apart-hostel ... is it a real hostel ?

[Peter]

Some of the hostel owners in the area where I live complain against another hostel owners for discrediting the hostels name.
They say that the term ''apart-hostel'' ( apartment-hostel ) has no right for existance , just because there is no , and there can not be such a hostel as apart-hostel.
There is a hostel and there is apartment
There is and there must be distinction between one and another.
In the area where I live there are about 80 percents of the hostels , which function as an apart-hostels ( from 10 till 20-30 beds )
The owners of 40-80 beds hostels complain that we discredit the hostels name , because of our smaller falts which function as a hostels.
I would like to ask the opinion of the people who work in these industry with experience.
Is apart-hostel real hostel ?

In personally wouldn't risk to open more than 20 beds because its too risky and there are not many tourists for big hostel in my opinion.
So am I , the owner of 15 beds apart-hostel is the real hostel owner ?
Or I am the fake hostel owner and my 130 sq meters flat is not a hostel ?
Thank you for any reply.

[livaus]

We run a apartment-hostels with 25 beds and 28 beds. I consider it to be a real hostel - we provide same facilities and sometimes better servise than bigger hostels. No one has complained - guests like home away from home feel, but competition mainly is similar style hostels.

[Peter]

Exactly !
I also think so !
I do not know how your city can compare with a tourism in Riga , but I think
there are even cities where big hostels idea wouldn't work.
I do not mean that they are less nice , or less picturesque , but it can be that there are not so many tourists , or may be its too early to expect many tourists there.
The small hostel has more chances to be more personal , to have more home away from home .
What is funny that the people who complain most about apart-hostels are in reality the apart-hostels themselves.
If they rent three flats together , and have 40 beds , it does not mean that they are not apart-hostel

[Hostels]

IMHO, if it offers shared, dormitory accommodation, it's a hostel. If it only has private rooms, then a property is not a hostel. The size of the hostel doesn't matter.

Definition of hostel