Hello, friends and travelers. Thanks for listening.
You are riding along on the Hostile Road Trip
Podcast. Our mission is to spread awareness of
the true hostile experience in the Americas and
share stories from the fascinating hosts who
create those unique facilities. I'm your host,
Jimmy Black, joined alongside co -founder of
International Travelers House, Bobby Dyer. Each
session, we sit down with hostile operators or
travel influencers to hear about their road success,
discuss trending hostile topics. and close with
tips for travelers who are seeking to have the
ultimate experience when visiting each destination.
You can't afford to miss this trip. Now fasten
your seatbelts and let's hit the road. inspiring
hostel owners, hostel owners, hostel managers
coming in to join us for conversation. We've
been regulated to the kids' room and small furniture.
So we are currently just with myself, Jimmy Black,
and co -host Bobby Dyer, also board member of
Maha. Welcome, Bob. Yeah, great to be here today.
Still a full room. So, yeah. So, Bob, tell me
a bit about the conference so far. Yeah, it's
been great to have over 100 hostels come together
here at Playa del Carmen. And, you know, this
is the first day. We've been learning a lot.
The natural disaster talk was nice. It's amazing
what you don't expect to happen could happen.
So, being prepared is definitely the key. Yeah.
You've got to be prepared for anything as we've
heard from the previous panel. Wildfires are
something of a scare for us in California. Thank
goodness we dodged a bullet on that. But to hear
of the other incidences that people are going
through, just crazy. Come on in. Welcome. Welcome.
Welcome. Yeah. Good to be here. How are you doing?
All right. What house are you from? I actually
think it's perfect for hostile people because
I think hostile is kind of like the idea of how
to get your child and not lose it even though
you're grown up. I think it's kind of the idea.
Well, thank you for joining us. So, Yak Hostel.
Tell us a bit about Yak Hostel. Well, how it
started, how it is, what it is. Yeah, how it
started, what it's like, the vibe, you know,
the experience. How it started, it's pretty easy.
I think everyone... We got Joe Gilgoyne here.
You're live with the Hospital Road Trip Podcast.
Have a seat at the kid's table. Bring out your
little child. But we're just talking to Yak Hostel.
You'll be next. Never mind. We are live! No,
I think the way I started is basically how I
think most hostels start. You go and you travel
around. I actually bought a round -the -world
ticket and my first stop was Mexico, Lila Carmen.
And you go into a hostel and you say, hey, I
don't like this, I don't like that. Oh, in my
place it would be different. Things like that.
And I don't know, we just said, hey, let's walk
around and see what we find. And a few months
later, we found ourselves that we are doing a
hostel. And all my work around the world trip
kind of like said, put on hold. So we said, we're
going to start with something. At that point,
we thought it was ridiculous. We thought we were
going to build a place with $4 ,000. seriously
i was i don't know what i was thinking start
somewhere but uh we we took out all the money
that we had for our trip and put it down in this
place we literally recycled whatever we could
and uh like uh i don't know how much like less
than $10 lunches? No, not $10, $5 lunches at
most. That's the most that we could afford. No,
even two and a half. At that point, it was two
and a half dollars. The things you can do with
ramen. Yeah, two and a half dollars, that's what
we were doing. And this is how we started. So
we got really, really lucky because we did it
right before high season. So first building,
we had that high season two months later. we
rented out the next building next door we grew
into it we grew we grew that a year later we
rented out the other building next to it and
we ended up being the biggest hostel in playa
for a few years and three years later we started
building our current hostel which is uh the one
in bacalar and then we ground from there but
uh basically it was Super random, lucky, and
really feeling fortunate. You followed your heart.
Yes. What did you find you focused on that allowed
you to continue to grow? What were you guys doing
well that allowed you to grow? When we started,
the whole idea of Hostel as a social vibe was
just kicking in. I remember when we were going
to do Paz and Carmen, getting a place with AC.
And a hostel with an AC was a new thing. It was
like crazy. And having a hostel with activities,
which what we brought in, we started taking places
into like day tours, free day tour, and I don't
know, food. And every day there was something.
Every day there were games or dinners and classes
and things like that. We started slow, but...
this all just started and it was like innovative
at that point and um so i think that that's what
made people that's why there's like i don't know
i think we created around 10 couples that got
married that met in the hospital yeah there's
at least five people in the world that i know
that have the tattoo of the place like they really
like we focused on creating friends I'm making
people come together. I'm the weird guy who would
tell you, hey, what's up? This is David over
there. Bringing people together. Yeah. When you
hear that tattoo going, you know that you've
really passed that cultural level, the vibe.
Right. Definitely, definitely. Alfie McKenzie.
Hello, hello. From H .I. Whistler. Back again.
Back again. The hot board member. The hot board.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for joining our little
breakout room. How do you think the conference
is going? The conference is going to say nothing.
I wonder if we could avoid you guys in chairs.
We're going to have the inner child. We're going
to have the inner child. We're going to have
to put up a picture of this in the podcast. We
should get a nice photo. I think conference has
gone really well. Everybody seems happy. As I
said to you earlier, off the record, the greatest
thing about the podcast is just getting everybody
together in general. Especially for people whose
first time is in conference, you get a massive
wave of togetherness and the fact that we all
just do it for the same reasons. It's kind of
wild. It was a lot more, especially when I came
to Portland last year. I didn't expect everyone
to be so much on the same page in terms of the
reasons that they started and the reasons that
they're still doing it. It's amazing. You can
find the connection. Now, give us a sneak peek
into next year's Hostel Conference. For those
of you who missed this one, what's happening
next year? Well, all that's official is apparently
I'm going to be the conference chair for next
year. We're in good hands, people. Well, we'll
see. We might be holding out on a sinking ship,
but we'll see. And he's going to be in Canada.
Joe Gill's joining us. Joe Gill. He's joining
us. Hop into the big chair, buddy. Alfie's just
giving us a little bit of an update here on next
year's. conference, but then we'll swing around
to you for some deep thoughts, too. Lower yourself
into that, baby. Watch your knees. Breathe in.
Breathe in. Listen, gentlemen, I've brought a
gift for all of us. Uh -oh, I think the podcast
is going to be getting a little bit wristy. Light
it up. Let's see if I can find it. I thought
that after a hard day of being at the conference,
we could use some of these hydrating face masks.
No, it was on sale at Walmart. Sorry, did I say
Walmart? You did. You wanted to see what a Mexican
Walmart looked like. Yeah. So I think we should
just relax here. It's for men, right? Really
kind of get down to it. How do we make this happen
again? No, it's good. People are going to want
to come in here and do this. This is going to
make this room even more enticing. I'm going
to let you guys in. There's some instructions.
They're in Spanish, though, and they're written
small. I'm worried. I see. You just put it on
your face for 15 minutes and take it off. You're
beautiful. More beautiful. I'm worried about
my chops. I don't know if they'll... Oh, this
is... No, no, no. It's good. Did you throw...
Did you throw... I'm just going to look like.
Hey, you know, the House of Road Trip podcast
is a safety nest. So, do what you need, do what
you want. I'm going to do this and I'm going
to drink coffee while I do this. So, Canada next
year, 2026. 2026, if you can believe. We're going
into 2026. I was just trying to figure out this.
Oh, God. Joe Gill is wearing a Hydro Bomb face
mask. It's kind of like a Mexican wrestling mask.
It does have the nachos. Hannibal Lecter. Put
the lotion in the bucket. We don't know exactly
when. We're going to put the pitch out to a little
of our Canadian friends. See what the members
think about where we should be. Were there more
Mexican hostels? At this one, not as many Canadians.
Yeah, well, we actually have about the same amount
of Canadians as last time. Okay, just about the
same amount. See how I don't break it? Like,
I can still do this. Yeah, this is incredible.
But you don't have to face mask on. Don't I wear
a face mask every day? It's lovely, by the way.
It actually feels really nice. Yeah, but it doesn't
look great. But it feels great. But until you
check it out, you're going to look great. You'll
be radiant. I'm radiant. But yeah, that's the
idea. So, I mean, at this one particularly, we've
had so many more Mexican hostels, which is awesome.
And I think that, you know, we've got so many
people from the West Coast because we were on
the West Coast last year. So it's nice taking
it around on a little tour and getting more people
involved and a team into that. And they get a
chance to really see what Noamon is about. That's
what I was going to say. It's about bringing
us all. And you got to make sure you get there
next year because then it's going to be every
two years like the Olympics. Yeah, exactly. We'll
actually have Joplin will be the next program.
We're going to have Coley. Hostel Beer Olympics,
things like this. Joe, did you manage to make
a sip of that coffee? No, I couldn't figure it
out. You should check if you get sick if you
drink the Hydro Bomb. I think. No, it is not
in the light, though. That my hope is that you
guys will rejoin the other tables outside with
those masks on, so we'll draw attention to this
room. I'm trying to coach them, you know, if
we can come in here for Joe's spa. It was going
to be Joe and Jimmy's spa, but I realized you
didn't want to do it. No, you know, anything
goes in this room. That's why we asked for the
pizza. But Joe, open to your natural disaster
panel, which was fascinating. I mean, we had
it all. Oh, we're sniffing. We're sniffing now.
Okay. He just took out some nail polish, people.
This is the most interesting podcast episode
ever. Sorry it's not a video. But the natural
disasters. So how did you feel about that panel?
It was not a disaster. It wasn't a disaster.
I thought it was very fruitful. I hope that it
was in some ways educational. Yeah. I think the
insurance is definitely the biggest lesson I
came away from on that. How scary that you could
be underinsured and just get nothing. That's
fucked. You don't have to be like, okay, I'll
take what I insured myself. No, no, no. It doesn't
work that way. Unlike the cartel, when you go
out of business, the insurance guy is your worst
enemy. Whereas down here they're trying to get
you back in business. So it's the old school
insurance. These are differences of countries.
Joe Dale. Yes, sir. This is going to be your
last conference. This is your swan song. You
don't want to talk about it on air. I think that's
a special episode coming up on its own. Special
edition. That'll be a special edition. A special
edition episode. Okay. All right. He doesn't
want to let that one out yet. No, no. Okay. He's
very excited. Yeah. Want to do our tips? Not
really. I think that one's all it is. This is
getting weird. I thought we were going to an
interview. I didn't know we were going to a spa
session. Has it been 15 minutes yet? Is it supposed
to rotate every five minutes? No, no, no. I meant
for our fans. They just did a rotation. Don't
feel trapped in here, you guys. The door's not
locked. Oh, I'm good. I'm good. This isn't what
I expected to be doing at the conference. No,
yeah. I'm sat in a children's chair. Yeah. In
a children's room. I'm in Mexico, looking like
Hunter Electra. You know, I thought it was a
pretty big deal that we got our own room. I just
feel like we need to get more attention in here.
There's Maria. You take them out. I don't want
to scare people by looking scared. They knew
that we had a spa. Yeah, it's true. We have a
spa mask. Tell us about this year. What's going
on? How's business been? Business has been alright.
Actually, our first three months are up over
2024 numbers. We're trending up, which is good.
What do you do to try to... There's a few new
hostels in Asheville, right, over the last couple
of years. What are you doing to try to beat the
competition or stand out? Really, absolutely
nothing. Provide a good product at an affordable
price. That's it. Keep it simple. Keep it simple.
Nice. How about you, Alfie, up in Canada? What's
the secrets? It's tough in a ski resort. That's
what I've been in myself for three years now.
And it's been a lot of lessons in terms of...
In order to get more business for us, we have
to focus on the market so much. We're not just
trying to get people to choose our hostel, we're
trying to get people to choose Whistler for their
vacation, which is a hard sell. You're trying
to get them to drive all the way to Ireland to
come to Whistler because a lot of people don't
see it as a place that's going to be affordable.
So you have to really focus on excelling different
experiences, maybe skiing isn't for everybody,
maybe it's too expensive on the mountain. So
you have to create all of these different things
and so at the moment that's really what we're
on is being more proactive. We've had some bad
snow last year which really affected us and the
lift prices from the Vale have really affected
us and it's got quite expensive to come and ski
in Whistler and that puts a lot of people off
coming. So really the lesson for us has been
trying to be proactive and trying to think of
next year all the time and not just be putting
out fives in the meantime. Yeah, we've seen a
similar thing in Sayulita, which is known for
surfing. You know, we've really leaned on that
and we want to be the place where you stay when
you want to come and go surfing. Yeah. And we
even included surf into our name. It's, again,
that experience. When people, it's something
we've noticed over the last year, the word surf
hostel now has become its own genre of like a
vibe. Yeah. Because there's so many hostels now.
people kind of you know the travelers are looking
for the hostel that has a fun vibes they can
connect and do stuff and once you throw that
word surf in there people now know that's going
to be an adventurous laid -back fun kind of experience
so that's helped us tremendously by putting that
in there and then just connecting people getting
people out in the water surfing yeah just being
you know we're that we're the host that's going
to get you surfing or you know teach you surfing
or just go on surf trips that's helped a lot
being in a remote town I mean, the beautiful
thing with that is that you're always going to
have the ocean there as well. And it's not like
you have to pay a company to go on and surf.
It's not like you need to ding your ticket through
a thing to get into the actual ocean. It's always
going to be there. Yeah, lean into the top experiences
your town has to offer and just become, you know,
again, people choose the destination before they
figure out where they're staying. I think that
really comes down as well to telling a story
with your hostel and focusing on the story. I
think like everybody does it kind of well in
their own way. It becomes like the identity of
your hustle and why you started it and why you...
Jimmy, don't be giggling at me. Don't be looking
at me. Sexual... So, you know, we can start a
face mask spa hustle. Spa hustle. How about over
at the app? Is it... Business thus far, because
we've covered Canada, the US, now back over to
Mexico, has business thus far been good? This
year, yeah, it's been done better than last year.
But it's particularly to the place we have similar,
I wouldn't say problem, but challenges. You need
to first get people down to know the place, come
down there. One of the problems that we had until
this year was the way to get there. They were
building the train and all their roads were blocked
and basically it was really hard to get people
generally interested. I heard about this train
though. Tell us a little bit about that. The
train is amazing. I love fucking trains in Mexico.
This is great. The train is amazing. It's really
so comfortable. And now they're going to have
more routes. More trains, more times. More rails,
more routes. I mean, more times in the day, because
right now it's only one time a day. And they're
also going to have Wi -Fi on their trains, so
that's really changed all the experience of driving
three hours down or four hours down from Cancun
or Playa all the way to Bacalar, because it's
super worth it to go to Bacalar, but some people
don't really want to go driving or taking the
bus or things like that. so all of the the ways
right now to get into bacalar opened up so that's
awesome yeah a train is a game changer a good
train definitely and it's super like super on
time super clean comfortable you even have like
a like a snack bar on the train super comfortable
yeah our trains in the u .s are horrifying we
had one time had beautiful trains but we've been
regressing for 150 years now what about the name
yak how did you come up with that name Was there
cocaine involved? I want to expand upon the name.
And that rope does hold up to 200 pounds, I tried.
Yeah, I was questioning the same thing. What's
going on in the kids room? Joe, yes, you can
put on one of those dresses over there. Please
feel free. It's okay. Yeah, so the egg is cool
because it's on the lake, on the Sweetwater Lake.
It's super, super beautiful. It looks like a
current in the ocean, but it's Sweetwater, so
it's really cool. Sweetwater, that sounds nice.
Yeah, and you open up and you open the window
and you... You see the sunrise right in front
of you and on the lake. It's really cool. And
we have one time a week when the hostel changes
into this crazy party kind of place. Where everybody
knows that this is the place. We put it right
in the middle of the week. Wednesday. It's a
disaster. It's a disaster. It's a disaster there.
One time a week. Only one time a week. All the
other events like it. We have to set up and do
a real full episode with you sometime. This is
what we do at Hostel de Chapada. But we'll set
up a full episode and we can record it and you
can get it. We can have content for you in place.
It's a lot of fun. Well, we used to hit the road
and do it, but not anymore. We do it just remotely.
Do my part. Zoom or something. But it's great
to get the word out there for all hostels. The
quest of Hostel Road Trips was to bring awareness
to hostels in the Americas. So it ties in very
nicely with Naha. And you can tell me the truth
about the name when I'm down there sometime.
I was hoping you guys wore the capes out of the
room so people would be like, what's going on
in there? That looks fine. I want to go in that
room. You should come and check out the rope
in here. In Buckelar do you find, or like in
Sayulita we have a seasonal big difference like
in the winter we have Canadians and Americans
and in the summer it's all Mexicans so it's like
a... Come on in! Welcome! It's the most interesting
hostel workshop podcast ever. We're in the kids'
room. We're getting in touch with our inner child.
We're just telling, we're talking shop and telling
stories about hostels. But, Brandon, your first
Hostel Conference. How are you liking it so far?
Oh, I love it. Awesome people, great food, sunshine,
beautiful. Where did you live in Austria? No,
no. Denver. No, yes, I was in Denver. Oh, I wasn't
in Denver last year. I was in Denver. I'm a much
more big fan of the beach than the snow. Yeah,
they could change the conference. Brandon's with
Howza Hostels, which is the hottest hostel chain
in Hawaii right now. Soon to be coming on to
the mainland. Got some great founders over there.
They're doing some awesome things, so we're excited
to have Howza on the Naha team. Christopher,
Jennifer, introduce yourselves. How you doing?
Tell us about your hostel. Oh, I don't have anything
yet, but... Tell us what your plans are, tell
us what your dreams are. I'd like to have a location
where we can just go to New York City and meet
in the summer. Highly city. Maybe the Appalachian
Trail. With some skiing when the weather cooperates.
It's going to be small initially. See how people
manage it. Right now, I'm searching. See, I know.
The Oscar Roadshow podcast promotes a safe zone.
Be yourself. Julie just joined us. Welcome to
the... Table talk session, pasta road trip podcast.
So I've just been struggling with finding property
or a location, a venue. Yeah, yeah. That's a
bad one. We lived on a sailboat for two years
while we were trying to find a place. Don't give
up. Those two years were some of the best years
of my life. Simpler times. Thank you. Julie,
tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, we're
on. People are listening all over the world.
Say hello. Hi. Well, tell us about your hostel,
your action. What's going on? So I don't have
a hostel. Okay. I'd love to have one. You're
an aspiring hosteler. Yes. Where do you want
to have one? Oh, okay. Somewhere tropical? Yeah.
Somewhere without a lot of rules, right? Nice
weather. Yeah, okay. I really love that. People
coming to the hostel conferences that are aspiring
hostel owners or even people that want to become
a manager. Over the years, I've seen people find
great jobs, great tasks, and actually succeed.
So I love the ambition. and going after it to
do that. So congratulations to you. There's several
people here looking for ounces. I think it's
awesome. Yeah, I think that's so cool. And what
we try to do here so you know what's going on,
because I know you walked into a room with a
bunch of people sitting around a child -sized
desk, a child chair, wearing face masks, putting
on toenail polish, maybe sniffing the toenail
polish. It's a little bit of a weird scene, but
the Hostile Road Trip podcast, Bobby and I started
it years ago. And the idea was to bring awareness
of hostels in the Americas. So we will do individual
interviews with select hostels. They'll tell
us about their experience, about their hostel.
And it's good content for that. It's great content
for us. And we've heard over the years a lot
of people that wanted to open up their own hostel
use that as a resource of like, where do you
go for a book on hostels? There's one and it's
like 20 years old. I keep telling Joe he needs
to write one. But, you know, resources. and what
you can find out about. So this has been a cool
thing and a cool platform for people to find
out about different people's journeys and stories.
Hostel owners are an eclectic bunch of people.
Very interesting, never a bad interview. So it's
a fun thing. Very unemployable. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're a unique group, but you can find us on
iTunes and Amazon Music and YouTube and all that
stuff. Hostel Road Trip Podcast. Get on there.
Get on there. Yeah, I saw the YouTube video when
you guys interviewed Jim Kennett. It's a little
bit more of the first conference. Yeah, I know.
So we've had some gems. I call them hostile Jedis.
The people that have been doing it for decades
and they can really give you a lot of information.
We've done multiple episodes, sometimes more
than one. We did disaster episodes with Joe,
the hostile in a box episode. Just give me advice
on how to get through it. We actually used to
go on the road. like a fucking band on the road
and go hustle to hustle and then people started
getting married and having kids and all of a
sudden the wives don't want you to do that anymore.
Thanks, buddy. Resume it. Resume it. So I haven't
been on the road in a few years, but it's okay.
I don't miss it. That's not why you started this
whole thing. It's not your passion. I love Zoom.
It's been a fun time with Christopher. Don't
be so shy over there. Tell us about your thoughts
on the conference so far. What are you feeling?
It's great. I had a little expectation. Tried
just coming in with an open mind. That's the
way to do it. It is just awesome. Everybody is
super nice, informative. If you've got a question
you ask, you get an answer. If they don't have
it, they'll be like, oh wait, I think they know.
and be able to, you know, just the networking
here is awesome. Nice. Well, clearly you had
in mind you walked into this room, right? When
I walked in, I was a little skeptical. The other
tables were full. I had no option. It's actually
less cramped in here. Would you like a face mask?
Yeah. Okay, thank you. They're complimentary.
That's true. We want everyone to look great.
We also have nail polish. Now, for the aspiring
hostels, would you consider working for another
hostel or would you still just want to open your
own? I think it would probably be beneficial.
What do you do? Engineer. Engineer. So you're
wicked fucking smart. Well, Joe, give us a little
bit of insight into that. You are a hostel owner.
Yes. And a hostel legend. Yeah. First hostel
opened in North Carolina. One time had four?
Three. Three. And you also carried a full -time
job while doing that. Yes. Also wicked fucking
smart. So tell us about that experience. And
you have a wife and kids. Yeah. She hasn't left
you. Give us that. There's still time. No, when
I started the first hostel, that was my job 60
to 90 hours a week. And let's see, that was 2005.
By 2010, I realized I needed health care and
a 401k. And maybe something that paid a little
bit of money. more money than running one hostel
real life into the ground yeah uh so i went back
to grad school it was actually uh during the
great recession and truth be told i took my student
loan and i paid the mortgage with it because
we you know it was the great recession and things
were tough but during that time i also did go
to class and i did get a degree and then i did
come out and get a job know it's like it was
what i want to say but i still i guess worked
80 hours a week yeah but i split it between you
know my day job as a as an efficiency engineer
and running the hostel and then opened two additional
hostels because i had enough cash coming in and
i was like oh cool now i've actually got money
to fix the hostel the way i want it and to expand
into other hostels i've got that cash flow now
so that that was helpful but Just like Bobby,
I got married, I had kids, and having three hostels
was not tenable by myself. So I had to give one
up and transfer the other one to just an Airbnb
rental. And that's it. But your journey and path,
though, it shows that it can be done and that
you can have it. the other day and work it you
know right you can have that system going on
i still have my acting career it's not really
going good right now but you know i still consider
myself an actor it's pilot season coming up yeah
we'll see it for a couple months yeah you know
yeah we'll see where it goes see where it goes
now how about you would you work for another
hostel or do you really just want to open up
your own you just want to go all in Have you
ever managed one before? Okay, that's good. Alright,
yeah. Don't go in blind. Have you managed one
before? No. So, okay. Maybe even try doing that
for like a couple of months. There's a lot of
hostel owners that would be receptive to that.
Just to get you to try it out. Yeah, get your
experience in, work out the kinks. It can spark
creative ideas. And you can let someone take
a vacation while you're doing it. Yeah, you let
us know. All right, all right. Well, we're doing
a table change again. Thank you so much for being
on the Hostile Roadshow podcast. Most interesting
episode ever. Thank you. And tell your friends
out there to come visit us in the kids' room.
Free face masks. Don't you feel so big when you
get out of the chair now? Yeah. Get out of there!
Joe and I had this grand idea to come hide in
here, do face masks, get stung, and paint our
nails while everyone's doing the mask. I walked
in, I was like, oh, I was like, Joe, a lot of
people missed that nail party. Jimmy's live in
an episode. Dave Brooks with Barn Door Hostel.
Welcome to the kids room, baby. We are live.
We are live. You guys just have a gang in here.
15 people just walked in. Oh, yeah. Thank you,
Ryan. Ryan Monterey Hostel. One of our favorite
California Role Hostel owners. Yes. Smells like
finger paint. We were blowing some finger paint.
It's all on. I'm sorry. Dang it. There was also
people wearing face masks. But Hostel Ultra podcast
room is cleared out. We have a new session starting.
Dave Cook from Bondur Hostel. Alfie McKenzie
from HI. He can't get enough. He wants to keep
on huffing nail polish. Oh, last table change.
Alright. Well, we have a more intimate session.
So Dave, tell us what's going on at the Barn
Door Hostel. Oh man, Barn Door Hostel. We've
got Outdoor Fest coming up. That's our flagship
festival. It happens every Memorial Day weekend.
It's a celebration of activities that you can
do in White Mountain National Forest. Barn Door
Hostel being in a rock climbing town, we have
a little... skew towards the climbing community,
but I would like to also lean into all the other
outdoor adventures you can have with On Natural
Forest. Yes. We were talking about in more remote
places how you really have to lean into the experience
because people are looking for the experience
first before they decide to stay at a hostel.
Absolutely, yeah. How do you market that and
try to get the awareness out? Do you focus on
that? this is the rock climbing place? We do
and it ebbs and flows right so in climbing season
we'll kind of push more of the experience of
hey come join all of your climber friends and
this is where you're going to go find a climbing
partner or experience a new route or something
like that and then in other seasons or other
things we lean into other other aspects so like
a ski and stay package or something like that
but yeah the overall like essence is what we
try to push. It's kind of difficult sometimes.
I know a lot and we've made this mistake you
think you go to a remote place and sometimes
you think if I build it they will come kind of
mentality. It didn't work for us and we kind
of you know didn't realize that oh it's better
to go to a place where there's already backpackers
and just make a better experience but now we've
learned for some of those remote places really
look at why do people come to this place. and
then be you know maybe even include that sport
or that theme into your name of your hostel so
people know this is where the people looking
for that experience which is big in the town
this is where you go stay these people the host
of this hostel will connect you with that experience
very easily yeah helps a lot as i was mentioning
when we're surfing in sayalita we added surf
in our name and we saw the occupancy just climb
right up yeah yeah I want to touch on the rock
climbing thing. Hit me. Because this is a really
cool thing. When you catch a trend, rock climbing
in the past like 10 years has blown up. I mean,
if you would have said that 10, 15 years ago,
you'd be like, what the fuck are you talking
about? You'd be like, were you in trouble? It's
an Olympic sport. Yeah, yes. A climbing film
won an Oscar. Yes. Yes. So this is like a huge,
and it's a great workout. And that's one of the
big reasons it became popular. It is a full body
workout. And you can really ride a trend like
that in your place before rock climbing. would
have been a lot harder, I'm sure, to draw in
the tension. Yeah. So you can ride those waves
of like, who would think that rock climbing would
make a hostel blow up, but you work those two
things out, build it into your identity. Exactly.
I mean, I did years of market research of seeing
who's going up to Rumney, the town we're in,
who's going just to White Mountain National Forest
in general, which covers like two or three different
counties in our state and extends over to Maine.
And yeah, so... looking at that uh and knowing
that it was an upward trend really helped us
solidify the idea that yeah this is the right
place this is the right time we are going to
do this and you were ahead of the curve on that
you attacked yeah because i was paddling the
wave we dave for you listeners that don't know
out there dave was from the igh family out in
california And we let him put a rock wall into
one of our hostels. And I was like, what the
fuck is this? Eggs and things like that. But
he was out of it. It blew up and it came to be
like a really Olympic sport. So that's just something
of like knowing those trends and then working
them into your operation. you can really make
it sizzle yeah that's a tough one but also like
if you can do it if you can build the experience
physically actually into the hospital yeah that
is a game changer like hiv back in the day they
don't have anymore because of the old health
and safety and all that kind of thing but uh
two like absolute legends that ran that place
for a really long time they built a ice wall
in the back of the hostel. We saw a big increase
when we put a climbing wall on our property.
And there's real world -class rock right down
the road. We're two miles away. But people are
still excited to come and climb on wood and plastic.
So I didn't know this was a thing. I can't remember
what it's called now. It's like a Bosu wall or
something. It's for practicing your balance on
a snowboard. Really? So it's like basically half
of a yoga board. Oh, yeah. And so you can kind
of actually teach people how to balance on toe
side and heel side with that wall. We had sessions
in the meeting room or whatever with people who
are completely fresh to snowboarding, especially
because it's so expensive to go out for a day.
It kind of sucks if you go out for a day and
you're just on the money note. You learn it and
it costs you $350 ,000 to do it. So if we can
give people that little taste, first of all,
and help them just strap into the board, practice
their balance a little bit, maybe have a few
drinks that make it funny as well. Yeah, similar
to an indoor board. That's what I'm thinking
about. You guys have the indoor board back in
the day. We have one now. Yeah, that makes sense.
But what you guys are triggering on me is I think
a cool trend for aspiring hostel owners out there.
Try to build something of your vibe around more
of the wellness element. of something constructive,
something that's good for you, because the party
will be there. People are going to always have
drinks, have fun. Whereas I find hostels that
try to build their whole theme around the party,
you get sloppy. And it's not appealing to everyone.
Whereas if you go more so for yoga or surfing
or rock climbing or ice picking, all these different
things, you draw in that more positive crowd
with positive energy. that have objectives, you
know, are trying to do something, and you avoid
that vibe inside the hostel where now you've
just got a bunch of drunks, you know, hanging
around that are scaring away at people. Yeah,
the more activities you have, the more you have
people who actually have to be up in the morning.
So you can clean the place. Yeah. So you actually
got time to clean the place. I always think that's
such a red flag when you're like, why are you
here talking to me at reception for five, six
hours straight? Like, we should be outside exploring
the town, having fun, going snowboarding, going
surfing. And those are the people that I like
to call the old D &E, do not extend. Yes, yes.
Because that's your job out there, hospital managers,
to protect the rest of you. Yeah. From the bad
cats. I don't know what it's called until again.
Again? I can feel it now. There's nobody here.
That room looks pretty empty. Big group coming
in. That's what we always say. with that because
you're a remote place we do yeah you get like
the drifters weekend homeless person you still
do it you still do it yep it's mostly folks that
live in their cars we get a lot of people that
use the cover of traveling nurse even though
it's very clear that they are not traveling oh
i'd like to book for you know five six weeks
like first off no that's two week max yeah second
of all let's start with one night See how it
goes. Go slow here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just to
explain on the needles in the back or what? I
don't know. I really don't know. I think it's
a good excuse for them to try and pull the wool
over it up too many times. Say, like, I want
to stay here for longer. They catch on to it,
and you have to be, you know, crafted with that.
They try to take advantage of our good heart
and hospitality. We had the Malibu fires. in
California with a devastating, wiped out entire
neighborhood. It's a beautiful home. And you
had these people that live in Moldova, they had
nowhere to go. And all the hotels were sold out,
so we were putting up legitimate families. And
we're like, I got nowhere to stay. And then,
of course, they catch on to it, and now you've
got this homeless guy. Yeah, my mansion just
burned down. Wow, you could run hard and put
away a weapon. You're looking rough. So you've
got to be careful with that and never be afraid
to be too stern because they can clear out a
whole room. It's so true. And people become that
as well I find. Some of the nicest guests you'll
ever have after like six weeks. It's just a human
nature thing. It's like, well this is my place
now. And they'll tell other guests how it is
as they come in. There's such a fine line because
you want your hostel to feel like home to everybody.
And then once that one person or those two people
truly connect and make it feel like their own
home, then it's no longer anybody else's home.
It's theirs. Yeah. That's a whole fascinating
topic in itself. They can become so selfish,
but you're right, David. It's an affirmation
that we're doing a good job because they want
to stay and make it their home. So we have nailed
it. We've made this safe space. We've made this
comfortable space. But they don't know it at
the time. They would never believe it, but they're
going to become the antithesis to what we're
trying to do. as they cross that two -week marker
and go to three, and now the whole business model
is going to be revolving around their personal
needs and baggage. It's just a fucking disaster.
You did a great job, Dave, with the community
and having community events. Do you, I guess,
for the nice people in the community, do you
offer memberships or anything like that? I'm
hearing some hotels are providing memberships
for the locals to come in and enjoy the facility
as a place to gather. Have you gotten into memberships
or how do you manage, how do you make it great
for the local community to come in and feel welcome?
We don't do memberships. I think if our infrastructure
was different, like if we had city water and
city sewer and things of that nature, that would
make more sense for us. But because of our logistics,
we don't do that. But we still do lean into the
community. We do like our outdoor fest and other
festivals. We've done music festivals in the
past. We've done arts days, dog days, and all
of these things are free for anybody in the county.
Which is a good chunk of the state. What have
you learned is the secret to put on a good event?
A smile, quite honestly. Really. Yeah, because
as we all know, people don't know what a hostel
is. put off by the idea of a hostel or whatever
and so for you to be the host with the most and
kind of letting them have what they need and
having a good experience will hopefully change
your mind for the future. Do you find that those
events give your local community exposure to
what a hostel is? 100 % 100%, yeah. So when we
first moved in, we got pushback from the town,
from the legislature, from locals, etc., etc.
Back in Florida. Nice. Breathing in. It's the
mailbox. But yeah, so the more folks that come
in, the more they're interested in. in what else
we do. We're a destination, right? We're not
a city where people are just coming and going
all the time. People are specifically coming
to this town to rock climb, to hike, to whatever.
And the locals kind of don't like climbers and
don't like, you know, it's the, I don't even
know, it's just a butt head situation. So to
encourage the locals to come, and to see that,
you know, these climbers aren't dirtbags, and
they are, but they're also doctors and lawyers
and, you know, they're MIT graduates and things
of that nature. So all these events are giving
exposure to those locals to our different communities.
All right, we're wrapping up the most interesting
Hossler Road Trip podcast episode ever, Naha
2025. Stay with us next time.