Hello friends and travelers. Thanks for listening. You are riding along on the Hostile Road Trip podcast. Our mission is to spread awareness of the true hostile experience in the Americas and share stories from the fascinating hosts who create those unique facilities.
I'm your host Jimmy Black, joined alongside co-founder of International Travelers House, Bobby Dyer, and Eric Ferria, co-founder of World Packers.
Each session, we sit down with hostile operators or travel influencers to hear about their road success, discuss trending hostile topics, and close with tips for travelers who are seeking to have the ultimate experience when visiting each destination.
You can't afford to miss this trip. Now fasten your seatbelts and let's hit the road.
Hello friends and listeners and welcome back to Hostile Road Trip podcast. My name is James Black and I am here alongside my business partner Bobby Dyer, Eric Ferria from World Packers, and the lovely Serena, the founder of the Notch Hostel in North Woodstock, New Hampshire.
Thanks guys. Thanks for having me on the show.
All right, well we are at a blistering pace through the New England states. We've already recorded an episode at the D Acres Organic Farm and Hostile and now we have trekked our way over here to the North Woodstock area, which is an area that's known for through hikers, but that's not all it has to offer.
As we dive into the episode here, Serena is going to enlighten us about all this area and facility has to offer. So, but just start Serena, tell us a bit about yourself. How did you get into hostiling? Was it as a backpacker or was it worker first? Tell us about your story.
Well, I've been coming up to the White Mountains to hike and backpack for several years. I actually was in the middle of a trip to, I had just finished climbing Mount Rainier in Washington state. And I was during the trip I was reading this book called A Wall on the Appalachian Trail, which is all about was written by the person who now
has produced the guide for the AT and it talked about his, his through hiked and all of the hostiles he had stayed out a long way. And as I was reading it, I realized that there was no hostile listed in Lincoln or North Woodstock, which is a major trail destination and just a major tourist destination in general.
So it was about the time we were headed to the airport that I thought, how do I find a way to not return to my cubicle in Boston? When I get back.
Escape the cubicle as we all did. So it kind of just was like an epiphany that I had in the middle of the airport. And I just thought, oh my gosh, let's open a hostel in North Woodstock or Lincoln area and in the White Mountains. And my husband and I actually was just my boyfriend at the time we went on Zillow.com in the airport and we found this property that is now a large hostel.
So literally like bang, bang, bang. This was the place.
Less than five minutes after I had the idea, we were on Zillow and found the property.
That's such a rare story as a person who's done some property searching for hostiles. It's such a demoralizing feeling when you find the perfect place and it doesn't have the right zoning or the right this.
Exactly.
So to have it all work out like it, that's almost kiss it. That's fantastic. And it's great to hear that you escaped that cubicle as we all have as well. You wouldn't know from listening, but you would laugh if you knew to know that Bobby was formerly at Morgan Stanley and he formerly worked at KPMG. I used to work at a law firm.
Oh, well.
Here we are. Here we are now just talking about hostiling. So I think it's great that a lot of hostel owners and managers have taken that path and have broken out and just said, you know, I know I'm supposed to do this or my parents want me to do that, but I've got this feeling and I'm going to roll with it.
And, you know, more people need to do that, I think, and it would be better off for the industry and better off for those people who did it as well.
Now, so this happened. So how long ago did this happen? When did we open up here?
We opened in July of 2015.
Oh, cool. All right. So we've got a couple of years under very well established running smooth.
Very nice. Yeah, very nice. We've only been here for about 15 or 20 minutes, but just as a fellow hostel operator, you can tell you got your shit dialed in. Very nice.
So now this is your progression. You had your epiphany. You opened up this hostel and you're trying to create this unique experience.
But tell us if you had any inspirations from other hostels that you may have stayed at over your time. Is there anything that sticks out as your favorite hostel or one that you modeled this after?
Absolutely. I had a lot of help from other hostel owners who I reached out to when I was starting this place.
First of all, the not so hostile in South Carolina. I read her book inside an American hostel.
Yeah. So that book changed my life. I recommend it to anybody who wants to start a hostel because it has everything from how to prevent bed bugs in your hostel.
To how to deal with work first days to like just basic cleaning schedule or anything.
So I use her book to make my own procedures manual basically. Yeah. And she was great.
And then I also reached out to there's two other hostels in the White Mountains.
Actually, there's one over in Conway called the White Mountains Hostel and then there's one in Shelburne, New Hampshire named the Rattle River Hostel.
We saw those. Yeah. Yep. So they were both already going. So I spoke. You know, I ended up getting on the same reservation software, CloudBeds.
One of our sponsors. Oh, yeah. CloudBeds. And what we use as well. Yeah. If we didn't have CloudBeds, I don't know what we would do.
You already took care of the blog. I don't even need to do it. Yeah. We started out with a chalkboard on the front, like on the back of the lobby.
Handwritten notes. Yeah. Handwritten notes. Hostess in a chalkboard. Guest one here. And now it's all, you know, totally.
It makes you feel professional. Yeah. Yeah. And that's great. And I think something to highlight here with Vicki down at the not so hostile.
We like to call the godmother of hostile. Yeah. As when we got into the business, you know, about 10 years ago, there was really nothing as far as literature.
You know, you find yourself in this hostile managing job and you're trying to figure out some precedents, some guidance.
And there was only one book you could find that that was hers. And that's why we're so fond of her and also her willingness to help.
And you know, in the industry, it's very different. Whereas if you open up in other businesses and other industries, you're instantly looked at as competition.
Whereas in the hostiling industry, you could call the hostile in the same town and find a friend and not a competitor.
And we're very much in that mindset that when other hostels open by good operators, that's good for the industry.
My only problem is when there's a bad host or it's operated poorly because that only reaffirms some of those poor perceptions that are out there by that we're trying to break down with this podcast series.
So I think that's awesome that your journey took yourself in that similar way of using the same book and following some of the same mentors, if you will, within the industry.
When you found this place on Zillow, what really stood out or made it unique that caught your eye?
It's a kind of a what's the word? It's like the elephant in the room, I guess.
It's it was this property had been on the market for a while because it was a single family.
It was being sold as a single family home, quite large for a single family, four thousand square foot single family home being sold by a guy who'd been there for 30 years, raised his family.
So nobody wanted it, but it was not that big anymore. Yeah, it was not that big anymore.
This place has a gazillion bedrooms and there was a this house.
This hostel is actually built in 1890. I felt the old bones of this.
This is actually the hayloft of the old barn. That's so cool.
The character you find in that old architecture is always fantastic.
Yeah, you can still see the barn like the bookies windows in her apartment or the old barn door and everything.
But it was actually in the deed when we bought the place.
Sorry, it was in the original deed for this building that it could be coming in.
That's very convenient. Yeah, those little deeds and paperwork from 100 years ago can really play a big factor in whether or not it's a good spot.
But I'll tell you, when I drove up to the establishment, one of my favorite things is to see that it's a home because it gives you that feel.
And so many hostels when you get into the 100, 200, 300 bed hostels, the wildly different experience.
And one of our goals on this podcast series is to highlight more of the boutique operations that give you that authentic, genuine hostel experience, which makes you feel like you're in a home with a bunch of family members or friends.
That's how I describe it when guests call me who say I've never stayed at a hostel before.
I don't know what to expect. And I say it's a big old farmhouse.
The bathrooms are just like your bathrooms in your house at home. There's hand towels in the bathrooms.
There's a garden out back with veggies growing in it and a fire pit. It's just a regular old home.
And when people come here, they see all the board games and the communal kitchen.
We've had so many. We've had people form bond term relationships that have come out of this place.
We've had people go off on hikes together after this or just whatever.
It's been really. And I have developed lifelong friends.
Yeah. Now, in your endeavor of creating this experience in the day to day challenge of running a hostel, because a lot of times people think it's just a fun party, but it really is a challenging job to please all of these different walks of life under one roof and create a situation of harmony amongst all these different characters.
And so it's a quite a bouncy act of some theatrics, as I always say. But is there an over all or underlying mission to this hostel or objective or mission statement?
Ours, for example, at IGH is spreading peace for knowledge of culture, because we love to see all the different cultures get together and break down those barriers.
Is there anything here that kind of as an underlying motive that keeps you driving on a day to day?
Well, our motto is welcome to base camp. That's awesome. I like that.
So our goal here is to provide a base camp for White Mountains Adventures, because basically anyone staying at our hostels here because they want to be in the mountains.
They want to go climbing. They want to go kayaking. They want to go hiking. They want to go skiing, whatever it is.
And honestly, if you're here and you're not doing any of those things, I'm kind of asking like, so why are you here?
Red flags.
Red flags. So you're just here to hang out and asking me about my weekly rate, you know?
Yeah, the red flags that come out.
Your caller ID is from my town.
Yeah, the little things.
But it's geared towards travelers and that's, you know.
That's the model. That's what it's made for.
Yeah. So here we have, you know, we have a lot of amenities here for people who are on the go.
Like we've got, you know, bike pumps. We have glue. We've got toolkits for fixing your poles.
We've got, you know, all these different things that people need when they show up, you know, after hiking 2000 miles to get here or even just, you know, people that are ready to come drive up and backpack for the weekend.
And people don't necessarily always know when they come, like what stuff they need for their hike and all that.
So I found that our job has been in addition to just, you know, checking people in and doing the here's your bed.
The next question we always get asked is like something about doing this. I'm thinking about hiking Mount Washington tomorrow.
Are these flip flops okay?
So like the base camp element of it, I guess, is like we are trying to provide a safe haven where travelers can come.
They can learn about what they're trying to do before they do it. We always have other hikers here.
So a lot of times I'll hear like one guest giving another guest advice about their day the next day.
And, you know, that is an awesome way to put it.
You know, and you're providing that preparation at the front side and I'm sure you're providing the recuperation on the back side of it when they come in after they've done the hike.
Then we have the shower, the hot coffee, everything you don't have out on that trail. The foam roller.
So, you know, there's nothing, you know, more comforting to come back after a hike like that.
I know we have the same experience with Big Bear and they get to those fun steps and they can smell the coffee or a home cooked meal.
And they're just so happy to be there. But this is great. So we are climbing the mountain from base camp to Serena.
We'll be right back after this short break in episode number six of Hostile Road Trip.
Hey, James, I have a question for you now.
How can you be here on the road with us recording all these podcasts away from your six properties?
It's easy. I rely on CloudBets as my wingman.
They all own one property management suite to help grow my reservations and keep guests happy.
With CloudBets software, I have one place where I can see everything going on with my businesses from daily check ins to comprehensive reporting.
And how does your staff like it?
My staff loves it too because it's incredibly easy to use and automates a lot of their daily tasks.
This means we all get to focus on the most important thing, our guest experience.
Cool. And how can a hostel owner get started?
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Welcome back to Hostile Road Trip.
We are here in North Woodstock, New Hampshire at the Notch Hostel with Serena, owner, founder, manager, spiritual advisor of the operation.
And we're here to just dive into our next category of trending topics within the hostel industry.
And one of the repeat topics we've had come about in different episodes is how do you keep the energy and the experience of the hostel safe, secure, and authentic by making sure you have the right guests for the right model.
And we've heard from several stories in different episodes how one bad apple can spoil the bunch once they're inside.
And how the actual perception or the stigma that we're trying to overcome in the hostel industry a lot of times is unfortunately branded by that one or two bad apples and not by everyone else in the house given the experience.
But how would you say you've been able to avoid those issues as a hostel operator through what some call filtering, some call screening.
But you had mentioned in our little coffee break that you had some good tactics to handle this before they even get here, which is the most awkward part.
And then even more importantly, before they get inside, which is the more difficult part, getting them out once they're already in.
So you mentioned a little bit about phone screening tactics. Please enlighten our listeners.
Yeah, I think that the key is to remember that when you're running a hostel, the guests that you want to attract are travelers.
And they're typically here for a reason as opposed to, for example, our target audience is not low income housing in the community, for example.
Which the price point sometimes makes you look like.
And honestly, when we first started, we were contacted by a lot of people in our community to kind of find out if we were a low income housing thing.
And several people were like, hey, my cousin's kind of looking for two months to, you know, a lot of stuff like that.
So what I've started to do is when I get a phone call with an inquiry, especially if it's just a little confusing as to like who they are or why they're why they're making reservation.
I just always start by saying, where are you coming from?
And right off the bat, if if they can't answer that question.
Yeah, that's easy. If you stumble on that one, that's a red flag.
And I've always say we want travelers with purpose, not drifters.
Yeah. So where are you coming from? What are you planning to do while you're up here?
What are your objectives? What are you trying to get out of your state?
And it's just a casual as I'm pulling up the computer and getting the reservation.
I'm so you've got any hikes plan, whatever.
And usually if there's a drama or something going on in their life, they'll start to enlighten me about that at that point.
And then I can quickly be like, oh, OK, well, I'm not sure if this is quite the right spot.
We have limitations on our length of stay.
So another thing is to have ready for your employees to say, actually, we don't allow longer than like a two week stay.
So 14 days or, you know, I have at one point had to go so far as to just say, unfortunately, this isn't for locals.
Like, unfortunately, we don't accept locals.
It's always nice to we always like to inform our staff of alternatives for those people.
Yes. It's easier to say, hey, this is the right spot, but you got to go check out.
So you know, they're on their way pretty easily.
That's a very good point, Bob, because it's not that I don't believe in low income housing.
I fully support it. And so a lot of times you get berated on the phone by that person.
They're calling you harsh names and nasty accusations.
It's actually quite the opposite, but it's just trying to provide real expectations that this is a business model that wasn't made to cater to you and what you need right now.
And there are models that are made to cater to you.
I mean, low income or not, it's really just more about the fact that it's we're set up for temporary visitors and not set up for long term stays or relocators.
We don't have like luck. You don't you don't have enough space to store your whole apartment.
And I always say that if you do, if you don't have the opportunity on the phone, another good red flag is that you want to see a backpack on that that 17 rolling suitcases.
Like, where are you going? And where do you think you're going to put all this stuff?
You know, it's such a true thing. But, you know, it's like that element.
I always say you're trying to ask for ice cream at a pizza shop. I just don't have it.
You know, I'm not going to be able to give you what you need.
I mean, but the other thing, too, is always if you're a big enough operation, always just require a credit card to make the reservation.
Another good filter right there that can easily weed out a lot of problematic people and their credit card.
Yeah, not somebody else's credit. Yeah.
Ask for the name on the card and then authorize it for 50 cents to make sure it works.
But I know those are those are some common replies. Another one I always get is that when it's the mother calling for the son, can I put my son in there?
Why don't you want your son staying with you? You know, these are why do I want you're right down the street?
You know, this is a problem. So I think that's a very good advice for some listeners out there in the industry.
But now you had mentioned on a little tea break that Uber and Lyft had just come into the town,
which we kind of like to make a comparison here of the shared economy immersion and the millennials that have embraced all these companies like Lyft,
Uber, Cardigo, Airbnb. And so many times when we hear from people that we talk to in this process and in our own walks of hostiling,
when they're you know, the American millennial will say, well, I've heard of them, but I don't want to try.
I don't want to sleep with a stranger in the same room. Well, you're willing to get a car with a stranger.
Drive around that one on one situation that guy has in the car is a lot more dangerous than you being in a six bed dorm,
because you might have one bad apple in there and four good apples to work out the situation there.
I'd rather have that than be alone in the car with someone. So I think that shared economy explosion is a great time to also expose this experience to that same demographic
and get them to make the leap. Try it out, because as we've experienced, once they do try it, they love it.
Nine out of ten times. And you get those people that are, you know, I'm never going to try a hotel again. I'm staying in hostels.
Now, in your time here over the past couple of years, have you seen an increase in the American demographic of guests?
Stay the same decrease? What do you think? Wait, I'm like American. Have you had more American guests?
Oh, as opposed to foreigners. Yeah. Have you seen a movement at all the past couple of years or a trend?
Or is it just staying the same? Or that's something we're trying to figure out as we're on the road, as we've experienced in our hostels,
where when we started managing at USA hostels, you know, they didn't even take Americans. You had to be international.
And then it started to slowly get more condensed where you had to be out of state and then out of county and then out of the city.
You know, so it got smaller and smaller while trying to attract more Americans. What would you say your breakdown is in here?
Well, I would say actually, I'd like to look at the specific numbers. We certainly get a lot of international guests as well.
But the majority of people that stay here are American. And honestly, I would say that most of the people that stay with us,
it is their first time staying at a hostel. Awesome. So you're popping cherries. Yeah. That's what we say.
Basically, like, I mean, a lot of people say that when they sit down to check in, they're like, or when they call, they're like, this is my first time ever doing this.
We are so popular within the local hiking community here that and there's a lot of AMC groups and things that will book trips here.
So a lot of times, like someone will be signed up for a hiking trip and then the hiking leader will say, hey, everyone's staying at the Notch Hostel.
And then that person who's never stayed or heard of a hostel before is suddenly making a reservation at my place.
So I think because we've found such a strong support in our local hiking community now that has has just snowballed into like everybody in the Northeast now is like
thinking about hostels. And there's one in Gorham that I mean, the Shelburne one, like a lot of our guests started going over there because we started promoting them.
Yeah. And now people are like hostels are now their go to hiking thing in the whites instead of just some random sort of back of your head.
A lot of people sleep in their car when they come up here. Yeah. Yeah. And that's such a good point.
And I it's so great to hear that you have more Americans. We experienced that in our Big Bear Mountain location, which is on the Pacific Crest Trail.
We were talking about before. And that was so exciting for us to see during that PCT season that majority of these people were American hikers that were trying out the
hostel for the first time and that we'd be able to convince them to go try out our hostels in San Diego when you go down to L.A.
And that was just a very exciting opportunity for us to have. Now, when you do get these first timers that come through these Americans, that's kind of who we're
trying to highlight during this podcast series. Do you get any of those hesitate, you know, that they're hesitant to try it out?
Their perception is kind of one foot in, one foot out. They're a little maybe nervous about the experience.
Do you find that you get that or do you find that they're just ready and excited and ready to try it out? It's definitely a combination of both.
But it's pretty when somebody does come in and they seem nervous or usually they'll say, hey, this is my first time.
What I try to do is just take a little extra time to basically tour them through the entire house.
Ease them into it. I, you know, rather than just giving them like a slip, here's your here's your room.
I walk them through the whole house. I show them, hey, here's our communal living room.
This is how this works. Like, here's where you put your food and you label it and then, you know, it doesn't get eaten.
You know, when you leave, you strip your sheets and we have all these little sort of procedures.
And I think once people learn that and feel like, OK, there's a system here.
You know, I know that quiet hours are going to start at 10, like stuff like that.
You know, a good check in tour check in tour can make somebody can make or break someone's experience.
And for listeners out there, both on the hospital management side and on the backpacking side,
if you find yourself in that situation where it's their first time, definitely take the time to get that tour as it can really ease their anxiety
and allow them to have an entirely different experience if they have that comfort, thorough tour up front.
And that's our opportunity to capture another guest from the industry or lose one if it's not properly executed.
And then from the backpacker standpoint, never be afraid to voice that it is your first time
and that you need a little more time, a little more guidance on how this works and how you can have a good time and a good experience.
Because there's no shame in that. And you'll find that hostel managers, nine out of ten times, are going to be over willing to give you that tour.
And I would say two more tips on that would be have a welcome sheet.
Absolutely. Written up and laminated, multiple copies. So anytime we get a new person,
I'm like, welcome to the hostel. Here's a welcome sheet. You can keep this with you during your stay.
It has all the stuff that I'm going to tell them on the tour.
Because when you first arrive and you've been driving for five hours, you might forget where the laundry is.
Too much information at the same time.
Too much information. Towels, showers, bed, everything. There's people. It's way different than just like, here's your hotel room.
So we have it all written down, hand on the sheet. They read it later too.
And then on top of it, the other tip is label your cupboards, label the light switches.
Like children are around.
Not in like a rules kind of labeling way, but just in a making our, what we've tried to do with the labels is make our hostel a self-serve operation.
So people can come in, see the kitchen, see all the labels on the drawers and be like, okay, I know how to use this kitchen now.
I can use this kitchen and feel like I'm at home.
Instead of like seeing a kitchen with no sign anywhere. It's like, am I allowed to cook in here? Is this food?
I think this is a cool thing that you're doing. When you tell them that your procedures, I think people go like, oh, wait, wait, wait.
There are procedures. It is organized. There are systems.
Yeah. I'm saying.
Americans also like it because they're not, again, it's for people who aren't used to this.
We get people from Canada here all the time too. And a lot of them are much more familiar with hostels.
Oh yeah, you hand them a key and they're good to go.
They're just like, all right, I'll be cooking upstairs all night and sharing my food with you.
They're helping you flip beds all of a sudden because they're just so used to everything.
So, but that is what's so important. What we're trying to highlight in this is that we operate in an industry which, you know, Europeans, Australians, South Americans, they're all very comfortable and they're all very used to doing this.
This is a common way of travel for all of them.
Whereas we're breaking into a new market here with the American and specific with that millennial demographic. So we've got to kind of hold their hand during that first check in during their first experience.
And I think what you're saying is a perfect example of getting ahead of those guests so that they do have a good experience by having your facility be informative, showing them where things are after that check in.
Even if it's a great check in, it's a lot of information. They got the sheet, they got a little bit more, they got labels, they got a little bit more. It all helps them feel comforted and like they don't feel like a duck out of water.
Yeah, it's very important.
All right, well we are continuing to climb the summit here from Basecamp and we will be back after this short break with Serena to talk a little bit more about her operational strategies and what makes your hostel green.
Welcome back. We are still at the notch hostel elevating towards the summit, looking forward to the climax. And now we're going to talk a bit about operational strategies and what makes this hostel so awesome to the point where it was the fifth ranked hostel on the entire AT trail and only its third year of operation.
Congratulations there Serena.
But just talk a little bit more about your operational elements within here. You know you've got your standard hostel breakfast with your pancakes, coffee, tea, things like that. And while you don't have a sanctioned or set up dinner in your kitchen, you do have a fully equipped stocked kitchen that would allow your guests to cook a meal for themselves.
And tell us a little bit how that sets them up to have a cool night.
Yeah, we opted to go with more of a self serve meal style for our hostel but instead provide just a really large well equipped kitchen, again with labels so people know how to use it.
And as a result, just kind of organically I think it's encouraged people to cook a lot here. I mean we've had Thanksgiving dinners here. We've had family reunions here.
We've had just impromptu, the best though is just the group of random people that get together and one person has a salad and the other person's cooking this.
And not just organically, we end up having meals around the dining room or around the picnic table on a pretty regular basis. So several times a week I get a lot of free meals out of it.
And I think that it's so important to know that in a hostel, the kitchen like in many homes is the heart beat or the center of energy of the home. And we do a meal service that's more set up and structured at our hostels.
And it's great to see everyone break bread together but we do miss that element that you're talking about where you kind of have the authentic world kitchen create because you have all these different cultures, ages, walks of life, different cooking experiences and palates.
So they can get in there and they can whip up some of the best meals and especially around the holidays. You mentioned Thanksgiving. We have such a blast. I dress up as a pilgrim. I try to get Eric dressed up as an Indian but he won't do it.
It's a good time. So we can have so much fun just through the simple meal. People will be like, oh it's just dinner. It's not just dinner. It's breaking down of cultural barriers. It's spreading peace and knowledge of culture as we say.
It's such a cool thing to watch and a simple thing to set up if you have a well-stocked equipped kitchen that they can execute this meal in. So for all both sides, the hostel industry people and backpackers themselves, look to that kitchen as a force and a presence of that social orgasm where we talk about how to meet people and get to know everyone in the house.
It's also a way to keep your budget low when you're first starting out. I would love to offer an organic home cooked meal three times a day obviously. But when I first started it was just me running it and I knew there was no way I'd be able to make the food too. So that was my solution was how do I still have well fed guests.
We also have a freezer with pizza and ice cream. Some emergency pizza and ice cream. That could save the day. I could have a couple of eggs. An unhappy guest can become a happy guest very quickly. Especially if they don't have a car and that's their only meal for the night and they're just so happy that there's something to eat.
Did I see a garden outside when we pulled up? Pretty good size. Is that stuff that you grow for any of the meals or is that just for yourself? How does that work?
That is the hostel garden. Definitely I use it for myself probably the most. But then I'm always encouraging guests to go out and pick their own. There's an excessive amount of herbs in there especially because I find people enjoy to just go out and get a few herbs for their meal.
And on top of it it's a lot of work so we are always looking. We have a lot of work first days here that almost like one every single day.
Old school so you can sign up for some chores.
Sign up for chores. That's a bitch and I like that.
Mostly the thru-hikers do it. In thru-hiker season we have one hiker a day and one of the primary work first day jobs is weeding the garden.
So it's a community effort and it's fun. I have Mr. whatever is telling some crazy hiker social was like convinced me to get fish fertilizer and then all my tomatoes grew.
The other guy told me to cut elephant grass out of my yard and use it as weed suppressant and it worked. These are just people that are from all over the country all over the world and just come here and give me a little like hey you should help those potatoes now.
That's such a true and good point there that you have this incubator of people coming in from all over the world and they have all these trade secrets that they can give you. And if you just keep your ears open you can really get so much knowledge just on a day to day basis of doing your job of running a hostel because the world is coming to you every day.
And that's so much of hostel managers and joy about the job is that you might not even travel but you feel like you traveled the world because you've talked to everyone from all over the places.
Working with the Work First Days has been hugely fun and impactful for me and I know it has been for all of them. It's just 100% win-win.
Mutually beneficial. You don't always see that nowadays where both sides are happy.
Yeah they really bring in that nice homey vibe when they're there helping out and they're on the road.
It's fun.
Now with this emergence of so many different cultures and ages, demographics coming in, what are some of your operational strategies that you do to keep the environment safe, secure, and clean so that everyone can enjoy it?
Because one of the stigmas and one of the barriers we're trying to break down with this podcast series is making people feel comfortable that in this shared environment you will be sharing bathrooms, you will be sharing the kitchen, you will be sharing common spaces, you will be sharing bedrooms together.
How do you make them feel secure, safe, and clean?
Well I think it's looking at what types of people are coming to your hostel and what their needs are. So for example with our hostel we have this huge clientele that is people hiking on foot or also cycling so they don't have a car and they're on a long distance trip.
So what we have done to try to, so when you get somebody coming off the AT that's like super smelly, super sweaty, their backpack smells really bad and they also have a lot of immediate needs and stuff that are very different than a guest just driving up from Boston for the weekend.
So what we've set up is basically a decontamination system.
Do you have?
Like literally we have a packed shed out back.
So when we pick the hikers up, they all unload from the shuttle and hobble over to the gear shed. They drop all the stinky stuff out there.
This is a great idea.
So packed sleeping bags, shoes, we've got loaner flip flops, we have a free laundry service, we have free guest loaner clothes that they can put on while they're getting their shower.
And we also require that if you've been out exercising and smell like ass when you get in that you need to take a shower immediately.
This is brilliant.
I'm taking notes for myself right now for our big bear location.
That's a great way of being a good operator, getting ahead of the situation and being real about it.
You've been on the trail for 10 days, you stink, you're going to be staying in a six bed dorm with five other people who are on a hike and go back into the mud room or shed and get yourself into all these things.
But I love that you provide these creature comforts.
Yeah, the loaner clothes and the sandals.
What do I put on?
Here you go, man.
This is what you put on.
And the laundry service is free because I didn't want to have anyone say I don't have money to do laundry so I'm not going to.
No, no, no, no, I got it.
This one's on Serena.
I like it.
It's included in the price.
Yeah, that's great examples out there for you hostel operators on the hiking trails that you can't get ahead of the stench.
That's right.
All right.
We are at the summit and we are coming back down to base camp.
We have one more category to go over with the lovely Serena.
We'll be back right after this sponsor announcement.
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Welcome back to Hostel Road Trip.
We are in North Woodstock at the Notch Hostel.
The lovely Serena, she has given us a full view of the experience up here.
We've talked a bit about Thru Hikers, her highly ranked award winning top five placement this year for the AT hikers.
Now we want to chat a little bit more about the guest experience, more in a micro focus of a special event or a daily experience.
And you know, just in our little tea break, you had mentioned a bit about the collusion with the other local hostels in this cycling event.
Please tell us more.
We this year recently began a the first ever Tri Hostel Bike Tour.
Awesome.
That we know of.
And I created this with two other hostels in the White Mountains, all of which all of us are 50 miles apart from each other with scenic byways between us.
So, I mean, everyone's heard of the Kanga Magus Highway.
That's one leg of our trip.
It's biking from my hostel, which is on the western end to the White Mountains Hostel, which is on the eastern end.
And it's, you know, just a gorgeous, gorgeous three day ride that you can do not only for the sake of the biking, but also to experience the different hostels.
We just had someone completed this week who, again, I don't think they'd ever stayed at a hostel before doing this trip.
They did it with a friend and the cycling itself, he said, was great.
But what he was raving about was all the people he met at every hostel every night and all the different culture of each hostel and how, you know, seeing the three different types, even just in this one area.
And so I just, I think it was that's what we're hoping is to create more than just a bike tour, but more of an entire experience.
Like you get shuttled up to dinner as part of it.
You know, you have an opportunity to participate in the social media about it.
And it's been really fun way to work with the other hostels on a different level. Yeah. And also to just put it right out there.
Like, yeah, we are collaborating. Yeah. So many people ask me, oh, is that your competition?
I'm like, no, I call them all the time for people. And that's how we got to do it.
Because we are an hour's drive from each other, which is a little close.
Yeah, but you're not competition. You're comrades. And we have, you know, in our city of San Diego, there's upwards of 15 hostels.
And we work closely and intimately with hostels that are a couple of miles down the road just because more good hostels in the industry is better for the industry.
Every hostel is so unique. Yes. It's really made up of the host who run the hostel.
Yeah. Each one has its own identity, energy. So true. Yeah. Is that event? Is that something once a year or is it ongoing?
Actually, it is a the tour can be done at any time right now. We're thinking this was our first year launching it.
So it was on a trial basis, gave a lot of free stays away as an opportunity to just get people out there, get them biking the route, get the data.
We've got Strava GPS tracks that we're going to upload to the website.
And then we're hoping to put out some actual event tours for people who'd want to do it as part of a group.
But we don't have a partner or something. Cool. Right now, we're going to do a big blast about it for foliage.
Fall foliage. So beautiful up here. Yes. This is fall foliage in this area is one of the biggest attractions, I'd say, in the White Mountains is the fall foliage.
And so we get people biking, hiking, walking, doesn't matter what kind of sport, just, you know, taking pictures.
And the bike tour is a really cool way to experience that. What is the peak month for fall foliage in this region, would you say?
October, yeah, late September and October.
You know, I mean, I just was driving down yesterday and saw a little hinge of one leaf tree.
Yeah, it's so beautiful, though. Columbus Day weekend is always really busy for us.
And then after that, it kind of.
There for winter. Yeah, yeah, we get the slow season.
So we've talked about cycling, we've talked about hiking, but as we were driving in, I noticed just a couple hundred yards down the road, it seemed like that was actually like the village downtown.
So if I were to be a guest who woke up one day and, you know, I just find this huge bunion on my foot, I can't go for a hike, I can't go cycling.
What could I get myself into around here?
There's a ton in the area. I just wrote a blog post, you know, what to do on a rainy day. All these plans to go on this big trip and see the flume gorge and now it's pouring.
There's first of all, there are a ton of great breweries in New Hampshire.
There's brewery tours, there's a brewery like within walking distance of our house.
There's another one two miles down. There's, you know, so brewery tours around here are really fun.
It's a new thing. It's exploding culture of craft beer.
It really is. In the whole U.S. pockets are just blowing up.
Well, New Hampshire is right there with them. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Right up there with Oregon and California, I'd say in the forefront of that.
They're having fun.
So there's a lot of great beer exploration, but also this area in general has some of the most scenic highways in the northeast, you know, drive.
I've, you know, often have helped guests create little road trip tours like a day road trip where you go visit.
There's lots of different attractions that are within that are accessible by the road in this area so you can easily spend a whole day just driving through different notches and going over to North Conway and go shopping and check out the used gear exchange.
That's right. Yeah.
So there is there is so much more to do than just the hiking aspect.
I think that's so important to highlight about this location.
All right. Well, what an amazing time it's been.
I mean, I feel like we've reached the summit.
We've had our climax and you've safely returned us back to base camp.
And here we are.
And just wanted to thank you so much for hosting us at your fantastic location.
And I would encourage all of the audience listeners to keep this one on your map because whether you're on the trail or not, it is going to be a good experience for you.
Thank you so much. Eric Ferria from World Packers.
Thank you guys. Always a pleasure.
And the handsome Bobby Dyer from ICH Hostels.
Had a lot of fun today with you guys.
Delilah on security with Mr. Greenpeace the lady.
Best in the business.
All right. Well, thanks so much.
Thank you guys.
Thanks, Sabrina.
Absolute pleasure. We are off to Vermont next to highlight some of their hidden gems within the U.S. hostel industry.
So stay tuned for that episode.
Until next time.
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