Yeah, well, I yeah, I think that what Kyle is
getting at a little bit is that shift from just
being cheap lodging in the area to being a place
to connect, a place where you realize like that
you have a lot in common with the people around
you. I just think that is so. so meaningful and
we get that feedback from people every day um
that and you know we get the reviews like i've
never stayed in a hostel before i was nervous
of what might happen and then the staff were
so friendly and we carved pumpkins in the common
room and like this was the best way to start
like transitioning to my new job or going on
a road trip or i'm going through something at
home and like i didn't know that i needed this
and like that's that's the magic and the fact
that that just happens consistently is like yeah
it's ridiculous i feel like with like 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 road success,
discuss trending hostel 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. Welcome
back to the Hostile Road Trip Podcast for another
fun -filled episode. My name is Jimmy Black.
I'm live from the ITH Big Bear. Hostel location.
I'm joined with my co -founder and handsome partner,
Robert Dyer. He's down in San Diego. Great to
be here. Very excited to have the Conway Hostel.
You know the slang, the Coho Hostel. We've got
the founders with us here. Just so happy to have
you and join us on the episode here. We're excited
to hear about what you've created here in Conway
and want to hear a little bit more about what's
going on up in New England with the hostel industry.
As we know, there's some really exciting stuff
in the past couple of years. So thank you so
much for joining us. Thank you so much for having
us. We're stoked to be here. Yeah, rock on. Okay,
so I always love to just, before we get into
the hostel, in the facility, in the town you're
in, tell us a bit about your journey. And how
you got into hostels personally. Haley, do you
want to start? Yeah, sure. Yeah. So I, I'm one
of those people, I feel like classic in, in the
U S I didn't really think about hostels at all
until I was in my twenties and I was going abroad.
Right. And then everybody says, Oh, are you going
to stay in hostels? And I stayed in a hostel
in Ireland and had a really memorable experience.
Of course, like now I realize it's one of the
classic hostel experiences. You stay up all night,
like playing music and chatting and meeting new
people. And I remember thinking after that trip,
like, wow, that hostel experience was really
cool. Okay. ever i went back to real life um
i ended up being in uh outdoor ed for a little
while and working in outdoor education and that's
where i met kyle and uh well i don't want to
step on your hostel experiences either but yeah
i i other than that i stayed in a couple hostels
i stayed in a couple in the u .s even though
i know and that's when i kind of realized Again,
what everybody starts to realize is there aren't
quite as many hostels in the U .S. as maybe abroad.
But slowly and surely there are more popping
up and some definitely some gems, a lot of gems
out there. But, yeah, kind of slowly but surely
whenever I was traveling, it's like I got on
my radar. Oh, I guess I'll stay in a hostel.
But maybe I'll hold off on how we started running
a hostel before I won't take your floor away.
Yeah. Yeah. Kyle, how did you get into it? Yeah,
I had never heard the term hostile prior to college.
And it's probably like the end of college. I
had a friend studying abroad in Prague and the
classic like, oh, come on over. And it took my
college like overcharging me one semester and
then issuing me a refund check. I was like, oh,
surprise cash. All right, we're going to Europe.
Nice. yeah um yeah i stayed in a bunch of hostels
around like eastern europe uh and just incredible
like uh traveling just totally by myself i eventually
met up with my friend over there um but yeah
just so cool to like show up meet people from
all over the world and then like ending up in
like a bar beneath the city in bradislava with
like a dozen other people just talking about
like their travels and just uh yeah like the
cities and everything were gorgeous but I just
see like that was my biggest takeaway was just
to meet other people like going solo and then
like leaving with friendships. Like I was only
out there maybe two weeks. And yeah, that was
like that was the lingering sentiment for me.
You know, you both hit on something here for
me that I had. on my experience as well haley
my experience is literally like mirror image
of yours didn't know what they were went studied
abroad in ireland and then every weekend we would
go travel to a different country and stay in
these things called hostels and i was looking
around and you know i'm 20 years old and i'm
like why don't we have these yeah yeah exactly
what the fuck you know like where did this come
from but me and my buddies would travel in these
all the time and then i went you know, back to
the real world and ended up in a cubicle for
five years. And then thank God I found myself
spinning out of that and being like, well, I
remember being happy. That was the last time
I remember being happy. Right. Yeah. Let's go
chase after that happens. And then Kyle, did
you say that you were in Prague in like a, like
a bomb shelter bunker bar? Yeah. I had some crazy
story from that night actually. Yeah. I think
I was in that same bar because I went to Prague
as well. And I remember being like three levels
below the surface in what was like a World War
II bunker bar. And I was like, what's going on
in here? You know, it's just so cool. It's like
elaborate. And like everyone down there was so
chill and traveling and in the same mindset.
And so I think we might have been in that same
exact spot before. But, you know, it makes me
think that like without studying abroad. Hostiles
in America might not exist because besides that,
they have such a bad reputation in a lot of ways.
And we're really like the shining light of people
that like, no, they're not bad. You're not going
to get murdered. I promise. But in America, we
have this horrible stigma because of these horror
movies. And that's what we're trying to do with
this podcast. And the genesis of this podcast
was. about hostels in the Americas because there
are so many cool spots and there's more opening
and we've got to do our darndest to make sure
that people know about that as much as possible.
And also to encourage others to open up more
good hostels. So that's why we're excited to
do these episodes more and more with these places
like yours that are opening up. But okay, enough
about us. Let's talk about... The Conway Hostel,
the Coho. When did you open up this place? Tell
us the journey. The journey? Okay, yeah. Despite
advice to the contrary from everyone we knew
and loved, we opened it at the tail end of the
pandemic. Good for you. Glutton for punishment,
I guess. Oh yeah, like the whole world is shut
down. And you can't be in the same room as each
other. Let's open a hostel. Sure. I like it.
Just bulldog through that right there. I love
it. Yeah. Okay. I will say it was a little bit
of a gateway. That's how we got into the building.
You know, the previous owner was like, you know,
been in hostels for a while, ended up just moving
on to other things. They're going to school for
social work now, just transitioning. And we were
the only folks to put an offer. on the building
who wanted to keep it a hostel. Everybody else
wanted to acquire it for apartments or office
buildings and the town wanted to keep it a hostel.
So that was our gateway. That's what got us in.
yeah that we wanted to have a hostel at the end
of the pandemic yeah our initial bid was like
offensively low we're like there's no way this
is gonna happen we were we thought like if this
goes through we'll we'll move back because we've
been living in colorado and we thought if it
doesn't you know we'll find another plan but
like we might as well try yeah but this is this
is a beautiful example of some highlights for
listeners out there that might be thinking of
hostels one of the things that we always talk
about is it's so much easier in our experience,
in how we've expanded, is to take over existing
hostels. They're already set up. The bones are
there. The permits are there. The licenses are
there. And then you also do bring up another
great highlight where there is perceived risk.
There's actually a lot of opportunity. So because
you were willing to do that in the same situation
we were in, there were a lot of hostels during
the pandemic that either closed. because they
just couldn't stay in business or close because
the owners were like, I don't see this ever coming
back around or being a good idea. So it created
an opportunity for people to get in hostels.
And the last thing I want to touch on that you
highlighted is there's been a recent flip with
local municipalities. In our time of doing this,
it used to be you'd go in and you'd say, I want
to open a hostel. And they'd be like, what is
that? And then they'd have to create a whole
new zoning thing. And, you know, good luck on
how long that takes. With more recent housing
crises caused by Airbnb and all kinds of rent
hikes and affordable accommodations and affordable
housing has become a really big issue. And we
can slide in under that movement, and I encourage
people to tap into that because we had that situation
in Santa Barbara where the building was sitting
there and everyone else wanted to do something
else with it. But the city mandated this has
to stay a hostel because they don't have any
affordable lodging. It's all very high -priced
hotels, and it makes the Motel 6 $400 a night.
Oh, yeah. You're preaching to the choir because
we're in a mountain town. So we're, you know,
around ski resorts that have been recently acquired
by Vail. And we've got mountain biking trails
and some of the best ice climbing in the country.
And, yeah, the town knows it, and the hotels
know it, and the prices are high up. That was
our main shtick when we got in here. We were
like, we have to have affordable lodging in this
valley. It just has to exist. It's so good for
the local businesses as well. That's something
that I've often done in recent years. A lot of
times hostels will have a perception of, again,
it's a homeless shelter. Actually, you'll get
a lot of young Americans and people now that
they haven't spent all of their nut on the lodging
and accommodations. They actually have money
to go out to eat. They actually have money to
go out into the town. So I think these are all
very good things that your example can highlight
to others of what they could use to get their
foot in the door. So now the hostel itself, the
coho, what's the, what's the size? What's the,
what are you working with as far as like how
many bunks, what's the layout, what's the style?
Sure. okay i guess i'm the logistics one yeah
so we we're which i feel like there's we're not
alone in this but we're kind of like hybrid hostel
like we have a handful of private rooms uh they
still share the common room community kitchen
dorms all restroom facilities and that kind of
thing um and then we also have uh bunker rooms
as well uh so 12 rooms in total um For now, three
of which are bunk rooms. We've just kind of evolved
actually over the years because we opened during
Delta or Omicron or insert whatever like variant
of the day for COVID. We opened during that just
to get something in the door to help keep us
afloat. And so we were fully private at first
and slowly, but surely we've just been like evolving
over the years. And as like tastes, uh, soften,
uh, people are embracing the community style
lodging more. We've slowly, but surely like transitioned
more. We've got plans to convert one of our existing
private rooms now to another bunk room. So we'll
have, uh, eventually we're hoping to have four,
six person bunk rooms, um, and be a little bit
more evenly. split and we have camping in the
summer too we've got four campsites and isn't
it funny that folks will come in and use the
private room for the first day if they've never
stayed in a hostel before like of course they're
gonna book a private room and then the next time
they come they try the the bunk room it's like
a funny i don't i think we'll always have a couple
private rooms for that purpose it's a good way
to like test the waters yeah like they start
with a private room and then they leave with
like we have these real like punch cards that
are only for bunks it's like you know five bunk
stays and you get a bunk night free kind of thing
nice i don't know coffee shop ask yeah yeah no
i love that but yeah it's a great like transition
well i think i think you bring up some good uh
strategies here that should be embraced one off
the bat you know i think that the model you're
running is the model everyone should be running
everyone should have private rooms because We're
trying to entice the American demographic in
to try it out, and they're going to want to have
that private room to expose them. But just like
you say, once they get exposed, then they're
more fluid in trying it out. And we've always
been a believer in be a chameleon to your season.
In our places, we're always changing bunk rooms
to private rooms and vice versa, depending on
the season and the trends and past data. So I
think that everyone, you know, listening should
keep that in mind as far as, you know, be bold
and trying out different configurations, see
how it works, study your data, but having the
mixture of the privates and the bunks and then
campgrounds outside in the summer, all those
things are, are great. And I love the size. So
it sounds like you're right around like a 30,
40 bed hostel, right? Yeah. 30, 40 folks. Cause
we've got full beds and queen beds. Yeah. Yeah.
I think that's the sweet spot. You know, we.
We come from USA Hostels, which was a company
that doesn't exist anymore, but at its time was
one of the best operators in the game. But they
kind of had a rule of you could never have a
hostel less than 100 beds because it didn't make
sense from the overhead and having a team on,
a management team and all this stuff. But we
actually kind of evolved into believing that.
we never want a hostel over a hundred beds and
people thought we were crazy when we were like
oh you know and you'll never be able to open
up more than one and things that nature but we're
a big believer in the the smaller the hostel
around that 30 40 50 number it's actually more
intimate you can actually remember everyone's
name absolutely that's the magic that's the Yes.
And it creates that vibe. Otherwise it feels
like a cattle barn. I wouldn't be doing this
if I were just churning people through for money.
Like none of us would be running a hostel to
make money, right? Like we're there for the face
-to -face interaction and for the connections.
Yeah. I don't know if you all attended. There
are so many people in attendance. Forgive me
if I just don't remember, but there was that
conference in Copenhagen two years ago, maybe,
or something. Oh, I didn't know. Yeah, and there
was one hostel that they put a lot of folks up
in, and some of the events were hosted. And it
was actually not a city block. It took up an
entire city block. The lobby had its own... tattoo
artist on retainer that was operating out of
the lobby there was a soccer field in the basement
like indoor soccer wow i mean it was it was impressive
and everyone walking through that door is hostile
guest number 1 300 something yeah i think there
were like 500 beds or something there are a lot
of yeah it was insane um yeah and you just don't
get like what i don't know In my mind and in
my experience and what we try to do here, that
like that hostile magic of connecting people,
especially now. Yeah. And we're such a big advocate
of that. And one of the things we try to do with
this podcast is really go after and try to highlight
hostiles like yourselves that have the owner
operator, old mom and pop feel type of operation.
And then have that number of beds that keeps
that intimacy level. So that you can have those
experiences, those connections. Otherwise, it's
overwhelming sometimes, you know, and you can
just see people that kind of just go into their
turtle shells, you know, and now they're just
on their screen, you know, like, oh, my God.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that what we're doing is
more of like the genuine backpacker hostel. And
it's such a different experience that we want
the people to know about. Yeah, because something
that we want, I feel really compelled to highlight,
something that we're trying to do, being something
new for our culture, the idea, staying at a hostel,
sure, but also walking into a room, sitting down
and going, what did you do today? What did you
hike today? It's such a new thing and not a usual
thing that happens in any other space in our
country. So for people to be comfortable enough
to do that. we have found that they need a baseline
of comfort they need a baseline of like i'm safe
here like whether that's staying in a private
room or whether that's not you know hundreds
of people walking by in either direction right
like a little bit of comfort to get out of the
comfort zone to actually engage in what the hostel
is offering and what the space is offering um
yeah absolutely nice what uh with your property
there what made you guys pick i know you said
you wanted to take over that hostel but what
was kind of like you said your magic and we we
can relate to that term i guess what is your
magic that you chase there at your hostel like
what is the experience that you guys offer and
then you know our our stump speech has kind of
changed in the last year uh from sort of like
our people ask like oh like what do you do tell
me about coho or anything we used to say like
oh it's like we would lean into the like it's
it's economic lodging uh we're trying to increase
accessibility to outdoor spaces which we were
like coming out of the outdoor and we still are
yeah absolutely um but now when people ask like
oh what is coho now we say oh it's a hostel and
community third place uh for gathering um and
i think that kind of like encapsulates the magic
here like yeah we're a few years in now and i
feel like we've kind of figured out the economic
lodging side and that's great and the word's
gotten out and like people are showing up um
but especially definitely working it's working
well and the uh to congratulate you guys too
on the oscar yeah you guys are doing it doing
a lot of things right i was gonna add to that
what it you know it's a hard it's that's the
dream of every hostile owner so kudos to you
guys for that what do you what do you yeah i
guess would you say that community focus or what
would you feel was your biggest reason that you
guys won that award for yeah well i yeah i think
that what kyle is getting at a little bit is
that shift from just being cheap lodging in the
area to being a place to connect a place where
you realize like that you have a lot in common
with the people around you i just think that
is so so meaningful and we get that feedback
from people every day um that and you know we
get the reviews like i've never stayed in a hostel
before i was nervous of what might happen and
then the staff were so friendly and we carved
pumpkins in the common room and like this was
the best way to start like transitioning to my
new job or going on a road trip or i'm going
through something at home and like i didn't know
that i needed this and like that's that's the
magic and the fact that that just happens consistently
is like yeah it's ridiculous i feel like with
like as all like owner operators i'm sure do
like going like doing your monthly loops through
all the reviews just like micro analyzing um
but yeah that's a consistent theme that i've
taken away through our like review culture which
i have a whole that's an entire different conversation
um so i know yeah but uh yeah going through i
think that's the like uh sort of the distillation
of what i've seen and what other people have
to say whether it's in the guest book or like
in reviews and it's that transition of maybe
first time in a hostel it's like okay a hostel
is a place and they stay in a hostel and then
they realize oh a hostel is an experience and
there's just such tremendous value in that sort
of transition of mindset of just from a i to
we well even just from like uh from like a warm
bed and like under a dry roof to an experience.
Yeah. But the last, the last thing I'll say is,
uh, yeah, it's just, it's, it's such a powerful
experience and I think it's really heightened
for us. And the magic is really heightened for
us just with the climate in the U S right now.
It's, and not to mention just the culture of
looking at our phones. It's really easy to see
other people as other people and not the same
as me. And. We need more spaces where you see
the humanity in people different than you and
you find things in common with people different
than you. I think it's really important right
now. That definitely like lights my fire around
this place for sure. It's a sense of, go ahead,
Kyle. Oh yeah, we were chatting with a friend
who was up recently and they were kind of asking
like, what are some of the big like profound
things that we experienced? Like what's our favorite
part about it? And I don't know how it came up,
but the phrase like, When someone walks through
our door, I become as we. Very nice. Yeah. And
yeah, I think that's the experience. It's kind
of a twinkle in the eye I've found over the years.
We have a lot of people that obviously through
our locations come in to our management team.
And I can quickly see the ones that are going
to catch that fulfillment. and get that warmth
from that and that fire in the belly and some
of them just don't and they kind of have that
bewildered look at you at like why are you so
like into this you know like and it's just that
reality of like oh man they can't put it in you
and they can't take it out of you yeah but but
if you're feeling it you're gonna feel it brother
you know yeah and i i so much agree with both
of you of like now even though the pandemic from
that situation of like shared spaces and everyone
with the sickness it seemed like hospitals were
the worst thing i actually feel like we're needed
more than ever right now uh because of the youth
generation with this detachment into the screens
and not communicating and not having that human
touch anymore you know But they're still yearning
it. And they come in and they get it and they're
like, what is this? What is this warmth? What
is this human connection? And you see them and
that fulfills me. And then you also bring up
the political situation that we're in and the
cultural situation in this country. You feel
the barriers going up again. And that's a scary
thing. It's a scary thing when the wall is going
up and the people stop talking and people stop.
debating and it's but we have this amazing thing
of and i always go back to this of the moment
i knew that i was like bit by the hostile bug
and really wanted to do this as i was at a usa
hostels and hosting a dinner and i looked around
and i was like muslim christian jewish black
white asian we're all here together under one
roof at the same table loving each other, laughing
with each other, having a great time. I was like,
this is what the UN tries to do on a daily basis,
and they can't get it done. But here we are for
some reason, and all of these barriers have been
broken down. And now we're forever, everyone
at that table. was forever enlightened because
now if someone came up to me and said oh you
know have you ever met someone from taiwan or
you know they're all real just bad people i'd
be like well i'm sorry i can't agree with you
you know i've met kim sung from taiwan and he's
a great friend of mine you know and it really
it just it really just rattles out all of that
uh bigotry it rattles out a lot of the reason
the closed -mindedness it opens people up and
enlightens them And that, for me, has always
been something of a, what a cool job we have.
So much better than the cubicle. People come
in here every day, and they might fall in love
with their significant other. They might make
a new best friend. Or they might become enlightened
in a way to the point where when they walk out
of your doors, they're a different person with
a different energy and a different mindset for
the better. And, you know, that's special. you
know that's a special feeling and if you can
capture that and feel that it is a very fulfilling
job and i always remind myself of that when i'm
head deep in a clogged shitter yeah have you
guys worked in hostels before did you just go
straight into buying it and running it straight
in yeah swan dive into the deep end yeah what
was that experience like tell us tell us like
i don't know what what it was like what you learned
looking back to give us some knowledge Yeah,
we were. So both of us had some experience or
a lot of experience in the outdoor education
world, working with kids and adults and families
in outdoor environments and either, you know,
going on a hike or going on a high ropes course
or whatever it may be. And that's something that
we both loved. And when we saw when we saw the
hostel experience, we saw really tied to the
context of this area. People come up here for
all those outdoor experiences. selfishly personally
it was a great way to stay in that industry sort
of in a more sustainable way because you know
in in those jobs we're sleeping in tents and
we're getting paid you know per day and then
you're working 22 of the 24 hours in the day
so this seemed like a sustainable way to stay
in that industry to keep serving those people
and and serving those like transformative experiences
we saw in the outdoors and we also felt like
we might have had we might have a leg up because
we know those people and we know these communities
and feel like hmm i feel like like those are
some pretty like understanding reasonable people
and we know how to like have productive conversations
and we know how to grow and i feel like if we
can just do our damn this to be like clean and
comfortable and safe we can go we can learn from
there and and and do an all right job yeah i
feel like also like with the sort of expedition
-based stuff like there is a lot of hospitality
we've realized like yeah we came in or at least
i don't speak for you but i came in and just
like oh shit like hospital like i've never done
hospitality like this is like this is a brand
new thing that we're gonna have to learn And
then really like the guest facing side of things,
it was a really easy segue from sort of the expedition
based stuff, like taking people out in the woods,
like you're making the meals and you're making
camp cozy. You're setting up, breaking down tents.
You're doing all of these things. And yeah, from
that aspect, like when you're making your, you
know, you have your like leg locked around the
frame of a bunk and you're doing the top bunk
for the hundred. thousandth time and you're like
oh this sucks it's like 100 degrees outside i'm
sweating my ass off it's still like it's still
better than like oh i could be breaking down
a tent in like 35 degrees and raining uh yeah
like i could i could do this yeah this is all
right yeah there was a lot i think we were lucky
to see like when we were first excited about
the idea like there wasn't enough You know when
you have a good idea and you're almost waiting
for a reason not to do something? Kind of felt
like that. We thought, oh, we have this experience
that could kind of translate and this experience
kind of translates and we just have to figure
out a couple bits in between and it made too
much sense. Nice. Are you guys living on site?
We are, yeah. That makes such a difference, being
able to shape that experience really in your
little literal house. One last question. You
guys have a lot of experiences there. We operate
a lot of beach locations and surf hostels and
focus on that surf experience. Are you guys finding
a lot of people are, you know, looking to pick
up new experiences and you guys are, are you
doing like package deals to try to connect with
some of these upper, you know, expedition operations
or outdoor adventures? Are you finding that's
working well or people are guests are responding
well to these package deals, trying to make it
easy for them to come stay and. have fun in the
mountains yeah mostly it's out of the hostel
it's uh we've got a couple guiding services that
we partner with that take on the bulk of that
um we came into this wanting to do our own programming
and that's definitely still a dream of ours but
for now we've got some really trusted outdoor
professionals that we just work with and that
That has been, yeah, a really, really awesome
pairing because somebody stays here, they go
out with John or Luke or Haley, and then they
come back and we get to hear all about it. And,
yeah, it's been a really cool way to elevate
that experience here. That's so true. Yeah, we
did the same thing and tried to do it ourselves,
and you quickly realize, like, oh, man, I can't
be out here on the trails while I've got to be
making beds, you know, or I've got to be cleaning
beds and making the hostel nice. Exactly. Yeah,
it's tough. Partnering with an operator like
that is key for success, especially in these
outdoor locations, destinations, or really anywhere.
Just collaborating with other good tour companies
can help your hostel a lot. Kyle and I have been
lucky enough to take a couple folks out on mountain
bikes. That's our jam. If we end up in the common
room talking about mountain biking in the summer,
it's like, okay, well, when are we going to go
out? Do you want a guided ride? People usually
take us up on it. That has been really fun. That's
just been informal, though. That's great. I hope
that we see more and more of the outdoor -style
hostels that are in the mountain towns. uh like
you know or you know on the lake or you're even
in the desert type of stuff yeah these are the
types of smaller hostels that can be run in our
fashion that i i hope to see more of in the future
because a lot of a lot of people just look to
the big city like oh i can only go to a big city
because that's where all the volume is and that's
where all people fly into and sure you know that's
kind of that old mindset of You need to have
a minimum of 100 beds and you need to be in a
Tier 1 city. That was another big talk back in
the day. It's going to be a Tier 1 city. And
then, you know, what that really did is it left
a lot of these Tier 2, Tier 3 cities or these
mountain towns and lake towns, it left them untouched.
So I think that's a great opportunity for people
to continue. Another one I really like are farm
hostels. I think those could be really cool too.
Yeah, farm stills. So I hope that we see more
of this. Now, on that topic, I want to make sure
I mention this before we wrap up. How many hostels
are in New Hampshire now? Do you know that? Like
off the ballpark? I feel like there's been a
search. Yeah, so which answer do you want? Because
there's... Legal or illegal? yeah there you go
yeah yeah total legal appalachian trail runs
through new hampshire and there are a lot of
like trail hostels oh okay okay you know and
yeah as far as like above board uh proper like
businesses hostels go uh i think in new hampshire
in new hampshire i think there's probably five
i was gonna say five i was waiting to see but
five to ten if you're including everybody in
transition or yeah sure hostels or yeah or sort
of a hostel but sort of an airbnb i don't know
but yeah i'd say at least i think we got a solid
five yeah yeah that's but that's great though
you know and i and i know that there have been
some that's come and gone i know we did a we
went through there on the first season of our
hostel road trip podcast before the pandemic
we used to have a hostel or we tried to have
a hostel in newport rhode island and it didn't
work out because forth across the country and
that was a a wild time but while we were there
we we went up into vermont maine new hampshire
on a Hostel Road Trip podcast tour on the road
physically. And that was that was really cool
to see. And I remember thinking, like, what a
cool space for hostels, these three states up
here. Yeah. And, you know, you're talking about
like guided partnerships and partnerships with
people who are doing like doing the cool thing
outside. And those have been, yeah, absolutely
invaluable. But on the same token. Partnerships
with other hostels for us have been just an absolute
game changer. It's one of my favorite parts.
Here in the greater northeast New England area,
we have our own northeast hostel network. That
was one of my next questions. Let's hear about
this secret network. It's like skulls and bones.
Yeah. I know you've already talked to Dave over
at Barn Door. I've been telling you to Dave Cook
all the time. You won't break him. He won't speak.
I feel like you all sat down with Serena, I bet,
too, right? Yeah, we know Serena at Notch. Yeah,
I've been there. Yeah, so we're kind of in the
center of the three of us kind of make a border
around the White Mountains here. That's great.
the central like three hostels and then you go
up into maine you got hostel of maine you got
black elephant up there yep portland um yeah
there's awesome over there and there's just just
a slew in vermont um but like vermont is starting
to really figure it out and they're popping up
around that's really awesome okay well that's
good to hear because i know that there was like
we went to one in uh vermont and it was interesting
it had no doors remember that one bob It was
just, it was Burlington, the Burlington, which
I think closed down now. Yeah. But it was interesting.
Like you took off your shoes and there were,
no one was wearing shoes and there was no doors.
I was like, this is kind of a hippie feel, you
know, this wasn't the yellow deli hostel. No,
no, we did not. We did not get converted. We
did not get converted. I don't drink anything.
Yeah. I know all about those guys. One of them
came out west and they came to one of our hostels
in San Diego years ago and they were like, would
you like to be a yellow deli hostel? And I looked
at him and I was like, I know all about Jim Jones,
motherfucker. Not getting me that easy. Don't
do it. You're welcome to stay, but stop preaching
your shit right now. Yeah. They're not on our
network. Just to make that a bugger. Okay, so
that's great to hear about the New England Hostel
operation now. But on that, you've got your New
England network, and this was actually a hot
topic. You guys brought about, this was about
a year or two ago, as the NAHA, the North American
Hostel Association, was forming, which took over
from the American Hostel. conference which was
in south carolina that was before the naha existed
and before the pandemic so there's always been
these attempts to create this national association
where we could kind of have strength in numbers
and have more advocacy for hostels and awareness
and and try to beat out the all of these uh negative
uh movies and different things going on but at
the same time I see the argument from the side
of, okay, national is one thing, but how is it
relevant? I'm in California, and I'm dealing
with a whole different set of laws than you're
dealing with. So it then becomes difficult, and
then Naha has gone the route of inclusive to
Canada and Mexico, which I love the inclusiveness,
and I love the number, but now we're getting
to different countries, and we have one hostel
in Mexico. It's our second one we've tried opening
down there. Let me tell you, a whole world of
different rules down there. So, I mean, I see
the reasoning and the logic behind the more regional
association. One thing that I've gone to bat
for, I actually supported you all on this, we
should embrace these regional coalitions. and
have them be affiliated with the Naha. The original
chapters of Naha? Yeah. Some of these, like yours,
are already existing, so it's just easy enough
to be like, okay, this secret society is just
an affiliation. Yeah. We don't need no handshake.
Yeah, it's okay. i make dave laugh every once
in a while when we shake hands i'll like tickle
him in the middle of the finger is that is that
it now in that a regional thing you have what
do you all do like how do you do you meet up
monthly do you have monthly calls like how does
it work we wish we try to do more than once a
year if we we have a chat that goes off every
week but we'll meet in person for a couple days
once a year and kind of just offload everything
and we do like yeah a really intense day or two
or there's that one of your hostels yeah we rotate
I see. And that's exactly how I think it could
be really cool within that regional thing of
like you have your regional meetup type of thing,
and then it rotates on who might host it, maybe
monthly or quarterly or whatever. Now, so you
have that support system on the regional basis.
Do you plan on continuing to participate in the
Naha? association as well like will you be going
to the Montreal conference or it's a regional
thing okay so so you're cool with both yeah they
don't I don't see them conflicting at all in
my head you know it's so nice like you were saying
the regional thing is great because we can talk
about the laws in New Hampshire and often in
our regional thing we're already talking about
the discrepancies just between Maine and New
Hampshire and Vermont but there's a lot that
we have in common and we have a lot of the same
clientele we're getting the same folks who are
hiking mountains and doing the skiing um so it's
it's and we're a lot like similar size too and
you know we'll go to naha and sometimes we we
all learn things that like we didn't have any
idea like we'll learn something about cloud beds
or something you know that is really interesting
information coming from the southwest but we
won't have another we might not meet another
hostel that like has the same folks coming through
or is the same size so i see benefits to both
and maybe that thing is that they're raising
their rates again yeah that is i will say that
is the one thing that is like really uh we've
really enjoyed the regional thing um because
it's just something that we can do sustainably
on our own uh like with without sponsors and
things like going to copenhagen was great it's
great to travel to europe and like spend a week
over there um what was marketed to the group
as like this is like a world hostile conference
sponsored by hostile world it no bullshit it
was a hostile world conference where it was basically
like the pitch deck of all of the new updates
coming for hostile worlds like we flew across
the world for like i don't know for you to give
us like a tech spiel and it was just like it
just felt like such a yeah waste of time no and
i that's why i do think that the regional smaller
groups should be embraced because they can be
more efficient and impactful and the reason i
bring this up is because i i had mentioned yours
as a model as i had said like hey you know we
should embrace this a bit more like i think california
should have its own um you know subgroup or you
know uh Its own secret society. And I thought
they were going to tar and feather me when I
said it. But I was just like, well, I think it
makes sense from the efficiency and being relevant
with all. There's a lot of hostels in California,
so it could be a very nice group. And then it
could be within affiliated to Naha. But I think
that's stuff that we should continue to talk
about even in this upcoming conference, because
I think that should be embraced by Naha instead
of them being. more concerned of like oh this
is people going rogue or breaking out of yeah
because it clearly yeah you're you're both a
great example of that's not the case as well
as dave cook was down there and you know heather
lober is still involved you know so i think that
we should continue to push and use yours as a
model and example of how that can be a very useful
thing and very impactful yeah i see tremendous
value in like the large scale like naha or this
international one. I love that for there's strength
in numbers. If we really are going to shift public
perception of hostiles and move the needle on
that, we need the numbers. We need everyone all
hands on deck. Join. Secret handshake. Sign the
dotted line. Hand over your membership fees.
We're all doing this thing. Get on board. It
helps all of us. and that's great for like a
public facing uh mission right to like move forward
on perception and i think as far as like support
and partnership and like keeping the doors open
and developing our systems and like there's just
something regional that like yeah like when you
show up for our gatherings like there's no like
soloing out like who's gonna get it it's like
we all we all know like we all know the challenges
we all know it's it's yeah it's It's always a
hoot. The first hour of every one of our annual
gatherings, it's just like, you're never going
to freaking believe. It's just that solidarity
of all the challenges that come with very regional
specific things. You just don't get at scale.
The Copenhagen one, everyone talking about pods,
the revolution of pods and these little sleep
pods. Rural hostels, that is just never going
to be in the cards. It's never going to be in
the budget. No, I can see what you mean by that
and those different styles of presentations they
put on and those types of things. It's cool.
It's great information. It's fun to gather. Yeah,
I find it to be – because we used to go to the
Hostel World one when they had it in Dublin,
Ireland, and it was like the party was at the
Guinness factory and brewery and everything.
And basically it was like, okay, we're basically
– it's an excuse for us to go get blitzed in
Ireland for a week. Okay, yeah. But as far as
taking value out of it, I definitely think Naha
is doing great with their – There are conferences
and there are post trips and that's all about
networking, right? You know, and again, but I
do think that we should continue to push the
idea of these regional meetups because again,
I've voiced your group as an example of how this
could be a good thing for Naha that there's affiliated
subgroups that are more regional that could be
impactful. You have a support system for regional
challenges you face and it gives you more support
and more longevity. Outstanding. Speaking of
support, any advice for other couples or solo
entrepreneurs starting a hostel in a mountain
town now that you guys have lived it, done it,
awarded a champion? What can you leave for the
next generation of hostel entrepreneurs? That's
a good one. Yeah. I mean, I was just going to
say, if you're going to do it, be all in. Be
all in. Be all about it. Yeah, that's true. You've
got to love it. and like work -life balance is
also important but as far as the work side of
things goes you're you're all in yeah yeah that's
your point yeah what do you think kyle i didn't
give you enough time to think of something did
i no yeah that bought me off time i would say
my my advice would be yeah like we're trying
to shift public perception on hostels and we're
hostels like there there are some like some luxuries
we as operators are like allowed get to enjoy
and like that is the imperfection like we are
uh everyone like especially independently owned
like we're unique it has i love the term character
right we love character it's like this now you're
gonna say done is better than perfect like like
start something yeah it doesn't have to be gotten
the hospitality i feel like it was like we have
to have like the best beds the best pillows it
has to be like spit polish clean like shining
glimmering sorry i don't mean to interrupt you
but like it's got to be above board it's got
to be clean it's got to be safe other than that
like yeah you don't need the pods on your on
your opening day necessarily yeah it's just yeah
just to not lose sight of the soft stuff the
like checking like how you doing um that just
i mean i'm partial to your dave cook episode
just because he's a buddy of ours too but like
that the story of just like him being lost and
coming in and just like the big hug he gave him
like that's it that that's the sauce like i still
remember that yeah yeah that's it and yeah the
connection never forgetting the guests just making
the guests happy comfortable making them feel
like they belong you know yeah and they're part
of the community here and if you take care of
your guests they'll keep staying they feel like
they're welcome though They'll extend and extend
and extend and it grows from there. That's great
advice. Yeah. No, but in closing, wrapping up,
I think you both bring some great mantras in
or ethos to like the hostel. And Haley, you brought
up a few times and I always tell our staff, like,
you know, our, our base job at its foundation
is a clean space, a secure space in a space that
everyone feels comfortable being themselves.
And then, and then everything else will take
care of itself. You know, like the moment, the
energy, the vibe, we don't need to have anything
too fancy and everything. Cause then over to
Kyle, some of you were saying, Oh, an old man
once came up to me and he's a backpacker had
been to every country. And you could just like
in old salt, you could feel the travel coming
off of them. It's one of those older guests,
older guests that all the younger guests circled
around and we're listening to his stories. And
he came up to me and he was like, young man,
never forget. that a perfect hostile is imperfect.
And that always hit me. I was like, oh, wow.
He like hit me with a, you know, a saber of truth.
And I was like, okay, you know, that's so true.
Like, cause we are hostiles and we should never
forget that, that we're not, you know, going
to be a five star resort. We're going to have
more character and more genuine experience. And,
you know, we shouldn't forget that. but that's
so powerful it like creates a permission sorry
we're really going yeah probably but like yeah
just yeah i think the imperfection like no one
is perfect and no muscles being imperfect like
it creates a permission structure for people
to feel truly comfortable they get their guards
down because they look around and they realize
like oh yeah like this place isn't like 100 perfect
i don't have to be either i can arrive exactly
my shoes off and like yeah be comfortable yep
And I think that's a powerful thing that we offer
people because everything else that a lot of
times in this world is trying to be perfect or
trying to hide the imperfect. Yeah. And just
embrace it, baby, you know, and let your, you
know, and have your moment. And then in those
moments, you have those genuine experience and
connections that are so beautiful and fulfilling.
But, again, thank you so much, Haley, Kyle, the
Conway Hostel, the Coho. Thank you for joining
us on the Hostel Road Trip podcast. And when
I come up to – I actually have a visit that I
owe Dave Cook to visit the barn door. And when
we do, we're going to try to come see you too.
Cool. Yeah, please do. Keep on rocking. We look
forward to seeing you in Montreal. Yeah, we'll
see you in Montreal. Thank you guys so much.
Thanks so much. Thanks, Bob. I'm Jimmy Black.
We're out.