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 the Hostel Road Trip Podcast Special Edition American Hostel Conference Annual Number 2.
We are here and we're a bit blushing because we are in the presence of a Oscar winner.
Kind of a big deal. Mr. Weinstein from the Auberg Hostel in New Orleans.
Thank you for being with us.
Thank you guys for having me. I'm so excited. I heard it's your first season.
I've joined as always with my co-founder Robert Dyer and a shout out to Ham Bone Mark Needham.
Oh! He does his pose.
So, first question. What is auberg?
Everybody asks that. It means like hostel or inn in French.
Of course I was just in a taxi cab with the chair just moved on me.
And with the door open, she was like, exactly. I'm like, just stop. We're going to leave it at that.
We're going to say it does.
Well, it just went down. Maybe my leg touched it.
In Canada, like Quebec, there's a lot of auberges and stuff like that.
So a cousin of mine when I was doing this said, you know this name, blah blah blah.
I was like, hell, it's an A. In the old days, we used to pick A's for the phone books.
Right? Yes, yeah.
And so I guess that's where the name came from.
The French connection to New Orleans.
Yeah! Okay, this all makes sense.
Although it's not. It was only six years ago.
Yeah, okay. So six years ago, how did you get into the industry?
Before, so my mother had a little motel outside of Yellowstone.
So family and the hospital.
Right, exactly. She was a teacher. She's retired, sold everything.
Moved up to Cook City, Montana, right outside of Yellowstone. Bought this little motel.
It was a beautiful place. I moved there. She ended up selling it.
I stayed and ran it for the new owners for several years.
And then at some point, wanted to come back.
I mean, it's what I did, you know?
And so I knew then I could do like a bed and breakfast or a hostel.
What should I do?
And I would always travel for about a month into off season there.
And you know, staying in hostels and stuff like that.
And you know, I don't remember the exact moment, but I'm glad I did.
This demographic is just so, this group of people that we deal with is just a happy.
Yeah, well, that too.
But I mean, I just love the people, you know?
Yeah, okay.
As opposed to like, nothing wrong with the motel crowd and stuff.
But it's just a different level of happiness, a different right. Exactly.
Okay, that's cool. Now, this was the way to go.
Why did you choose New Orleans?
I'm from there.
You're from there?
That's where I was before I went to Montana and then I came back.
So I have family there.
Now, what is the market looking like down there now? How many hostels we got?
11 or 12.
It's growing, right?
Yeah, when I opened, I think there was like six of us.
So it's doubled in your time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it's very competitive down there.
It is, but like, for instance, HI, who, you know, they're here, they're, she mentioned today,
she's popping, they're building several more properties, more homes there.
I'm sure it's going to be pretty new and nice. It's going to be great.
Something like 200 beds, you know?
Okay, so we're talking big boys.
Yeah, yeah.
But another large one did just close and I think a couple of small ones might be on the way out too.
So I think that'll negate it.
And other than that, I feel like New Orleans hasn't been saturated yet.
I mean, like, I feel like, I mean, whatever, I'm not worried about it.
Oh, well, it's a great city.
Yeah.
What is the guest experience like at your place?
I would say like, we don't say like party hostel in the name,
but if you were to look at our Instagram feed or the Facebook, you know, any social stuff, it's party every day.
Yeah, I mean, that's what you were talking about, like the hostels and stuff.
Yeah.
I think that that's what sets it apart is the atmosphere that the guests have there for sure.
It's a fun city.
We do events every night.
It's a fun city, yeah.
Every night, you know?
And other hostels don't do every single night, like events where there's a party every night going on, you know what I mean?
Now, how many beds do we have in there?
40.
So that's that perfect sweet spot we're talking about.
Yeah, you were mentioning that earlier.
You know, just you can have an intimate connection with the guests.
You can throw those events.
Yeah.
Now, how about advice for operators out there?
You're in a party city.
You're a party hostel.
You're rocking and rolling.
How do you, the operator, not get burned out?
So I don't do it anymore.
Ah, you've stepped aside.
Yeah, I've stepped aside.
I don't do it anymore.
I've got wonderful people who come and help me with that.
OK.
Yeah, I guess we talk about it.
Yeah, yeah.
But, you know, like you get your World Packers guy.
Yeah, yeah.
I get a lot of those people who really help with the atmosphere.
OK.
And they'll do like leading events, stuff like that, you know.
That's important for operators out there.
You don't have to do it every night yourself because it's not possible.
No, I did when I first started.
When you first started.
Yeah, yeah.
And I don't know about you guys, I'm 36 now.
Oh, yeah, same age, yeah.
And these guys are 21.
The guests are 21.
I can't physically do it.
Yeah, yeah.
And then work the next day.
Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, I don't even do it anymore.
But, I mean, I might go out every now and then to socialize,
or I might go to the little pregame.
Yeah, start it off.
I mean, I'm still there.
I still live there.
So, you're still on site.
Yeah, but more, which is changing very soon.
Yeah.
Just because of construction and stuff we have going on,
and it'd be nice to see life change.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But, I mean, I'll still live in New Orleans.
But, I forget what we were saying.
Oh, so I think now more, I mean, I'm still there.
I'm heavily involved.
But it's more like just during the daytime talking with people.
Yeah.
I mean, I love that more than anything.
Yeah.
You know, just talking more than the business or the maintenance side
or whatever.
Sure, sure.
I like to talk to the people, help them have a good trip,
help them have a good time.
Now, a lot of people have party hostels.
But I know, just from experience, you don't win a Oscar just because of party.
So what is some of your special sauce you think you can share with other operators
of being a two-time Oscar winner at your age?
That's pretty impressive.
I think, I mean, I really do think that it's just, you know, as the owner,
and I don't know if you guys are this way, too,
but you're probably your own worst critic.
I don't know.
And so I look at all this stuff and it's like, you know, I see all my negatives.
Sure.
You know what I mean?
And I see like, God, I wish those things were better.
And it's like, we just, we were redoing some rooms right now
and I'm building these wonderful custom beds and stuff, you know,
but because I look at my old beds and I'm like, they're all metal and stuff.
You're on wood?
They are wood, yeah.
We built them that way.
I mean, I can't weld or anything, but yeah, they're wood and we built them.
But I mean, whatever, I've never had an issue with bed bugs.
No, no, I mean, I think we're past that as an industry.
Yeah, yeah.
That has to do with keeping a certain crowd.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think, you know, you can always get unlucky.
I believe that, too.
But what I was getting at was those things that I might see as like a few negatives,
they're definitely forgiven.
And so again, I do think for us, two things work in our favor for those awards.
New Orleans.
If you look at New Orleans, the hostels are hostile world.
If you look at just all the hostels in that city are ranked well,
as opposed to like if you look at other big cities,
a nine in like New York is like probably the best one or something.
It's really high.
Whereas like even some of the not best ones in New Orleans are,
it could be a 9.2 or 9.0 or an 8.9.
Yeah, because I think that's New Orleans alone making people have that good experience.
So that does help for sure.
I think that plays a big role.
And then other than that, it is just the atmosphere, like I said,
doing the events and having a staff that's like really attentive and caring and engaging.
Yeah.
And all that.
So I mean, I think that is it.
Like I said, like some of the rooms that, you know,
we're not filled with all these custom beds and everything.
And I do have like outlets by almost all the beds and things like that.
And everything you would expect in a lot of rooms now have a light and an outlet.
But, you know, it's still a basic bed.
Yeah.
So you're keeping it simple.
You know what it is too?
Like we do have, I mean, coming from that background before,
you guys don't have to come by one day and maybe you want to see what I'm not seeing.
Yeah.
But like there is the things like we leave out,
this came from doing the motel and stuff.
Yeah.
We leave out, like I have fresh towels, not just the towels for them on their bed,
but like hand towels and washcloths and stuff in the bathrooms.
Little touches.
The cleanliness is like, is like, is key.
You're dialed in.
Yeah, dialed in.
Lotions and soaps and different things like by every sink and stuff like that.
So that stuff is, I think they do see that and appreciate that.
There's another little thing.
More than the average Oscar.
I think that's encouraging for us out there.
You don't need to extend your way to that Oscar.
You can be creative and you can look at the details.
Yeah, I don't know that you could.
I don't really know.
They don't really tell you how.
I just know that we get good reviews and that's what gets you there.
Yeah.
They won't ever say, but it's like somebody said it today.
I think it was Darren.
The algorithms.
It's like the BCS factory.
Yeah.
Right.
We don't know how the hell that happens.
But it's not that happens.
Yeah.
Now with you having that type of success, do you think that you want to expand into other
cities, into other properties?
I am right now.
Okay.
We're currently building another second location.
In New Orleans.
No.
Can you read Die-Vulge where?
Yeah, sure.
I think.
Where is it?
Clarksdale, Mississippi.
I love it.
Do you know?
No, I just love Mississippi.
I'm like a hostel.
Yeah.
Right.
Mississippi's got no hostels.
Yeah.
So you're putting the first one in.
That's right.
Yeah.
Fucking A. Good for you.
You'll have to Google it.
Yeah.
It's about an hour south of Memphis.
It's the home of the blues.
Oh, bitch.
I don't know if you ever make music fans here.
John Coltrane type of thing.
Yeah, I'm like Robert Johnson.
Oh, like Crossroads.
And Led Zeppelin influences.
Right.
Yes, yes.
Eric Clapton and all.
Yeah.
Eric Clapton has an album like something like the Crossroads.
Yeah.
That's all that.
So anyway, I ended up there because a guest, do you want me to tell the story?
Yeah.
Okay.
A guest left a key fob to this place called the Shack Up Inn.
And it's not a hostel, but it's a really cool place.
It's called, on the key fob it said the world's first B&B bed and beer.
And it's a really cool place.
They take like, the first place took a barn and the rest of it's these like grain silos.
And they have, they started with six units, they have 42 now, so they're doing good.
Anyway, I went to that.
I wanted to see that.
And I was just driving around on a road trip or something.
I went to that.
And during that trip, I realized, well, God, this town, there's live music every night
of the year.
And there was nothing but all these like foreign people around.
These are like my market.
And they don't like a hostel, you know?
So anyway, so that's what got me doing that.
So I purchased a building there.
Awesome.
Fucking A. That's great news, man.
So good to hear that.
Now, another question I have is we heard so many great things about you from Byron Bunda.
Okay.
And we were doing a podcast with him during season one.
Yeah.
And he spoke very highly of you and his time down there with you.
What are your thoughts on the need for and how an association for hostels in America could develop?
Yeah, no, I mean, I think I've talked with him about this for probably since we first met.
Yeah.
And to me, my main push to him then was, I don't know why, maybe it's from my perspective or whatever,
it wasn't so much some of the, I don't even know what to say, but like some of the little website things,
but it was definitely that unity and that voice that it could give us smaller operators,
especially when it comes to knowing having to deal with like localities and municipalities and all that stuff,
giving them a voice, giving them like he's trying to do with the letter that he's talking about with the Airbnb issue.
And to me, that was like a lobbying voice type thing.
Yes, very much so.
And that's what I kind of stressed to him then.
And I think he is kind of stirring the whole thing in that I think you probably didn't just hear that from me.
I think he's heard from a lot of people.
There's nothing out there like that.
Right. And I feel like we do need it.
We do need it.
And it's happened in other places.
Yes. So we have a model we can replicate.
Right. And we can, I mean, we can negotiate things with different communities or OTAs or whatever it might be.
I mean, there's power and we're not all HI.
We're not all generator.
Yeah.
So, but yet we still have power if we are together.
If we're combined.
Yeah.
And we have I don't know how many thousands of visitors, whatever it is, we're still like we're an economic force then.
Yes. Now the new location in Mississippi, will it be that same boutique size?
How many beds are we talking about?
It's going to be, the idea was like 22 dorms, like six rooms, 22 dorm rooms, beds, sorry, beds.
Okay.
And three privates, probably like a mixture of like four, you know, four or three.
So similar.
Something like that.
Similar. Yeah. A little bit smaller, a little bit smaller, but real nice.
See, it's a big, it's a great building.
Like I could do more down the road.
This is exciting.
Huge building.
And another episode to be added to our golf season.
There you go.
Golf states.
Yeah, the golf states when we come through.
But we thank you so much for taking the quick time to meeting with us.
Two time Oscar winner.
So very excited to have you with us.
Thank you.
I'm looking forward to doing full episodes at both your locations.
Yeah, for sure.
In season five, the golf states.
Stay tuned for more great episodes on the Hostel Road Trip podcast.
Thanks so much for listening.