.
And you have control.
There's no corporate policy holding you to some standard that doesn't match everybody.
You can make every interaction you have with someone personal.
And you can really relate with people.
You have a lot of creative freedom.
You do. And trust with your owners and managers situation of having their best interest in mind.
It's interesting. Bobby had told me as we were coming up here to do this episode that the owners of this hostel had come down to our hostel when they were first starting and he had met them.
And it's great to see that you've got this energy though to represent them.
And immediately we connected with that when you came out to greet us at the car.
I thought you might be one of the owners and you treat it like you own it.
And that gives them the comfortability to leave here and do other projects.
For sure. I take pride in this place.
Because it's not only a representation of them and what they want, but for me at the end of the day it's a representation of myself and what experiences that I give to people.
Yeah. Some of the best hostels are really the main manager-operator.
It's really their experience that they're sharing with everyone who comes through.
Yeah. It's parenting a baby together almost.
It is. It is. And holding yourself to the same standard as you hold your volunteers and everyone.
And then that runs downhill because if you're treating it like you own it, then all of a sudden the volunteers treat it like they own it.
Exactly. And that flows through.
Now, what about your friends when you told them, oh, hey, I'm a hostel manager now and not only am I a hostel manager, I want to open up a hostel one day.
What's the reaction you get?
Well, I think my friends always knew that I wanted to open something of my own.
Okay.
When I asked my last boss from New Jersey whether, like to be my reference.
Yeah.
I went to the hostel and saw some pictures and he goes, Audrey, are you joining a hippie cult?
No, not so much. This is an opportunity for me to have my own something.
And it is sometimes a hippie cult.
Yeah. It has a lot of those elements to it.
So it's hard to deny it in totality, but everyone here in this room has had the same type of response from their friends.
As you have said, we either own a hostel or manage a hostel or we worked at a hostel.
You get that same response from them and that's a big part of what we're trying to do here is break down that awareness.
Well, the thing is too is that you may have that perception of hostels, but every walk of life I've seen walk through the door here has been accepted and welcomed and loved and felt the community here.
So it's not this exclusive hippie thing.
No.
It's a place for people to feel like home and make dinner together and share a common space.
So open-minded and you really only find that at hostels compared to hotels.
You do. You go into your hotel room, you close the door and that's it.
You come here and you go up to the common room and they're watching a movie together and you sit and talk about it and listen to different types of music.
You know, it's just a hosteling is a new trending way of travel in the US industry, but it's built off a lot of old premises, breaking bread together, sharing experience together, having communal space together.
And as we've become very private, desensitized by all of our gadgets and everything, you just don't get that hotel.
You don't. You lock yourself in a room, you get the Wi-Fi password and you're done.
Here I feel like especially being the only hostel in South Lake Tahoe, we have a unique set of guests that have never hosteled before.
Yes.
And being that first experience for them is like something that we take pride in.
Yes.
Show them what it's about. What do you mean I'm sharing a dorm?
Yeah.
You're sharing a dorm and get to know somebody, talk to somebody.
Hold their hand through it.
Yeah.
But then you've got another one for life in the industry.
For sure. And then next thing you know, they're traveling somewhere and hostels are such a huge thing in other countries.
Now, I heard you reference a few times the owners, Wolf and Elias, correct?
Yes.
You referenced them as the boys. So it sounds like these two guys are a tight-knit group.
They've been best friends for ever.
Years, okay.
Yeah, forever and ever. And they work really well together.
Okay.
They both have different assets that-
They complement each other.
For sure.
And Elias has this huge new idea that nobody else thought of.
So they complement each other in their different ways of thinking, I guess, hugely.
And I think for listeners out there, if you're thinking about opening up your own hostel, a lot of times it can be a burden.
It can be overwhelming. And a lot of people stop.
And I think a lot of times people are missing that partner.
I think it's a beautiful thing to have someone to bounce ideas off of.
Yeah.
You know, doing it all on yourself, you have to then question yourself.
And having someone there to be like, okay, let's question this and let's walk down this road.
And you know, maybe there's this new idea that I didn't think of or you didn't think of and kind of going back and forth.
Yeah.
And to be able to take a day off so you can get fresh and come back and offer good experiences.
It's definitely a lifestyle running a hostel.
Yeah.
And you need to disconnect and get your sanity back sometimes.
And I think that's kind of where they're at now is having a management team.
Whereas the first year it was them at the front desk.
You know, cleaning rooms and them doing that.
And I think that they took joy in that.
But I also think that it's really awesome because I wouldn't have had this opportunity if they didn't open this place.
Sure. Sure.
And I think that it's a great thing for people listening out there again with when you're starting out there,
you will be in that hostel probably for the better part of that first year or two doing everything from top to bottom yourself.
But then you're learning it all so that you can pass along that knowledge and experience.
Set your systems up.
Well, this place was abandoned and shut down and needed a lot of work.
They put in seven months of construction.
And this is post base camp being here.
So they had run it and then it kind of just got.
So base camp never even took off.
They never even took off.
They bought the property.
And before they even could make anything of it, it was.
Wow.
And it wasn't called base camp at that time.
Now, is base camp still open though?
Their base camp is still open.
But the property that had anything to do with this property wasn't base camp.
Base camp bought it after.
I see.
It was, I think, called the block.
The block.
Not 100 percent sure.
Sure.
What year did it open as Mello?
July 4th of 2014.
Oh, good.
Now, a little bit about the facility here.
How many rooms do we got?
We have 14 rooms, 52 beds.
Nice.
And so 52 beds and then two private rooms.
Okay.
And then we also house all of our volunteers.
So that takes up three rooms.
One is a four person mixed dorm for all of our housekeepers.
And then we have two other rooms that are for our receptionists.
They share like a double style room.
Okay.
Like a hotel would have.
Nice.
As we've been on the road, we commonly see this number, the 50 bed hostel.
Yeah.
And as we've had our experience, we think that's a great sweet spot of intimacy without
getting too overwhelming.
It is.
And I think with this property, the setup of it, of having all the rooms face into like,
almost like a quad.
Yeah, yeah.
It's got a courtyard feel to it.
Yeah.
It feels connected.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's got a nice vibe running through it.
Now, what about your price ranges?
So you've got your bunk so you've got your private rooms now.
As we know on mountain towns like this, you have variations of seasons that are wild,
you know, from your high snow seasons to your shoulder season.
What's a bunk price range?
So for example, right now we're running in like the 22 to 25 dollar range for our four
person mixed dorms.
And then for our privates, we're in the 44 on the weekdays to 60-ish.
Yeah.
On the weekends.
And that's, this is shoulder season right now.
Yeah.
So moving on from that, coming into like July and then like right around Christmas time,
we're up into the 44 for a dorm.
Yeah.
And kind of in the hundred dollar price range for a private.
That's great.
So yeah, it's still very affordable and a great opportunity for any backpacker or traveler
coming through to spread their dollar a little bit more so they can have fun on the town
or extend their stay up here a little bit because you're not spending it all on a hotel
room.
So those are very reasonable.
Well I would easily say that we are the cheapest option for a single traveler.
Yeah.
So for, you know, to get that mixed dorm in the high season, you're looking at even the
motels around that aren't the greatest.
They're in like the two to three hundred dollar price range.
Absolutely.
You know, so.
You get a cheap bed and have a great experience.
Exactly.
And you get to bring people in by what we offer as like a community and team.
And you know, it's a great place if you're by yourself to come and meet friends that
you can go to the mountain with or take a hike with or.
And you get a great nice communal room that we saw upstairs.
We come in quite a party going on up there that we look forward to joining after we finish
the recording with you here.
Friday nights are good.
Yeah.
Friday nights are fun.
But also want to highlight as you showed us and we are staying here and I know some of
these guys are looking forward to these beds as we've been on the road for a while, but
those bunk beds custom made from repurposed wood.
Tell us about them.
They sure are.
They are really unique.
The storage underneath is huge.
Locker stores.
Yeah, locker stores.
But that's, you know, half the size of a twin bed.
Yeah.
You know, it's not just this little locker that you have.
You could fit a full hiker backpack.
You sure can.
Yeah, you definitely can.
I think it's a great asset to be able to tell the guests when they come in, like these beds
are made from repurposed wood and they're sturdy and they're...
Sturdy, rustic looking, but they're badass, you know, and they've got the light.
And a fan.
Fan.
Do you get an outlet on there too?
Yeah, we have an outlet connected to the little shelf underneath each bed.
It has three regular plugs and then two USB plugs.
So you can plug everything that you never need in there.
It's so important for, you know, both industry people and potential drivers coming through
that a good operator with a well-crafted, thought out bunk bed can solve a lot of the
issues that you think would happen in a shared accommodation room.
Well, so funny enough, the fans and the lights came from a review that we had.
Someone suggested them and we were like, that's amazing.
Listen to your people.
Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
We send out a survey to every single person that leaves here so that we can, you know...
Departure surveys for everyone.
Yeah, so, you know, it's sometimes an asset to know where your...
You have to listen to your guests.
...where your faults are, you know, to fix them because...
Oh, absolutely.
...you know, it means a lot.
There are the people that come in here.
They are, you know, what the business is about.
Yeah, it's interesting staying connected to those departure surveys.
We've seen a lot over the years as we've been operating for six years now and we've seen
such a difference just in the type of travelers over the six years on the needs they have.
So it's so important to stay flexible and always be listening to what people, you know,
what you could add to your hostel to improve their state.
Yeah, I mean, there's always going to be the things that aren't feasible and don't make
sense or...
Yep.
...not even don't make sense.
It's just like the money you would put...
Might not be the cost is fixed.
Yeah, the money that you would put into it isn't worth the return on it.
Yeah.
But when there's a good idea, I'm, you know...
Yeah.
...as a business, we're not afraid to say, yeah, that's a great idea.
Let's do that.
Simple and functional is always right.
Simple, functional, and sturdy is a good way to attack hostel operations in that way.
But we're going to take a quick break right now and we're going to be back with Audrey
Paraskifis and we're going to talk a little bit more about the operations here at the
Mel Mountain Hostel in Tahoe.
And we got some more exciting stuff coming, so stay tuned.
We hope you're enjoying this episode of the Hostel Road Trip podcast.
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And now we bring you back to your regularly scheduled program.
Welcome back to Hostel Road Trip.
We are still here at the Mellow Mountain Hostel on Tahoe Mountain.
What are you, South Lake Tahoe you said?
This is South Lake Tahoe.
As we just came from North Lake Tahoe where Truckee is, is that correct?
Yep, Truckee is a little above North Lake Lake.
Okay, we're getting there on our geography around here.
We've driven through a wildfire.
We've had a wild day.
And we are here and happy to be here and settling in.
And we want to talk a little bit about a trending hostel topic in the American industry,
whether or not to have onsite staff or to go with paid staff.
At ICH we go with a hybrid model of having some offsite paid,
but we still have a good contingent of onsite people.
Tell us a bit about your experience as this is new to you,
as you've been in the hotel side of things where everyone's paid,
everyone comes in, signs in, does their job, finishes leaves.
Tell us about the process to start with of actually getting these onsite people.
What do you do to get them?
What platforms do you use?
So we use a lot of online platforms for volunteers.
All of our staff that runs reception and housekeeping are volunteers.
There's only two paid staff members, me and my assistant manager.
Nice.
We use Workaway and World Packers.
We also have some other ones, but those are our two main ones.
Those are the two main ones that you source from.
We have Hostile Jobs, which runs with Hostile Management.
I love Hostile Management for their blogs and things that I can research things
and kind of find some extra help with.
Great lifeline for a Hostile Manager.
Exactly.
I think the biggest struggle and difference for me was the fact that they are volunteers,
and they have to want to do the work.
You don't want to overwork someone when this is their volunteer gig,
and they truly have to want to clean that bathroom to the top standard.
They truly have to want to, and if they don't, then we can move on and find someone who does.
Not to be harsh about it, but you have to be that way.
It can be tough because a lot of times managers can get that difficult reality
that you're living with this person, you're friends with this person,
and if you are asking to leave, it does feel like not only am I firing you,
I'm making you homeless in one move.
I feel like I've always, as a manager here,
that I would love to give someone the opportunity to fix it first.
Oh, sure.
Like, hey, this is what I need from you, or this is what I need from someone,
and what can I do to help you do this?
What can I do to make this easier for you to do?
What tools can I give you?
What opportunities can I make for you to fit in here?
I got lucky coming onto this property because we already had a staff,
so I didn't have to hire anyone for two months until I had moved in here.
That's great. So you had some stability.
Now, we had an interesting insight on this topic over season one,
and the topic came up of the definition of a volunteer,
and the core definition of a volunteer is someone who does something for nothing in exchange.
Exactly.
But the reality is in a hostile exchange, live on site,
it's more of a work exchange because you're getting a bunk, you're getting meals,
you're getting utilities paid for, you're getting a lot of things comped in exchange for this work.
So at their core, they're not really volunteers in that way.
What do you think about that view?
It can get complicated and messy, for sure. It really truly can.
I think that guiding a volunteer situation has a lot to do with making someone feel self-worth
and taking pride in everyone who comes here, this is something that you worked for to create for them.
So that helps a lot in pushing someone to want to be here and want to volunteer.
We always say that taking that first two hours from when they arrive and really connect with them
and build that relationship, make them feel at home, and that really helps a lot with us at our hospitals.
Can we cut real quick so I can switch cards?
Oh, sure.
Jesus Christ.
We really ride them hard.
I have to repeat that last one because I had an answer for that.
And I'm going to ask you, give you a moment to think about it.
Well, no, my answer is I think it's really important to provide a welcoming night.
Oh, no, I have a different question I want to ask you so that you can think about.
Do you have any really good examples of a difficult situation where you had to ask them to leave
and they didn't want to leave or they were being resistant to leave or a bad example
that is great for people to listen to?
Yeah.
Yeah, no, this is good.
This is like good stuff that people are yearning for as an example of like I'm in this position.
What about someone else that's been in this position?
Because you mentioned House of Management.com.
Besides that, there's no other resource out there.
Yeah.
It's tough to find these things.
So the feedback we've been getting from other hostile industry people regarding the content
of the podcast has been when we do touch upon some of these tough subjects and they get another.
Perspective.
Yes.
You know, an outlet of like, wow, that's a different way I could have handled this or,
man, I'm in the same exact situation.
I don't feel so alone in that.
I just feel like my examples like were in my first two months of like things that I had to like call in the owners,
which aren't my strongest suit, you know.
Sure, but that's a.
That needs to highlight because it is a learning process.
Yeah.
Everyone in their first couple of months.
You actually get the chance to improve the next batch of volunteers.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true and take.
So those are really good, just like I said, the feedback we've gotten from listeners, industry people.
These are tough topics that we, tough situations to go through because not everyone has a scenario
where you're managing people that in their minds, they're volunteers.
You really have to motivate them.
But in reality, their work exchange people.
And sometimes you can get a bad apple and it can mess up the whole bunch and you can have these awful situations.
And they're living here on site, too.
Well, I feel like what I've learned from, you know, my first couple of months of being here is that like staff meetings are really important.
That's a good one.
Of like, you know, making everyone on the same page so that way when you're, you know, someone does something wrong, you're not just like coming at them.
Yes.
You're coming at the whole team.
That's very good.
You know, you're saying, hey, this is what I can't have from you guys.
This is, you know, these are my expectations and this is what I need.
And then after that, if it's going to continue.
My advice that I always give to managers when they come to us in this situation is clarity, communication, expectations.
And if you communicate those in the routine of meetings and stay on top of that, that will help prevent a lot of disasters.
And not being irrational and being like, you had a bad day.
Screw you. Get out of here.
Oh, come on. Yeah.
Even the people that, you know, I've had to let go in my time here.
It's been like, take two weeks.
Yeah.
You know, it can be amicable.
Because at the same time, I need to find someone.
Yeah.
You know.
And it could be a mature enough situation and a peaceful enough situation where that transition happened.
I just had that same type of situation up in Big Bear where he's a person had been there for seven, eight months.
Yeah.
It's just too long.
You know, three to six months is the wheelhouse for me.
We have a two month minimum and a six month max.
That's generally the wheelhouse.
And, you know, there's not to say there's not exceptions from someone who went from housekeeping and now is growing to reception.
And has amazing skill sets.
Yeah.
And it's like really benefiting the hustle.
But when someone's your weakest link and you're at six months and they don't have another job somewhere and they're not, you know.
That's why. They're staying for the wrong reasons.
They are.
They're complacent.
And I don't think that it's a huge negative thing to do to someone.
No, you're helping them.
Yeah.
I think that it's pushing someone and helping them grow.
I'll be your reference.
Yeah.
I'll help you write your resume.
I will do.
I say exactly that. You have me as a reference currently.
If things continue down the road, you do not.
You know, so like let's let's break this off while it's still good.
And at the end of the day, I don't want to ruin anyone's life or hurt someone.
I want to be an asset.
I want them to come out of volunteering here and look back and go, man, that that place really helped me grow.
Yeah.
And that's another good thing that's highlighted as well.
It would be such a shame for people if they had that really great experience.
And a lot of times people don't want to leave because they love it so much.
You don't want them to leave on a bad note.
It would be sad.
No.
That's a good experience.
Yeah. We've had that experience here too, where somebody did a bunch of they had been here from day one back and forth, leaving and coming back and then came back as a volunteer.
And his his sense of home at this place made him made him feel superior and righteous.
I couldn't tell him anything.
Yeah.
A lot of times when they come back second, third time, it's not the same.
You see that time and time again.
On the other side, though, I've had some of my current volunteers here are returned volunteers.
That are great.
And they're great.
They help me train other people.
They help me like this is how the last person did it.
And like, what do you think about making these changes?
And it's a nice bounce off.
And I think that's important for listeners to understand too, that you should never let one instance shut down another one.
For sure.
Everybody's different.
Everyone is different.
People are dealing with people.
People are wrong.
You are wrong too.
Yeah.
No one's perfect.
I feel like it's a good way to learn about yourself, about other people.
You get a chance to be better next time.
And it also gives you the chance to admit when you are wrong and like because we live together, because we live together and because we work together and because we hang out together.
I don't feel bad about saying, hey, man, like this.
I'm sorry that we were angry and I smiled.
Like, yeah, like that just is a defense mechanism for me.
I got nervous.
I smiled.
Yeah, exactly.
Like, I'm sorry that that made you feel disrespected.
Let's move on from there and let's like keep it moving.
And, you know, I've had literally the same exact situation.
You popped in my head with that, you know, years ago.
And it was a kid who, when he got nervous, he would just smile.
And I remember one day I was like, what are you fucking with me?
Like, do you think this is fucking funny?
And I'm going, and he's always smiling more and more.
And I'm like, this is funny.
Like, he does it and it never ends for him.
And then I listened to again, when he went into the
Yes.
Both of us managers live on site and all of our volunteers, which
Everyone's on site.
Now, another very interesting topic in that type of set up, as we've
been in that set up before where no one was paid off site.
Everyone's a long site.
plan. How do you deal with interstaff relations? I feel like I give them the freedom to work
it out themselves first and if it's such an issue that I need to step in, then I will
step in and we'll have kind of what we're doing here. A little table discussion? Yeah.
Both of you come here, let's talk about it so that I can mediate and not get heated and
you know, let's work through it together and in the situations I've had here, it's usually
someone's either on their way out or you know, the dynamic of them rooming together doesn't
work and then we can make changes, you know? I try to leave it for them because it comes
to a little bit of their personal life. Sure. Where it's hard to kind of navigate that line.
You don't want to step into it too much but it is a very interesting situation that people
in hostel management ownership will find themselves in. Same thing with cleanliness. Yeah, yeah.
And keeping themselves clean and whatnot but I think the wrong way to go about that, I
think what you're doing is correct. Be mature, be honest, be upfront, communicate about it.
The worst thing you can do as a hostel owner manager is to say it's not allowed and to
think that's actually going to happen. No, you can't control that. Yeah, you can't control
it and it would only blow up in your face if you tried to. As long as they're still
working this thing, as long as your work isn't affected that I'm okay with it. You have to
draw the line of personal life and work life. Absolutely. We're all so intertwined that the
line is so gray, the line is so wiggly but you have to find it somewhere and when it
comes to personal relationships, as long as it's not, I'm not going to work because I
don't want to work with so and so, then sure, do what makes you happy. I don't really even
need to hear about it. Just carry on. That's a good way to look at it I think. I would
say one thing that you guys are doing great or one of the many things you guys are doing
great but having the multiple staff rooms, we have that as well and it's great for when
you have all these different people from all over the world helping out. It's a very diverse
team with could be eight different cultures so it's nice having that. Sometimes some people
work better in other rooms and they can have their space. When I first came on, the majority
of our team at that point in time was Americans and it was great. We all got along and all
had a great time but it was a lot because we weren't on some of the platforms that we
are on now for hiring. I found in bringing, even not necessarily international but people
from different parts of the country. Still bring some diversity. Just bringing some diversity
and really broke it up. It wasn't clicky anymore. It wasn't that all the volunteers are hanging
out together and then they're going to guess. It was like a team of people that want to
meet new people and bring new things to the table. The different types of music that people
listen to at the front desk. We have speakers outside. I can walk in here and tell who's
working. That's so true. That's a very good point of keeping that diversity in the staff
and how fun it can be out there for potential Americans that want to try out Hostelwork
Exchange and use a great platform like World Packers to do so because you're going to find
yourself living amongst and working with people from all over the world, different cultures,
different religions, different languages. It's like an incubator of culture. Meeting
new friends that you ever want to travel. You're like, hey, I know someone in Swaziland.
No one can disappear like a Hostel Manager because you have a place to go all over the
world. Exactly. Also, I've watched how it's brought different customer service aspects
to the Hostel, to the front desk. I can't talk the same way that one of my volunteers
can who's traveled all over the place. I can't talk to another guest who travels all over
the place the way that she can. Oh, I've been there. I've been to that city. I've done this
and that where I'm like, I can tell you about Tahoe. I can tell you about New Jersey. Some
of our international constant traveler volunteers can talk to you about the different music
in the city or this different... Did you experience this there?
They kind of can... Your team has more to offer.
Exactly. They can relate with people in a different way.
Outstanding. All right. Well, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back,
we're going to talk about the guest experience that is waiting for you here at the Mellow
Mountain Hostel, Kieran Tahoe. Keeping it mellow.
All right. Keeping it mellow. Stay tuned. We hope you're enjoying this episode of the
Hostel Road Trip podcast. We're taking a moment now to talk about a great service called worldpackers.com.
Worldpackers.com is actually how I got my start with the Hostel Road Trip podcast. Worldpackers
is a great service that connects travelers looking for a place to stay in a new city
with the hostels who need their skills. You could do anything from house cleaning to reception
to media and marketing and so much more. With a reasonable fee of $50 a year and a little
bit of courage, you could find yourself anywhere in the world.
For more information, just check out worldpackers.com. That's W-O-R-L-D-P-A-C-K-E-R-S dot com. And
now we bring you back to your regularly scheduled program.
Welcome back to Hostel Road Trip. We are still here at the Mellow Mountain Hostel closing
up another fantastic episode, but now we want to turn our attention to the overall guest
experience and what you'd be missing out on if you didn't come enjoy the Mellow Mountain
Hostel, its fine staff, and all this four season resort has to offer. And I really want
to highlight the four seasons because there's more to do than just ski up here. So, tell
us a bit more about the guest experience and what they could expect to have here.
So obviously in Tahoe our two major seasons are summer and winter. So I'll touch on that
first. In summer, I started here in July. It was booked out pretty much every day. I
learned so much about the Pacific Crest Trail that I could pretend that I did it.
All the trail names.
Yeah, all the trail names. And it was so interesting and fun to learn about this thing.
Whole culture out there on that trail.
This is definitely a huge spot to hit on the PCT. Once we sell out, we sell cowboy camping
spots just because we want them here. They're our bread and butter in July. And we love
them and their stories and that whole scene. But we also get a whole different group of
people here too in the summer that once Tahoe is past their stop on the PCT, at the end
of August, you get those travelers that have never been to Tahoe before and this is their
affordable way to do it. Or they're doing a couple of trails, like the Tahoe Rim Trail,
or just a section of the PCT. I feel like we have this unique thing to offer them as
traveling alone, coming somewhere and having immediate friends. And having an immediate
community and having a ride share list in the common room of where you're going next,
somebody might be going there too. Or that I want to take a hike tomorrow. Does anybody
else want to hike to Lack?
That's a beautiful thing when you see that happen.
And when you watch them leave at 8am and then they come back and they're like, that was
awesome and I would have never done that on my own. Finding a connection here that pushes
you outside of just going into a hotel room and then coming out and leaving.
You wouldn't have done that on your own and because you did it with someone else, it was
that much better.
Exactly. You had this fun experience that you shared with somebody that you never knew
before this. And then going into the shoulder season before winter, there is the struggle
of being at such an affordable rate and having such a bit of a homeless community here in
Tahoe.
I didn't know that. We battled that in San Diego.
There is.
It's helping with the price point.
The price point and that it's affordable. I think that a way that I've managed that
since I've been here has been using the, you need a credit card and photo ID to check in
and reading someone's vibe.
You get good at it.
You do.
You get good.
I've had experience in other private hotels that I worked at that I've had to deal with
the same thing. Here it's a little, you know, you're turning someone away and then it's
cold outside and you feel bad.
But it really depends on, what you have to think about at the end of the day is how it
affects other guests' experiences.
You don't want someone to come in here and feel like people have been living here or
that people that you don't want to talk to, that you don't want to be.
It's really sad, but it is the unfortunate truth that one bad apple or one person that's
looking to take advantage of the Bohemian shared environment can now make everyone feel
like they have to lock their doors and make feel like I can't leave my stuff over here.
And a lot of people tighten up.
Exactly.
Instead of letting loose and you want it to be loose.
Well, we've also had situations where someone you're like, and they have a credit card,
they have a full ID and you let them in and next thing you know, you're hanging out with
them in the common room and they are really sweet and really great.
So it's really, it's a line that you have to balance.
Every day I get better at it.
You do get better at it.
And every one of us here have made mistakes on the wrong side of it in trying to be maybe
a little bit too cautious, but in the end you'd rather err on that side.
You would.
And then it also comes to, you know, I'd like, because this is what I want to do, because
I want to be a business owner.
I have to also think about making profit.
Yep.
You know, are we going to have empty beds and turn away five, six people?
That's tough.
And then you're done.
You're shut down.
Exactly.
Are we going to be comfortable at all this month or can we put all these five people
or four people in a room together?
And that room is questionable.
If you have six empty rooms, you can play that game.
You can, but you have to be responsible for that too.
You know, you have to be willing to wake up at two in the morning if something's wrong.
Yeah.
And, and that could be a tough do it.
You make a great point there.
There's screening for the better of the herd compared to the bottom line.
We have another company besides ICH called the Hustle Management Services, HMS, and we
have a client and it's a new experience for us because the client who owns the property
would obviously like to see every bed full.
He doesn't care what they look like or who they are.
So it's tough to tell him.
You can't be that cut and dry about it.
You know, you're at 78% occupancy, but I saw someone get turned away six times on the cameras.
Why?
Well, I gotta explain to you.
We'd be at 50% occupancy if I didn't turn those people away.
Exactly.
You're, we're bigger than that getting a bad review because someone felt uncomfortable.
I mean, we take huge pride in the fact that we have very, very little bad reviews.
You know, and even, even at a bad review, I can't even think of one that's fully bad.
Like it's like, Hey, this happened, but someone was loud at two in the morning.
You know, I try my best to manage that, but sometimes you just, you don't hear it.
You don't wake up.
Long time.
Yeah.
You know, maybe I was out, maybe, you know, something happened.
And, um, going into like shoulder seasons like that, I think that's probably my hugest
hurdle in those shoulders, in those shoulder seasons, and like, you know, the time between
after labor day until the ski resorts open.
When does that open?
Um, so they're scheduled, I think for the 15th.
Oh, exciting.
It really depends on the snow.
Of course.
This whole town runs off of that in the winter.
Do they make their own fake snow?
They do.
The weather has to be cold enough in order for them to do it.
It is at this point in time.
Um, I haven't been here through a winter season, but I can tell you what I think it looks like.
And I can also tell you what I looked like last year when I wasn't here.
Yeah.
And the thing that bothered me the most about where I was last year was that if you're not
getting snow, you're not getting snow.
You can't just sit there and be like, well, we can't open snow or whatever.
We can't do that.
If it's a beautiful day out and you having people at your place, open the, open the bar
at this specific place or like, you know, have a game night here, like have something
to draw people in.
Get creative.
Yeah.
And don't just sit there and pray for snow.
No, you can't do that.
Yeah.
And just hold yourself off and take the loss.
Think of something innovative to do.
Be proactive.
Yeah.
You know, run a bar crawl, do something that, you know, people continue to want to come
back or tell their friends who are traveling here to come back.
Well, they're lucky to have you if you're thinking in that way, because that's some
advanced thinking for a hostel manager, because a lot of people will just sit back and we've
had an avenue call.
What do you want me to do?
It's raining outside.
Well, I watched you do something besides tell me it's raining outside.
I know it's raining outside.
It's board game night.
Tell me you're playing rest or something.
I don't know.
Now we're playing board games.
We're all making dinner together.
It's $5 dinner night or whatever it is.
It's just, you should never be like, oh no, sorry, it sucks here.
You should give them some draw to come in.
Now, as we move into the talking about the winter season for the guest experience, which
would be the big season here, what would be the cost of a lift ticket?
And do you sell them here at the property?
So we sell lift tickets for Sierra, which is a little further.
We have heavenly mountain right across the street.
That's the big show.
They're run by Vail Resorts.
They own heavenly here.
They own North Star and Kirkwood.
I think the reason that we sell Sierra tickets is because it offers people another mountain
in the experience.
But you've got some discounted packages that guests could look forward to room in the lift
pass.
Yeah.
Well, I think it's more of, and I haven't bought them yet this season and I haven't
worked here last season, but I think that it's not combined with the room.
I think it's once they get here, we can get it.
Yeah, we can sell them a discounted.
Now, heavenly, how close are we door to door?
You can literally look across.
Door to chair.
We're looking at the chair.
You can right past this building in front of us, it's a five to seven minute walk to
the gondola.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
For listeners out there, you can't beat that.
You wake up, get out of bed, go do your skiing and you're pretty much skiing right back down
into the place.
For listeners and for future volunteers, you can't beat this.
Yeah.
You can't beat working two to three days a week as a volunteer.
And then walking across the street working for heavenly.
You can get a job at heavenly.
Get a part time job.
Ski for free.
Live for free.
And then for guests, single traveling guests, you can't beat this.
This is the cheapest single traveler accommodations.
And then you can't control heavenly's prices.
They are a little pricey, but it's one of the-
But it is premier.
Yeah.
It's one of the nicest.
Yeah.
It's heavenly.
It is.
You're getting your money's worth.
It's heavenly.
I'm sure they sell a dual pass where you can do heavenly and North Star.
Yeah.
It really all depends on what you are looking for.
This is just got me excited to come up here this winter.
Anytime.
And shred it up and enjoy the fun times here.
I've never done it.
Get heavenly and stay mellow.
Yes.
But I want to thank you so much Audrey for saving us with that interview with Harrison.
I'm not that confident.
Well we had an absolute great time with you here.
I think it's just awesome that we were able to capture this for this season two, California.
It's been a hell of a road trip, but we're just about wrapping it up.
So happy to have you guys here.
Yeah.
And for you listeners out there, don't worry.
Season three, Southeastern US has already been booked.
It will be on the road again in January, 2019 to record 10 episodes in that region.
But I know we had some great hostels on the coast of California for this season, but make
sure you come to the mountain town of Tahoe to see Truckee and to see the Mellow Mountain
Hostel because they're both gems out here.
And I thank you so much once again.
I'm going to nail your name one last time.
Audrey Paraskevich.
There it is.
Robert Dyer from ITH.
Thanks guys.
Eric Grand Park Carlos Deferia from World Packers.
The best fucking sound engineer west of the Mississippi.
Soft spoken Mark Needham.
All right.
That was good.
Good job.
Moving on.