I'm up here now working on a tiny house project that we're about to open in about two weeks.
It'll be added to our, we have eight years, the tiny house, the cabin that we rent out.
And then we can, on fourth of July weekend, we have 70 different campers, you know, in tents.
Wow.
Whoa.
And in the van, so the property is big.
It holds a lot of people.
Hello, friends and travelers.
Thanks for listening.
You are riding along on the Hostel 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.
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 seat belts and let's hit the road.
Welcome back to the Hostel Road Trip podcast.
Second episode of the week for us.
We had a great episode with Ryan at the Monterey Hostel, and now we're meeting with Jim Kennett,
founder of the Northwest Portland Hostel and also the founder of the Naha, the North
American Hostel Association, and who I like to call the Yoda of the hostile industry in
the US.
Jim Kennett, thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you.
Pleasure to be here.
And of course, I'm also joined with my co-founder and business partner, Bobby Dyer.
Thanks, Jimmy.
Yeah, great to be here with Jim.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, we've been really excited to get you on the episode.
We were trying to get you and the bunk and brew guys at the same time.
And I told Bob, I was like, these are three different episodes we could do.
So, you know, let's break it down and focus on the Northwest Portland Hostel.
And I think it's so cool how long you have been in the industry and what an awesome journey
you've had and how much other hostile owners and operators and managers and aspiring owners
can learn from your experience and your journey.
So super excited to dive into it.
But if you wouldn't mind, can you take us back to the beginning and when that was of
like, how did you first get exposed to hostels?
What made you want to do it and jump into your first one before we talk about that?
Because I know that you didn't start at your current hostel.
But how did you first get exposed to hostels?
Well, I guess you want the story of how I accidentally fell into my lifelong career.
Yeah.
You know, a lot of Americans discover hostels in Europe.
But I was doing a trip after high school with my girlfriend and our Volkswagen bus around
the US and Canada.
And her brother gave us a membership card for at then it was called American Youth Hostels.
Oh, cool.
So we started staying in these hostels and I discovered, you know, a lot of these are
privately owned.
It'd be kind of a cool thing to do.
It kind of sat in the back of my head.
And you know, I graduated from Evergreen State College with a degree in social work, but
I also did a four year carpenters apprenticeship.
So it was the two skills were perfect for running a hostel, you know, dealing with people,
dealing with buildings.
And yeah, so I was lowered to the southern Oregon coast with an amazing job offer, which
I did for a couple of years.
And that was caretaking the ranch for Anne and Nancy Wilson of the rock group Heart.
So I did that for a couple of years.
And then I got tired of building in their empire.
And a friend and I saw this condemned building in Old Town Bandon on the southern Oregon
coast.
We had very little money.
I say we had $50 in our pocket, but I think it was more than that.
So we put the word out to friends and we found three friends that each threw in $1,000 each.
We were able to buy this old condemned building for $2,000 down.
And then we were like, what are we going to do with it?
So we started renovating and then the idea of let's do a hostel because we're on the
Oregon coast.
So we ended up opening the Seastar hostel.
And Boykot in 79 opened the hostel in 1980.
Wow.
So there was five of us as partners.
After two years, everybody else wandered away and left me there to enter my lifelong career.
Not knowing.
I bought them all out and then continued for 10 years in that location.
You remember those first 100 days when you opened that or the first day when you opened?
We licensed it through American Youth Hostels because there was great marketing back then.
There was no internet.
It was all about handbooks and brochures.
They were distributing handbooks in 78 countries.
So it was excellent marketing.
That's how I got involved there.
So they licensed us on a promise.
I had one of the people come in and look at the place about nine months before and he
was like, really?
You're going to have this thing ready as a hostel by June?
And I was like, yep.
But June rolled around and we still had the common room was still set up with a table
saw.
We're just building the bunk beds.
And I had no idea how many people were going to show up.
But all these foreign travelers started knocking on the door.
And so we just did work exchange when we first opened.
We're like, well, we've got a place for you.
We're going to have you set up your own bunks.
And we're not going to check.
That's how it got going.
And I still have lifelong friends from those first six months.
People that came for a night and left three to four weeks later.
Yeah, that is special.
We have some of that as well.
People that were the first guests or the first staff members that we still stay in contact
with.
It's such a special time and a special energy when a hostel is opening up like that.
Then it goes on for a long run.
I'm curious.
You've had such a range from 1980 all the way through the 80s, 90s, turn the century.
What's the biggest changes in the backpacker guest clientele that you could notice from
that vast amount of experience you've had?
Yeah, big changes.
I remember people expect more.
They pay more too.
When we first opened up, it was $2.50 a night.
You helped clean the hostel.
You didn't have chores.
Yeah, you didn't have all these fancy amenities.
We had a little stand on the counter that said, we have a hairdryer and a long clock
for your use.
People would come up and they would be checking in.
They'd read that and they'd go, oh, wow, they have a hairdryer we can use.
Nowadays, they're like the world.
We have to give it to them as much as we can.
Yeah, that's interesting.
But people pay for those things that they want.
They pay $40, $50, $60 a night so they don't have to do a cleaning chore.
They can have an internet plugged next to their bed and have Wi-Fi and activities.
People want activities at the hostel now, which we're really good at providing.
Yeah, absolutely.
What year did you, so 10 years you did that and then it was in 1990 that you moved to
Portland proper and opened up the Northwest Hostel as an HI affiliate, right?
Yeah, yeah.
American Youth Hostels turned into HIUSA.
We just kind of stayed on.
I got involved in the organization and I was elected to the national board as the representative
for all the private hostels in the organization.
So I fought for all the rights for private hostels that were part of HI for years and
years.
I was on the board for probably 15 years or so.
So my theory was if there's something you're not happy with, get involved and make it better.
That's great.
That's sage advice right there.
Do something about it.
Get involved.
Before we go into more of the Northwest Portland Hostel, because I want to talk about how,
and it's just a great example for other people, how you started in one house and then slowly
took over the entire city block almost and turned it into your own compound.
But for HI, since you were so intimately involved, as a lot of people are questioning and asking,
especially during the pandemic, they closed down and sold so many operations.
What do you think the future of HI is in the US market?
Do you think that they'll grow back or are they kind of still in a consolidation mode?
Well, HI, back in the day, like I said before, the internet was very powerful.
They had pretty strict standards, but we ran a good hostel, so we didn't have to do a lot
of extra stuff to meet their standards.
But once the internet came out and companies like Hostel World jumped in, then HI became
less significant as a marketing tool for private hostels.
So you stayed in and you tolerated the bureaucracy or you dropped out.
So I think they just kind of got weaker and weaker.
They focused a lot on the big city hostels, which was where they could make their money.
And then they were on this roll to get in these mid-sized hostels.
And they were doing a pretty good job.
They had Houston, they had one in Portland, they had Richmond.
They had, I don't know, eight or 10 decent mid-sized hostels out there.
The pandemic hit and they just sold them all.
They kept the big money makers.
And it was a shame to see that happen in the organization.
So I think they're going to focus on their big city hostels.
And I think, I don't know if they'll ever get back to the point where they could do
smaller mid-sized hostels.
Yeah, that's a shame.
A lot of really cool properties.
And some of them I wish I was in a better situation in that time period.
But of course, we're all just holding on to our boots.
But some of the gems like they had over in, I think Martha's Vineyard or the Annis area.
I grew up around that area.
So what an amazing place to have a hostel.
And I've actually ran into guests staying at our hostels that are like, do you know
they closed that down?
I was going there for 20 years, the same week every week.
So it's sad to hear that impact that the pandemic had on even such a staple like HI.
Yeah.
So I don't think HIUSA will ever come back to where they were.
Not in the way they were going about it.
But I think they'll probably continue to develop a few more big city hostels when they can.
They really only have the ability to do one at a time.
And maybe it takes five years to get that one up and running and stabilizing and making
money.
So it's not going to be a big competition other than the ones that are already existing.
That's my question.
And I think very few people know HIUSA as well as I do, even though they own the host
of course.
Yeah.
I'm glad to hear your opinion on that because it's such a surprise to a lot of people and
curiosities of that and how it will turn out.
Right.
Yeah.
So there was a little bit of a jump.
When I sold my hostel in Bandon in 1990, I did move to Portland, but I opened a hostel
on the northern coast in Seaside, the Seaside Hostel.
And I opened it in 1994, but I never lived there.
I hired a manager and I would go over and spend time there.
And I stayed in Portland.
And then in 1998 is when I decided that I would go ahead and open a hostel.
I knew there was a handful of people that I knew were looking at properties to open
a hostel in Portland.
And I thought, I'm just going to jump into the race.
Took me about a year.
It was all about location.
So it took me about a year to find that perfect location.
It is great.
Not in downtown, but close enough in the city center where you could walk to everything,
but be in a really good, vibrant neighborhood.
Did you buy that location?
Would that be the first place?
Well, you purchased your first place outright with the property.
Did you buy that first property in Portland as well before you started to expand and purchase?
Yeah.
It was a vacant building.
It had been six apartments, small apartments, but a women's shelter had used it prior to
us moving in and renovating.
That was what we call our group center now.
It's one of our smaller buildings.
So we bought that on a contract because didn't have a lot of money still.
And still don't have a lot of money now that the pandemic is over.
Now when you say contract, like owner financing?
Yeah.
Okay.
Great.
Like a private no.
Okay.
No bank.
Met with the owner, told him our plan.
He was happy to be totally into the neighborhood and he thought this is a great thing for Northwest
Portland.
Oh, awesome.
Yeah.
So he gave us a really great deal.
And four or five years later we refinanced for the bank, which was our agreement with
him.
And then our second building, seven years later, he happened to own that building as
well.
So all the time that we were running this 30, 34 bed hostel that was full to the max
in a city like Portland, every time I would run into Rick Michaelson at different meetings
in the neighborhood, I would always say, hey, the Elliston would make a great hostel.
And then one day he said, let's meet and talk about that.
And so I had been, as a carpenter, I had been buying and selling houses, kind of flipping
them in Portland.
So I had a few fourplexes.
I had some equity and some property.
So when he said that and he was willing to give us another really good deal on the price,
he carried the contract for this 8,000 square foot building that tripled our size.
We bought that on a contract with him, another agreement where we'd have them cashed out
in five years.
And I knew if we could get the renovations done, get the bunk beds in and fill the bunk
beds that we could refinance for the bank.
So we did that.
Did you spend most of your time with your background in the carpentry side, focusing
on the facilities and the build out?
Or were you more in operations?
How did you kind of organize your...
Well, I mean, back in the day, I was doing both.
Shutting the table saw off to go check somebody in in the first days, maybe get them involved
in whatever project we were working on.
And then as we get bigger and bigger and we're able to just support more staff and hire a
manager, then I still always stayed pretty hands on.
You know, my wife, Britta, is extremely involved in the North West.
And we met the first year I opened Portland in 1998.
She came over from Germany on a work and travel visa to if she wanted to improve her English.
Now her English is better than mine.
And then she came back two years later and did like a two year internship at our hostel.
Then it came back a third time and that's when we got together.
So she's been involved since 1998 when we opened the doors and again, weren't quite
finished, but it was June and we needed the income.
So we set up the card table and the cigar box as our front desk.
And she helped.
She has a logistics major in college and then she went on to get her MBA at Portland State
University.
So she's quite the business.
Oh, she's sharp.
When you look back on your years of running the different hostels and we've had our hostels
now for 12 years and do the same reflection, what times do you reflect back that you feel
your hostel was firing in all cylinders or doing its best?
Is there a certain year or time or like an energy that you guys were like, wow, we're
really, this can't get any better than this.
Is there a moment in time that you reflect back that you maybe chase in other years?
Yeah, I would say three months before the pandemic hit, we had received the announcement
from Hostel World that we got the award for the third best midsize hostel in the world
in January and then in March, the pandemic hit.
So it was at that point, we built our new building.
We had five building on the block.
We decided to take our small parking lot in 2017 and build a five story building because
I'm a perfectionist, Brits is a perfectionist and we're missing things.
We're missing really good common space where we could do activities and programs and music.
We were missing a bar or a restaurant.
So we knew if we built a new building from the ground up, we could take that ground floor
and we can devote that to the hostel commons, which we have where we do a lot of activities.
We added the hostel cafe, which in the evening serves as kind of an informal bar where we've
got 12 local beer taps and a cider and kombucha.
And then we serve food, really good food.
I have this philosophy, I wouldn't give to the travelers anything that I wouldn't eat
and I'm pretty picky.
That's a good philosophy.
Yeah.
We don't eat processed food.
We don't eat food that's been frozen.
We eat meat, we like to know where it came from.
So we do all that in the cafe and people are really surprised.
They think, oh, food in a hostel is going to be really mediocre, but we have such great
food that the neighborhood has really embraced the cafe as well.
And it really is.
Just to follow up, would you say that the common area you feel was the really game changer
that puts you guys over the edge to win the Oscar?
What do you feel was the...
The common area and the cafe.
When we had to close the cafe for a year and a half during the pandemic, it was like you
could just feel that important piece was missing.
It was like the hostel is dead across the Western Indian Troubles, but even if we reopened,
with the doors closed, because restaurants weren't allowed to reopen, they could only
do food to go.
But the hostel commons and the cafe, the new building, the main floor, it's like a little
beehive with people coming and going.
And then we have other buildings.
So you don't feel like you're staying in a 200-bed hostel when you stay with us, because
we have these historic houses with private rooms so people can kind of get away and they're
kind of quiet in their 100-year-old renovated room that they're staying in.
And when they want activity, they can just walk over to the hostel commons.
The courtyard is a magical place too, right outside the commons.
And we did this feature, you saw it when you were there, where we have a glass wall that
opens from the hostel commons.
That's awesome.
That's lovely.
Yeah.
And the courtyard is covered.
So indoor and outdoor common spaces are so important for people to connect and host,
right?
You want to host a party and not have a good place to hang out.
Exactly.
For sure.
Yeah.
And I think that your place is just so magical in the way that you did combine all of those
spaces and increase your bed count without losing the intimacy.
It's really impressive how your flow and the feng shui of the place, you can tell that
there was a lot of thought that went into it with the custom build complemented with
the historical houses.
Really an awesome spot and a great model for people to take.
Before I jump over and I want to talk a bit about your awesome farm hostel with the yurts,
but with the restaurant and the cafe, which is such a different animal, we tried to do
one time years back and had a lot of trouble with it.
Do you find that that makes a similar amount of profit as a lot of the South American hostels
or hostels in Mexico, they'll make most of their profit from the bar.
Do you find that that's the case there or that it's more of a complimentary inclusion
to the experience and the bread and the butter is still the hostel?
Yeah, the bread and the butter is still the hostel.
It's hard to make it in the restaurant world.
We have the hostel cafe as an important vibe for the hostel.
The heart and soul for us is the hostel itself.
Everything we do centers around making the hostel better.
We might stay open until midnight.
It's not because we're going to make a profit from 10 PM till midnight, but the travelers
that fly in on a late flight or come in on a late bus have a place where they can get
something to eat.
I think that's a great thing for people to hear on that.
Don't put all your eggs or all your chips in that basket of the restaurant, which is
such a difficult and competitive and complex market.
If you can build in the scene like you did, that it's a complimentary element to the hostel
business and don't forget that the hostel is the main business and the restaurant, the
cafe element, the bar element should be in complement to that.
I think that's a safe way to put in a hostel bar or a cafe.
Great example there.
We got to visit the hostel farm that you have with amazing yurts and just the magical in
the forest type of vibe.
I think you've got your music festival event coming up later this month or next month.
How did that project come about?
Can you talk a bit about that?
Well, yeah.
I mean, Britton and I were looking for five acres and it was right after the big real
estate crash of 2008.
So property was, there was a lot of property on the market.
Our realtor that was looking for us called us and said, we've got this 50 acre property
and we're like, we're looking for five.
And they're like, but this is being repossessed in about two weeks and the price is like less
than half of its appraised value.
So we went and looked.
It had the historic cabin on it, which was a wreck.
Most people would have torn that cabin down, but it had been built by the homesteaders
that arrived in a covered wagon.
So with my copper to do skills and using work away and the work program, we renovated that
over about a five year period, just a little bit at a time.
But it also had the sprawling ranch house that was built in the 1960s.
So we were able to take that and make some staff quarters, a kitchen for our staff to
use.
And then we covered out about a third of it to create a little apartment for ourselves
from up here.
But we ended up with 50 acres and we were like, okay, what are we going to do with it?
We're not going to go up there and sit on 50 acres ourselves.
So we might as well get some stuff going here.
So we were involved in the music scene, folk music scene in Portland.
And we started out by doing two songwriting camps in the summer where people would come
week at a time and we had some instructors and it was a pretty cool experience.
And then from that we added the old time camp out that you were mentioning is going to happen
Labor Day weekend.
And then Labor Day weekend, that's it.
And then we have an Irish music camp out.
We call it a camp out because it's really not a festival where people come to listen
to music.
It's a gathering for the musicians to come and circle around and play together.
And then they do some, we have like an open mic in the evenings where people can perform
but it's mostly workshops and just jamming together.
When is the Irish one?
That is the third weekend of August.
Third weekend of August.
And then the old one has now expanded to a five day.
So it starts on Wednesday and then it ends on Labor Day.
Wow.
Oh man, I got to get up there one of these years to see one of those.
I love Irish music and I love folk music too.
And in the city bus that you rolled out there and I love the story you told me about how
you brought that thing out there and you couldn't get it through.
But I loved how you brought that in and complimented the property with this amazingly repurposed
city bus that's so functional.
I ended up hanging out there for a few hours late night.
But just a cool, a really rad feature to the property in addition to the yurts.
Right, right.
Yeah.
So, you know, so we did just these events for a while and then we decided, you know,
let's open this up for camping.
You know, first it was just five months of the year.
When the pandemic hit, then we started going year round.
Because everybody wanted to get out, must have been dead, but everybody wanted to get
out of town to places like the zigzag.
It's you know, zigzag mountain farm is what we call it.
In fact, I'm up here now working on a tiny house project that we're about to open in
about two weeks.
It'll be added to our, we have eight yurts, the tiny house, the cabin that we rent out
and then we can, on fourth of July weekend, we have 70 different campers, you know, in
advance.
Wow.
So the property is big.
It holds a lot of people.
Do you bring guests back and forth?
Like are you, do you do tours back and forth?
Is there much connection for people?
No.
You know, there is public transportation to get up here.
You can get to a half a mile of the place and then if you call us, we'll probably go
pick you up.
But you know, no, you know, that doesn't, we tried tours for a couple of years, but
you know, with all the regulations and insurance and everything, you know, we kind of left
people who specialize in that.
But the bus, the bus story was, you know, I mean, Britta always points out the fact
that she happened to be in Germany visiting her mother when I bought the bus.
So she came home and we were the proud owners of a city bus.
She's like, what are we going to do with that?
And of course, it's a main feature of Zigzag.
So we, you know, stripped all the seats out, put in the campers kitchen and then, you know,
in the back area where there's always that little step up, you know, we kind of made
that a little common space for people to hang out as well.
It's great.
Yeah.
And so now this bus, you know, kids and adults.
Yeah.
Oh no, it's just one thing.
And then so, but now the Zigzag is open year round now.
It is.
Yeah.
Oh, that's awesome.
Awesome.
We're up in a ski area.
So, you know, in the winter, there is the shoulder time before the snow falls where
it's a little quiet.
But once the snow falls and, you know, we get a lot of people that are snowboarders
and skiers that come up and stay in yurts.
We started heating the yurts during the pandemic.
Nice.
And then I want to make sure that we also touch on the Naha Association and all the
cool things that are going on there before we let you go.
So if we could just take a few more minutes and talk about that.
You obviously you formed this, which is such a Herculean task that we appreciate and understand.
And, you know, had the great first meeting and I love that you had the first meeting
as like a gathering to take suggestions and feedback from everyone and made it very inclusive.
I think it's awesome that you've created this board with different sub board committees
and get everyone involved and really just, you know, kudos to you and two thumbs up across
the board on that.
And we loved the first conference that you had this past April.
Had a great time, really amazing connections with everyone, good quality content and just
a fantastic experience.
And I really enjoyed the post trip as well.
But if you could give us an update on what's going on with the Naha, any new things happening
and what's going to be the location for the next one.
Yeah, yeah.
So Naha was was born just before the pandemic.
In fact, we were going to do the first hostel conference in Portland.
I think it was September of 2020.
And of course, you know, that wasn't going to happen with the pandemic hitting.
But we had everything planned and we were getting lining up speakers and all.
And then and then we were like, OK, is this really going to be over by Easter?
Like our great president told us.
And when we found out that it was just, you know, more nonsense coming from him, that,
you know, we we we canceled it and then we all went into this mode of, you know, fighting
the survival of our own hostels.
So nothing much happened with the American Hostel Association until after we started
getting back on our feet.
And then a few of us, you know, Jay and Frankie from the Ben Hostel, Lauren from the, you
know, they have the hostel in New York and for a short time started the hostel in Portland.
But, you know, it's it folded due to the pandemic.
But Lauren was pretty Lauren and her sister, Lee, they're pretty amazing people.
You know, we we met them as as competitors and just welcomed them into the community.
I wanted to work with them like we always do with what I call friendly competition.
Right.
And Lauren was we told Lauren and Lee about the the non-hine and they were like, we'll
help get this going.
And then that was sort of the spark.
We sort of needed, you know, a little bit more energy.
And then we reached out to Frankie and Jay.
Yep, we're in and a few other people.
So we just kind of started meeting.
You remember we had that planning meeting in April, which you guys came to the year
before.
And that was our that was our feeler.
You know, we we we looked around the country and we were like, let's invite about 15 of
the best hostile operators that we know of to Portland and see if you see what the you
know what the the barometer is for for getting this organization off the ground.
So we invited 16 people and 15 showed up on their own dime.
Right.
Yeah.
And and and so that was like, you know, this is a ripe time, you know, coming out of the
pandemic.
We need an organization, you know, you know, HSA is focusing on themselves, trying to,
you know, trying to stay alive.
There's no other organization in North America.
So that's that's how it came about.
And then from there, we we formed a board of directors.
We twisted a few arms of people that we we thought, you know, we're good operators.
They told us they didn't have much time to put in.
But we were like, just, you know, right now we need your name.
You know, we need, you know, we need five or six of us that are going to do some work.
And then we need other people that, you know, other other folks want to join in.
So so, you know, that's kind of how we operated for the first year.
We got that amazing conference off the ground.
You know, we've heard nothing but praise.
You know, we brought people in from Europe and South America as speakers and attendees.
And, you know, it's just it was just what we needed to kind of launch the thing.
And then after that, where we're at now is we went back to all those board members and
we said, you know, there's a whole group of people that want to be actively involved.
So reconfirm, you know, this is a time that if you don't feel like you have the time to
commit, we understand, you know, go ahead and, you know, resign and we'll and we'll
get we'll get 13 board members that are really willing to put in some time.
So that's the stage we're at now.
We just we sent out that the executive committee sent out that kind of invitation and six board
members decided, yeah, I don't have the time and I'd rather have somebody on the board
that, you know, that does have the time.
So six people resigned.
And right now we have.
Oh, I don't know.
Something it's probably around 15 or 16 people that we're we're sending a short application
to.
Bobby is one of them.
That's exciting, Bob.
Tell your mom.
So as soon as you get that, you got to send that back in.
Bobby's Bobby's a she and I can tell you so.
Thank you.
And then we're going to know that that should really snowball us even more.
You know, we're we've got almost 100 hostels as members.
And we are goal is, you know, I mean, everybody should be a member that's that's running a
hostel in North America.
That's what was the biggest takeaway you felt that the membership wanted after the conference
was all said and done.
Like what direction did were you inspired to go or where did you feel that people wanted
to go from there?
I mean, a big direction is they want to have some resources.
You know, like we have the WhatsApp, the North American.
That's great.
We're putting we're putting together a list of people that that have experience that are
willing to be a resource for various things from hostile development to, you know, to
you name it, technology and and so that new hostile operators or even current hostile
operators that have just been operating out there in a vacuum can can reach out and say,
hey, you know, what front desk system should I use or what, you know, what kind of activities
are you guys doing?
You see all the questions that come up on the North American.
Right.
It's amazing.
So much value.
Further, we're taking it a step further and we're creating a list of people that are willing
to be mentors.
I'm mentoring two guys that are managing and looking to buy the seaside hostel.
Oh, cool.
So they call me whenever they have questions.
And, you know, I'm helping them from everything from how to negotiate with the current owner
to buy the property, sub creative financing to, you know, how to manage a good host.
And what improvements they should make to bring that hostile back up to where it should
be.
So that's awesome.
Yeah.
The social aspect is another big thing that people want.
You know, like I said, people have been out there and operating in a vacuum.
You know, they might be up in northern Maine and they never meet other hostile operators.
So at least once a year they can come to this conference.
And then I'm looking at, you know, once we get going a little bit is having some regional
meetings where we just get together and we don't have to put a lot of time into presenters
and all we just have a big potluck and.
That's nice.
Yeah.
A mixer.
You know, I think that's I think that's a really good idea.
We're actually talking about that earlier today.
They used to have those Darren Overby used to have those hostile meetups or hostile management
that were born localized or in this city or this region.
So that can be a really cool element to bring.
But so the last question has to be where is the next annual conference going to be?
Has that been decided?
We'll be back in Portland or are there a couple of options?
Our goal is to move it around North America.
We're you know, because we're so strong starting out in the US, we kind of thought it would
be in the US for a while.
But a new so when we let me back up a little bit when we formed the board of directors,
we decided let's keep let's keep our board position for a rep from Mexico, a rep from
the US and a rep from Canada.
So we make sure at least there's a little bit of representation in there.
So so we filled the we filled the position for Mexico recently.
And it's I'm embarrassed to say it's it's Marco.
But there's two Marcos that were at the conference.
So I would have to look up his last name.
But he has the he has a little chain of hostiles in Mexico.
Oh, yeah, I remember him.
Yeah.
He's a Che, right?
Yes, that's right.
So awesome.
We reached out to him and said, you know, are any of your hostiles capable of doing a
conference?
And and and he said, yes.
So just he's got a hostile just south of I'm getting old and forgetful here.
It'll be warm and sunny in Mexico either way.
It's it's on the East Coast.
It's that the famous famous town where all the couch potatoes from America go.
OK, thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you.
All right.
You're going to leave us in suspense.
I hate getting good.
But I saw the canteen by about an hour.
He's got a and so we're looking at that.
We haven't totally firmed it up.
But he's talked to this manager's there and it's and it's looking like that's probably
where we'll be for our next meeting.
Sounds like a good recon trip you're going to have to do.
You go do text margaritas down there.
I told him I'd come down early for sure.
Oh, that's great.
You guys could join me.
Yeah, I'm happy to go do some recon and margaritas for that.
But I think, you know, Mexico in April, you know, people are going to want to go there.
I think we'll get a pretty good turnout.
I agree.
Yeah.
Great time of the year.
Yeah.
And then we'll look at there's a couple of hostels willing to host it in 20.
What would that be?
Twenty twenty six up in Canada like the Olympics.
Yeah.
I think we'll be successful jumping around, you know.
Yeah, the three main countries in North America.
Well, we love going to them.
So we're excited that you're continuing to plan and we'll stay tuned to hear what the
final destination is for our next conference.
But Jim, the Northwest Portland Hostel and the Association, thank you so much for joining
us on the Hostel Road Trip podcast.
And this is partner Bobby Dyer as well.
We should mention, I mean, if I could jump in, we should mention any hostels listening
to this that are not part of Naha, you should join it.
So absolutely.
I drop that every episode.
All right.
Get on it.
Yeah.
We're going to see you all in Mexico, you host owners and operators and managers.
So get on it and get signed up.
But thanks again, Jim.
Thanks, Bobby.
And stay tuned for our next episode next week.
All right.
Thanks, everybody.
Thanks, Jim.
Thanks again.