Late one night in my Ford Edge, after the first day of the gathering, we just sat there
and just chatted at each other and tried to figure out a way to best support the group.
Because that's been our goal from the beginning is to elevate US hostels to offer them more
ways to put more money in their pocket, better guests in their beds.
And so Hosteling.US was born out of a conversation with US hostel owners and teams.
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 hostel 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 hostel operators or travel influencers to hear about their
real success, discuss trending hostel topics, and close with tips on how to make your host
a better host.
And so, we're going to be sharing our stories with you.
So, let's get started.
So, we're going to be sharing our stories with you.
Alright, let's rock and roll.
We are with Thea from the Ember Hostel, from HostelingUS, from The Gathering.
We are on an epic hostel road trip podcast episode.
I'm here with Bob Dyer, co-founder, business partner.
newly minted Naha board member Robert Dyer. Thank you for joining us. Great to be here with you guys.
Yeah and Thea thank you so much for taking the time in your busy schedule
and being an awesome mother as well as well as all these other projects.
Thank you for being with us. I'm so excited. I'm going to give a little shout out to my boy Yogi
here who has decided to join us. He's decided to join us. He's a superstar and Instagram influencer.
All right so let's dive into it with Thea. For those of you who don't know and have not been
blessed to meet her she is a hostile legend, an OG and a tour de force. Just a really awesome person.
And I just want to know before we dive into your various different tentacles within the industry,
how did you get into hostels? Like what was it that young Thea found herself like bit by the
bug? How did that happen? Well I wasn't quite young but I- You still are our girlfriend!
I actually answered a Chrysler ad. I was living in Austin, Texas. I was looking to pivot out of
the career I'd been in for the last 10-15 years and I wanted my weekends back so I thought hey
this sounds like a really interesting opportunity. So I really just had never been hostiling until I
took that job. Fuck yeah. So your first no guest experience just went in right in as a worker?
I have probably 20 years of experience like as a community organizer working with volunteers
and my previous career was event and wedding management so a ton of understanding.
Yes all right. Now but now that's an interesting thing because you didn't get the exposure as a
guest which usually is what kind of breaks down the classic American stigma which we're trying
to overcome with things like this podcast where it's like oh my god that's a horror film you're
gonna get murdered if you go in there you know how did you you look at the hostile industry
as a whole when you went into that experience did you have separations or were you like oh
I've heard about this but these places are like did you have any of that that's a bad mojo?
I really knew nothing of hostels not even the bad reputation that it might have had. It was all
brand new to me when I first walked into the building for the interviews. I soaked it all up
and I saw all the activity in the relationship building that was happening in the common room
and the kitchen and it really felt like it was where I wanted to be but I had no preconceived
notions. That's absolutely so you were like tabula rosa going in that's actually the best you can
ask for in our country because usually it's like you know I always laugh about it when I get like
the back of a cab when I'm going to one of our different locations from the airport like oh what
are you doing I'll maintain up business what do you do oh I run a hostel and then like you know
you see him look in the rear view mirror like I'm gonna like come from behind and strangle him yes
so it is sometimes better just to have that clean slate because as we know
the stigma is just so bad and now they're coming out with another horror
hostile series with Paul Giamatti as the lead actor who I loved and now I'm gonna have to
just fucking kick him right out of my closet so yeah so we're trying here we're trying to figure
out new things but you're doing many of those things with hostels are more fun which I want
to dive into but before we do that so you're in Austin you get your exposure and now how do you
find yourself up at Embers Hospital in Denver which also just to drop a little uh a tune on your horn
here won the best hostel in North America in 2018 2020 2020 for a hostel or like huge award huge
accomplishment and just really an awesome hostel we stayed there during the gathering which we'll
also talk about in this call uh here but amazing hostel run out of a historical home and if I were
to say because we run out of historical homes as well a few of our locations and we started at USA
hostels which is now Gaslamp Hostel which is a 1880s brothel historical building so that's been
a big part of our journey so I greatly appreciate how difficult that is to run and operate out of
those older facilities and if I were to take a textbook example of how to like knock it out of
the park I would say Ember Hostel would be the case study because that place is just awesome like
you kept all of the original awesome historical features which I hate to see when people try to
change or chop up or metal with but at the same time you made it feel modern and comfortable you
know and it flows super smooth so just kudos to you on that but tell us how you found yourself
over at Ember Hostel. So uh the hostel I worked for in Austin was called Director Jack's Hostel
it was like a real traditional backpackers hostel we had no fluff there were no frills you slept on a
crinkety old bunk bed and you use a locker that I built but the vibes were immaculate um the events
were top tier we knocked it out of the park my first year there and became number one hostel
in Austin and we carried a 9.6 in the house world until I left it was an excellent experience and a
great way to be introduced into the hostel industry and I'm glad I had that experience
before I moved to Ember the same owner of Drifter Jack's his name is Andy Ward he's also the one who
opened Ember Hostel so when he was like hey we're gonna open a second one I said I'm gonna go I love
the mountains I love uh Colorado so that felt like kind of serendipitous for me um and so that was
just kind of the journey that I had with the hostel owner Andy. Oh I didn't know that no you
learned something new is Drifter Jack's still open Drifter Jack's closed during COVID unfortunately
oh and not to reopen it's done it's done okay but same owner still owns the Ember Hostel and
how's that one rocking correct okay and now what about how big is the Ember Hostel give us a little
bit of detail on it so that yeah like you mentioned it's a historical mansion in this beautiful
neighborhood called Capitol Hill in Denver it's 9,000 square feet uh it includes an old carriage
house which we uh remodeled into a dormitory it has a big property um in downtown Denver big property
uh it's really really gorgeous and like you said a ton of the historical details were left untouched
we have an arts and crafts stands you know glass window we have a beautiful curved woodwork
staircase the original fireplaces are in there we have the original floors there's just a ton of
history in the walls and so it was really great that we kept it the way we did and then with an
interior designer they amped it up with all the beautiful custom bespoken furnishing that we
brought into the space um and that's what really I think elevated it um and made it feel very boutique
yeah that's amazing I had a question going from events coordinator and then getting into
hostel management it's you know obviously aligned very well and having a great vibe is so important
but what did you what did you after becoming a hostel manager for say six months or a year what
did you enjoy the most about it as you kind of newly found yourself in this position
I don't think I understood the volunteer model or the work exchange model in when I took on the job
and that was something that I found to be just perfectly set for my skill sets and I really
enjoyed it and so I've always loved building a team but I love working with volunteers and so I
really got to kind of capitalize on that in in the hostel industry and that's probably been my
most like most unexpected favorite part of the job interesting yeah it is so unique that it's
really like everybody's living together and you're creating this energy and this vibe right you're
chasing this vibe and even when even when your hostel is doing great you know that sometimes that
lightning in a bottle isn't there but all of a sudden you'll feel it and you're like wow the
hostel's really you know firing on all cylinders the vibes are great the activities just don't stop
and it's a magical feeling and so much of it is all the staff right everybody living there just
bringing their cultures to the table I agree that is such a cool part so yeah I I think that's such
a great uh for me a key indicator of like with hostel managers in general if they are on the
thought process of oh my goodness these work exchange members or volunteers whatever you
might call them they're such a pain in the ass and why well let's just get paid people from the
outside and I instantly know that they're not seeing the lightning in the bottle I'm like you're
you're listening to the music but you're not hearing you know it's so sad for me and I actually
I started to look at that differently of like I've failed that person somewhere along the line
if they're not able to see this as their greatest asset and not their greatest liability and how
beautiful it can be when it all goes off on all cylinders and it's running smoothly and I had the
same profound enjoyment of when managing at USA hostels you know and just having that singular
task of managing that one location that was my favorite part of the job was putting together the
crew and like watching watching it mold together and I thought to myself what other gig would you
be asked okay you're going to take 10 people you're going to throw them into the same room
they're from every race religion culture political background all these differences you got to put
them in one room you got to get them all to work together harmoniously as a family that's a
management challenge right there you know so if I think the effort that's put in is well worth it
and you see it and it's so beautiful when it does click and it does happen but I always get so sad
when I uh it's like the wind comes out of my sails when I hear someone say like oh we're going to get
rid of all these exchanges all these volumes we're going to get paid people to come in here
get it done so we can just come and check in and check out I'm like okay so if you heard of the
motel six they might be looking for you yeah who's in charge of the vibe then you know
we're not a hostel anymore we're just a hotel at that bar motel you know so you lose all of that
essence special sauce within that so I think that's a you know very noticeable that you like that
and we're drawn to that inspired by that and it shows the product that you created at the ember
hostel and I'm sure at drifter jacks before that which I never get to stay at but I heard great
things um what did you uh surprise that staff there what did you uh what are things you like to do
to uh emphasize that and create those moments with the staff maybe advice you can give the other
hostel owners like you built the staff now how do you keep the staff motivated to make that
magic happen I think the really the key and maybe something that a lot of people miss is you really
have to create like a very collaborative environment for people to have a bit of a buy-in to have
you know feel like they have a voice I think that's really important to some of the younger
generations that we work with they want to have a say they want to have a little bit of a
opportunity to lead or direct and so I stay very collaborative although I have a million ideas
myself but when I have a team I'm saying hey what do you guys see like what are you experiencing in
this environment how would you like to elevate it how are what are the ways that you want to
participate in this community and that's where you really get to learn from other people you
get to find how they best engage with the the job or the community so really just you know not being
single focused on what I want to do but encouraging the team to be a part of building a very special
community and then they get to take pride in that and that's that buy-in that you have to get from
those volunteers and so that that's what I always suggest people who are struggling it's like
you need to open up open up the meeting like let listen to what people are wanting to do and
some of the best things we've done over the last several years at Ember are because somebody really
wanted to do it and so we allowed them that space to do that and it was you know it ended up being
a great benefit for everybody I think yeah you hit the nail on the head so much there with that and
I had the same personal growth or learning curve if you will of you know you when you when you own
your house or you're managing it you can be very possessive and territorial and you care about it
and you're like this is my idea and my plan and get on board with it or you know get off the train
you know that will only get you so far but the the thing that we learned early on was within that
in that learning curve and that's what allowed us to expand so much and a lot of people in
in industry peers would wow you give these kids a lot of flexibility or a lot of creative
participation or you know they're involved a lot in some big decisions and yes they are and we wanted
it to be that way so that they were involved they were invested they felt like they were heard
you know they had that pride of ownership feeling because they were involved in that you know that
process and you've got to let you know let that grow and cultivate and run and that's how you create
that vibe of that culture because you can smother that with and not let it you know happen and it's
a beautiful thing when it does because you know i just had a perfect example i put up the big bear
lodge here wildfires were okay yogi and i are still safe but uh you know one of the work exchanges
are you know the housekeeping closet was just a it looked like a fucking bomb went off in it and
you know i could see the anxiety and she was like is that a label maker and i was like yeah it's an
awesome label maker i bought it you know for the place like can i go to town on this closet with
that label maker and i see there once was labels that are not being i was like go for it she's doing
that and then all of a sudden the manager comes in and sees her making this housekeeping closet
that the manager actually let slide get a little bit i see again who's in the kitchen reorganizing
all the dry food storage relabeling everything you know and now i'm like wow the kitchen's looking
great the manager's over there and the working student now i'm in the garage and i'm doing the
tools and you know you just get this way you know the momentum gets going and everyone's you know
feeding off of each other and that's that lightning in a bottle moment it's you know even the guests
can feel that and can taste and see like wow these are everyone's working together to make the place
better and it translates into the guest experience uh but enough about amber we need to shift over
some other things because you're a career woman with a lot going on
so let's jump on over now and talk a little bit about the gathering okay well actually let me
ask what came first the gathering or hustling hustling us the gathering all right so we're
gonna go gathering at so so you're in denver you meet sydney who's another tour de force just an
awesome woman and a pioneer trailblazer in our industry and you too i love your personalities
and i love that when you two met you you know clicked in that way and worked together as a
lot of times in any business when you have that competing hostile you're like oh that's my
competition i don't like them and you never met him yet you know you've just already decided that
you know we're not going to get along uh so i love that you two went with that opposite way
tell us a bit about how you met sydney and how the gathering came about so um shortly after amber
hostel opened in 2018 sydney came by and asked hey can i speak to the manager and you know no one's
favorite question um but pleasantly uh when i met her she was like hey i you know operate this hostel
every year like maybe there's some ways we can work together and she came into my life at a time
where i was in desperate need for a community for a network because i hadn't found anybody yet or
having connected with anybody yet who could understand the industry because it's just so
unique in so many ways that i can't speak to other people who maybe work in hr about my hr experiences
because they're not the same um and they always just stare at me like what is your job and so i
felt very isolated i had been speaking to andy about possibly heading to you know a conference
or something i just was really in desperate need of it so i was so happy to meet her and she's an
incredible person um and we just instantly connected i think she needed the community too
and as soon as we realized how beneficial it was for the two of us we were like we got to share the
love and we started the hostel or what was called the colorado hostel collective and we invited the
20 plus colorado hostels that exist to meet with us for a day in denver and when we did just you
know magic happened fireworks all of the good stuff um it was really clear to us that we weren't
the only ones in need of a community of like-minded professionals who could really you know have find
some solidarity in these situations that we were put in regularly and so it was a huge success we
tried to grow on that in a lot of different ways we held um two more conferences with colorado
hostel collective and then in 2023 we decided to open it up to usa hostels because we were getting
a lot of inquiries from people um and we were like hey you know we can learn more let's learn more
let's bring more people into the room let's find more people to share these stories and these um
you know concerns and challenges with and so that was a huge success we were so happy to have all
of those new faces um in the room with us and from that gathering in 2022-23 is where hosteling.us
was born from the conversations that we had as a group we identified the things that we needed in
order to survive to be successful to be our best um we needed to educate u.s travelers that we
existed and that we were cool um we needed to ensure that we had a standard for what hostling
in the u.s was um and we needed an opportunity to drive bookings as a group and so late one night
in my ford edge after the first day of the gathering we just sat there and just chatted
at each other and tried to figure out a way to best support the group because that's been our
goal from the beginning is to elevate u.s hostels to offer them more ways to put more money in their
pocket better guests in their beds um and so hosteling.us was born out of a conversation with
u.s hostel owners and teams love it and now that that connects the story for me
you got it bob you have something no i was just gonna say that's awesome how you created that in
that process i've never heard the full story yeah no i love the connection to it but for the
gathering now for listeners now it's november 5th for the seventh this year is that correct
in denver at the 11th avenue hostel yes right you will you still be having will ember still be
included or like we'll offer housing for the yes so we have housing and we're going to be doing
our welcome dinner there as well as other events so yes i hope the hot tub night is still in play
i hope i didn't get that cancelled last year wait what did you do let me check the video
no but for those of you who haven't been heard the gathering is such a cool get together and
really i think you nailed it on the head with matching up the conference to the clientele
and a lot of times with hostels i feel like the corporate side of business or even the corporate
side of hospitality and the tourism uh they don't understand us they don't get us and when they do
their best even to try to cater to us they're so wildly off that it's difficult for us to get
comfortable or to like let our hair down or really uh be in the element or in the zone and something
that i would definitely uh tip my cap to on you gals is that you nailed it by keeping it you know
professional in the elements of the material and the content is all very valuable worth it but you
did it in a way that we feel comfortable you know and within being there uh and having a great time
and then that's when you get the best of both worlds because not only do you get the productive
material but then you get the networking and i thought you did a great job on that and uh really
was it made us like put that on the calendar as far as like oh we're coming to this every year
you know and then within our group of hostels we'll take a select group of managers we actually
have a quarterly award um the manager of the quarter we get them a golden toilet it's actually
a usually a uh a trophy that would be given to someone who has a joke for like a fantasy
football league but since we're hostile operators and we often clean toilets and if you had the
nicest toilets you probably won so we give them the golden toilet award and the winners of the
golden toilet award get to attend the conference the winners yes bring the winners yes so we've
made it kind of a fun healthy competition within our little enterprise of oh this person won and
now they get to go to the denver gathering so love it created a nice uh buzz and vibe in that but
really just a a great get together in a nice intimate setting and great for networking
and camaraderie in a very unique industry where it is hard to find someone to talk to
that understands what you mean or isn't freaked out by what you say unless if it's another hostile
owner or manager so that's the gathering and then hostile us which i love the hostels are more fun
campaign you know branding type of thing and i feel like we've just all going to do more to push
that and it all like that should be that sticker or that you know that's uh slogan um like a
tent frame or whatever i feel like that should be at every reception check-in and every hostile
in the country you know like it with a qr code and like that should just be a staple like almost
like you would walk into an hi back in the day and it would look like an hi right but it would
be great if like no matter what the hostile looked like it no matter where it was the country
when whether it was a poshtel or a real genuine backpack or hostile if you always saw that tin
sign i really feel like if we committed ourselves to all make that small effort
that would subconsciously grab some familiarity with people of like i keep seeing that every
place i'm at you know no matter what the name of the place is no matter what city i'm in and if
they see that three four five six times they're going to eventually you know take that picture
or cure or try it out and then i i think everything after that is so useful for the industry you know
having this great collection of qualified and verified hostels that are safe that's a beautiful
thing because so many times and it breaks my heart i'll hear from people that aren't staying
at the hostel and i'm just in the conversation about what do you do or what about this and they'll
give you that look from the rear view mirror or like you know oh my god you're in the hostile
industry and a lot of times that is predicated by a horrible experience they had in a hostel that
was just an absolute dive or actually was a homeless flop house or the person who was running it maybe
was trying to kill you you know like that that happens to people and that they're done for life
and not only are they done for life they tell their 10 friends you know and they're done for life
so i you know on the exact same flip side of that i'm always so fired up when we have someone staying
at an itch and they're checking out they're like this is the best experience of my life i've never
stayed at a hotel again oh my god you know this was so cool i'm telling all my friends
about hostels and you're like yes not another one at the same time every day there are hostels out
there in the u.s that are turning people the other way and are like oh my god i was going to give
this a try but holy shit i'm telling everyone about this and this was awful and what i really
like about your site or movement in the hostile us is that you're actually going to have valid
good hostels vetted hostels safe hostels secure hostels and that will keep the industry on the
industry on the uptick bob you have something out there yeah i was just excited to hear about what
upcoming what do you guys have planned dia for getting more exposure in a word out to
younger travelers for hustling us so you know we we've been fully active for a little bit more
than a year the first uh push is really to get buy-in from all the hostels in the u.s the best
site is going to be a comprehensive site of u.s hostels so we were really glad that we met there
our first metric of 50 hostels in our first year so that that was really exciting for us we're
still trying to build that membership because we really do want to have hostels available
in all the states in all the areas and we know that there's even more and even greater and better
hostels that are not part of the site and so the getting everyone to participate is really a big
focus of ours we we think that that's what's going to set us apart is will be this comprehensive site
where people can go and really plan a trip through the u.s and staying in hostels
that is our big goal of ours is to be able to offer hey are you going coast to coast are you going
to Washington to Mexico are you midwest like here's a road trip for you where you can stay in these
are really cool budget-friendly hostels so we're always mainly focused on building our membership
but of course we then have to make sure that we're getting the exposure with the travelers and so we
are putting a lot of effort into sourcing UGC and really sharing like POVs of actual travelers
that are staying in these really cool hostels so that has been excellent for us this last year we've
got a lot of great traction on our social media profiles we're doing a ton of community engagement
we're really focused on building awareness that U.S. hostels exist so maybe you've seen us tagging
some of your hostels recently in comments where they're speaking of maybe an area like you know
somewhere in California where you have one of your awesome hostels and we're like hey we love
staying at ith when we're in San Francisco so it's a lot about building awareness with travelers
who are currently online that's another big focus of ours and then we do have a couple things up
our sleeves but we're not going to reveal those until the gathering so we hope you join us
oh that's exciting yeah yeah so we are really really dedicated to putting the best guests in
your beds and driving bookings to you and how we do that is building a comprehensive list that
people can trust and know hey I can go here and find somewhere in any of these states building
awareness with travelers so that they oh I heard once there was a hostel xyz that's that community
engagement piece and then you know we are working on finding other ways to drive more bookings to
hostels that is so cool I love that I love that road trip idea you know that's such a cool feature
that you could have you know within your platform that would like you put it together for them and
give them the options because often again back to that uh you know pop of the cherry of a hostel
person and getting them on board and they're excited and now they don't want to stay at hotels
anymore a lot of times the question I will hear is are these are there more of these places can I
can I go to another one in this city or like where's the next one so that could just be such
a great way for you guys to uh identify yourselves as a great resource for that of like a lot go on
this site and you know pump in where you want to go and they'll create a whole like triptych for you
of where you can pop off on you know good quality safe secure hostels and I think again that's so
important because it really makes me sad about hostel world and I love how hostile world you know
and how it brings us that community and represents hostels but it makes me so sad how they have very
poor lowly rated dangerous facilities and proprietors on the site and they don't kick them off
and I know from speaking with some OGs that they used to be really strict about that you know back
in the day if you got below like a seven or a six in your score for a couple of months in a row you
were gone and you know you and you were just kicked off the sites so then that allowed every
backpacker logging in back then to know like if I'm going to a hostile world listed facility I know
I'm going to a safe place a secure place a good genuine hostel and that was how they built themselves
so much and I it's so sad to see that they and I know Maria it does some great work from Gaslamp
Hostel because she has so many great connections there and she'll go to them and be like hey this
person doesn't even have a business license you know they they don't even have you know fire
inspections like this is a dangerous facility this facility over there has a 3.2 rating you know every
every review is horrifying and they're still on there and they won't take them off and now their
responses because if I think in my opinion because I'm so corporate is you know hey we're acting in
the best interest of the stockholders and you're like you just want to throw up on your face
well I mean Hostel World is definitely a great driver for getting you know the right demographic
into our hostels but they're not really you know prioritizing USA hostels there are many USA hostels
that you would have to scour and know exactly how to search in order to find them on that site
and that is that's unfortunate because people continue to think we don't have cool USA hostels
because Hostel World is not providing that information with them and yeah it's just so
corporate that there's it's it just doesn't feel like it has the same vibe as US hostels do so we're
really hoping that Hosteling.US can become a main source of bookings for hostels and that all the
really cool USA hostels see the advantage of being part of the community I think that's something that
we can all agree on it's always been really valuable to us in the industry to have a community
to be a part of a group to have this collective effort to further you know meet our guest
expectations and find more guests and so you know as I said before our big focus of ours is getting
everyone involved in the site because we truly think a comprehensive fully collective site is
what's going to drive people to us and feel like they're you know it's a trustworthy site
and we will always prioritize well vetted listings and make sure that we're only offering the best to
our travelers. Something to add to that? Yeah have you found obviously it's Hosteling.US and you guys
cover all US but it seems like more and more states are creating like individual associations
I think maybe just because they're closer and in their gathering which is what you guys call your
you know the gathering so do you guys try to like organize like the hostel experience
in each state and kind of like gather that community or build a hosteling like an itinerary
for each state across each state's different hostels and kind of have like a micro plan or
do you guys look at that at all? We are not currently looking at that no.
Okay you know but that it's an interesting question Bob brings up because we do these podcasts and
we're always pushing your gathering Hosteling.US pushing Naha and it is almost to a point of
frustration sometimes where we're talking with the hostels and now that these networks have been
created in these groups which we know for people that have been in the industry while we were all
yearning for for so long and now that they're there to think that people wouldn't participate
it could be frustrating. So I'll often dig in a little bit on that and ask well what are you
doing? Well we created our own you know association for New England or we created our own association
for South Carolina. I'm like oh gosh you know it's so fragmented you know like let's put that
effort and energy into a collective movement which I feel like your platform is a movement
that could have so much benefit from everyone and I really would encourage you to stick to it
and highlight that differentiator of like hey where are the safe and secure hostels? Where are
the real genuine backpacker hostels? You know these places have been vetted you know this is
for experience because that's the type of platform that can really enhance the industry by picking
everyone up together. Where I do honestly think that Hostelworld by going with that like oh yes
I know that this place has a 2.9 and they don't have a business license but you know we make x
amount of money from them and their bookings each year so again we have to ask the best interest of
the shareholders. You know that type of reality is that they're hurting the industry in a lot of
ways by losing us guests by posting up that hostel not only on their site but because that hostel
paid them for a premium listing they're on top and you're like oh my god what are you doing?
You know you've got 10 beautiful hostels sitting below this one but because this
bozo is paying you $500 a month you're putting them right on top even though he's got a 2.9.
You know that's scary stuff and they can really have a bad effect on a very important part of
our industry's growth. A very sensitive and fragile time within our growth and I'm fearful that
if we don't overcome this stigma genuine real authentic backpacker hostels could disappear
disappear and you could have just a stigma of like unless if it's a Marriott hostel or a Hilton hostel
then it must be one of those murder hostels or you know drug house hostels and like the actual
authentic backpacker hostel and the amazing lightning and ball experience will just
fade away you know and that would be the worst thing ever so I think that you know us doing
podcasts you're doing things like the gathering and hosteling us are just such great initiatives
and movements to stop that from happening but for all of you listeners for you know for god's sakes
join up get on board and you know join the mission and the movement for your own benefit
because you really have created a platform that it's silly not to get involved on that I have a
last question for the hosteling us what are some of the hesitations that you get from hostels that
don't want to join or like what oh I don't want to do it because of this or I'm not interested
because that like what are some feedbacks and tell me their names and I'll go visit
um I mean to be completely frank it always comes down to the membership fee um which I find I think
is fair for what we offer but we are working within an industry that is very budget conscious
um a majority of the hostels that I've worked with are uh communicate with they don't have a
marketing budget they don't have they haven't um prioritized uh marketing or education um and they
maybe don't understand the value that comes with it but it really just comes down to our pretty
nominal membership fee um and I I mean I can't be mad at people of course they understand what is
you know what is best I do know that we have to do a little bit more educating on what how that
value you know can be how they can how they will best benefit from their listing so that's something
we are constantly talking about like how to engage more people um but the barrier has only ever been
shared to me as it's the listing fee and I'll give you their names later okay so what is the listing
fee so everyone knows 300 dollars per year 300 dollars per year is that you renew every year at
300 right locked in rates so again uh yeah that could just be one reservation you know and and
you're you've gotten your money back uh but collectively even if you didn't you know see
that right away I think for the uh back to the awareness we're always pushing that so much of
imagine what this industry could be if people actually knew what it was you know and knew
it knew the beautiful magic that happens inside of hostels and how awesome they really are when a
hostel is run properly and with that old school you know bohemian vibe and place you know I think
that that's really what we've got to do as industry peers is bring that awareness to the forefront
because that's really what can help us explode and if we don't do it again I think that could be the
death sentence for us if we don't uh if we let other people control the narrative and let other
let other people uh you know identify us and tell other people what we are you know that could be a
really dangerous game so I think we've got to get out there more yeah well when you speak to the
group like we do at the gathering it's always the same things like people don't know we exist
people don't know what a hostel is um I don't know how to reach the right guests um I want to meet my
guest expectations and they ask like where else can I stay in hostels and I don't know where to
send them and so hostling.us was born just to help with these four things that you know collectively
if we are trying to um elevate hostling in the U.S. we need a place to send people to educate them on
what a hostel is and where they can stay in hostels and so hostling.us isn't just a listing site
it's very educational um we don't just have your room pictures up there and a book being lit we
talk about what your hostel is who you are what's your vibe like what do you offer it's very
educational and individualizing your listings but then we have a ton of blog posts that we're
sharing on like what's a bag like what to expect if it's your first time like where to go if you
want xyz experience and there's just uh you know unlimited options for traveling in U.S. hostels
and having just such a variety of experiences and as a hostel manager someone who works day-to-day
operations you know you get that question all the time oh is there another hostel like are there more
hostels hey I'm going to this state is there a hostel there and we don't all know but this site
is meant to be fully comprehensive you may pay for a listing and have your own dedicated page
that directly links to your booking page or if you're a U.S. hostel you're also on the abc directory
list so we do want to be comprehensive we want everyone to know about all the U.S. hostels that's
what hostling.us is meant for it again was born out of a discussion that comes from us as the
hostel owners and what we need and it really is checking a lot of those boxes um and we're really
excited about what we've done in the first year but you're right there's a lot more we need to do
as a collective in order to reach our even our individual goals of success um and so that's why
we host the gathering is to bring people in a room together where they can realize their challenges
are the same um and there are people working to help you know build those bridges and drive those
bookings um and so you know that's our our only hope is to fill all your beds with the best guests
that's our whole mission in life and we work really hard at that and um it's very much a passion
project this is something that I do when I have the time to do it when I'm able to put the information
out and I love what we do and I'm so excited about what we're doing and it would be amazing to have a
full collective buy-in and just like you know take over like let's say goodbye to hostile world let's
have hosteling.us like that could be ours a dedicated site for USA hostels we all want that
and this is what hosteling.us is yeah booking.com who yeah it'd just be nice to forget all those
Bob you had something to add yeah I think uh obviously I'm very impressive with what you guys
have created and I think also with the uh coming off the pandemic the international travel still
hasn't returned uh what it was pre-pandemic so I feel like hosteling.us is really going to you
know thrive with the upcoming uh world cup coming up in 2026 and the olympics in 2028 so I think it's
especially California I know is the state seems to be in a lull of travel but I think that's really
what is going to bring back that international travel to all these events and then people are
going to hopefully get excited again about visiting the U.S. like they did before the pandemic
um but having a place having a brand that people can go to and find this directory of these great
hostels is going to be amazing so again very impressive what you guys created and excited to
be a part of it well it's always um awesome to have ith on board um y'all are such you know
trailblazers in the industry um you know definitely our favorite chain of hostels and
and uh down chain down chain movement oh group what's the right word movement movement
they're our favorite movement of hostels in the U.S. you can just like edit that right
yeah we like it because we are a collective of independent hostel owners we uh yeah as
hostile backpackers we don't like the well we're not a chain as ith is owned by one
group there's this independent hostile collective owners have come together and we're on the same
mission love that yeah part of our core back in the day was to make sure that we never became
like a chain or a franchise so we beat that out to ourselves every day and you may have noticed
from my hairstyle and vicious chops that I haven't sold out yet never will but I get to the hostel
you guys think such a cool opportunity for everyone to get involved and then have the
strength in numbers and have the ability to as I often tell jim kennett I was like I feel like we
need to get on top of the mountaintop and shout who we are because we're getting so much bad
press and stigma from all these you know movies and shows and different things and we've got to
combat that and and speak the truth and try out different things like the podcast like what you're
doing with hostile us we're currently working on trying to put together a hostile book that would
bring more awareness to the industry you know so I think we've got to be bold with these projects
but then we definitely need the support from the collective in the industry to to bring them to the
potential that they could so just again thank you so much cia for being with us and
what a rock star you are within the industry embers hostile again is really a case study
and how you could run a hostel out of a historical building and uh that what you've done with the
gathering is so exciting and we'll all be there in force with our golden toilet winners november
fifth november seventh in denver and then hostiling us that might be the most exciting one
I think you've got going on and it just needs to gain more momentum but that should be the mission
at every unit united states hostile reception there is the hostels are more fun signed with the qr
code at every reception no matter what hostile it is and you know you just might have to send me on
my motorcycle around the country to drop off oh that would be perfect I love that well we're the
only ones you are able to really drive the awareness about the u.s hostels it's on us to do that
and individually each day at our own hostels we're doing that and then we have to do it
collectively as well so it's great to have the people who have joined and it would be awesome to
have even more awesome u.s hostels uh to join us our number our power will really be in our numbers
yeah all right wow cia from ember the gathering host for us she's got a resume people
thank you so much for joining us and we will see you in november