20 Craziest Party Hostels

[aboriginalhostel]

Originally Posted by santa klaus

Of course it is. We have the biggest dick and we want them to concede that!

I guess one day it will pop their eyes out! Circus will be a hard bite though! Will see next year...

IMHO Germans are very good in hospitality regarding my personal experience...

Originally Posted by santa klaus

[Germany won the last two tournaments and nobody even knows that].

At least you made us to know that!

Originally Posted by santa klaus

I *know* we can do better and it just makes me somewhat crazy that we don´t.

I'd say you know the best hostel recipe, you just have to wait until its ripen together!

Originally Posted by santa klaus

Sort the reviews by "lowest rated". Some people may exaggerate a bit but everything they say is true. The cleaning staff is sometimes more busy with determining their pecking order than with actually cleaning the rooms, there is a lot of new staff in the reception (so they´re still slow with routine work) and so on and so on. But we are working on all of that.

Newbies are always a PitA, they tend to make mistakes and pile them up! The other segment is the leavers, they got no enthusiasm with the job for the last month!

Originally Posted by santa klaus

Interesting theory!

It is indeed, but the compliments are to Sion from NosDa, who mentioned it first!

I absolutely agree with it, and this stands for even in this forum... For example: If you agree with most of the posts, or just have the same experience, but nothing special to add on, you won't post it, will you?

Originally Posted by santa klaus

I´ll have a look tomorrow (typing this from at home). In any case, these stats are not very relyable anyway. We usually don´t keep track of our guest´s age. I just told the receptions once to give me the ages of the next 100 people they check in - so my sample is only 300 persons, on a random day last winter.

I start thinking that you can still improve on your front desk software...

[gordo]

Haha, the tyranny of the youth! Josh is right, better get there fast. It won´t be long until everybody expects you to wear a tie, drive a van, live in the burbs and spend quality time with your kids in a resort at the Red Sea. Old farts who think they are still cool are really pathetic!

oh lord... i get enough of the 'when are you going to get a real job?' from back home already.

that said, i do own a van... even if it is back in Canada.

[santa klaus]

Originally Posted by aboriginalhostel

I guess one day it will pop their eyes out! Circus will be a hard bite though! Will see next year...

They always had 95 - that´s a hard bite. Now, they have 93. We had 93 when we opened in Munich, and the Berlin Hostel is better than the Munich hostel.

Reasons why we do not (yet) have 93:
- There are road works in front of the house, there is a construction site next to it and another construction site opposite of it. You can imagine it´s noisy...
- In the first year after we opened in Munich and Vienna (Lounge), we had 97 on cleanliness in both hostels. In Berlin, we have 93. The problems are: First: there is a six-lane road and a big intersection next to us. You can´t believe how much dust comes flying in through open windows. Second: we have ruined the flooring. We have a PVC flooring in the rooms, but they delivered a quite porous sort. Cement dust filled the pores during construction - it´s almost impossible to get it out, we have tried everything. In addition, there are ugly scratches in the floor from when we moved the bunk beds around. The floor looks like 20 years old in some rooms. We will have to replace a lot of flooring... in winter. Third: inefficient teamwork of the cleaning staff. They have a new supervisor since last week, so let´s see.
- Four full-time staffers are from Vienna. They moved to Berlin for the opening. They are superb staff, but have not yet a clue about Berlin. I worked the front desk a few days in February and remember how stupid I musthave looked a couple of times - I did not even know the number of the tram lines stopping round the corner. I never got farther from the hostel than the Kebap restaurant next door. The rest of the staff knows Berlin, but has not yet a clue about efficient front desk work in a busy hostel... enough time will sort that out.
- We have a superb terrace but don´t use it (yet) the way we could. The seating benches only arrived three weeks ago and we still need loads of plants to make it look nicer and break the wind.

There are just too many things we decided to do "later" before we opened. We did not expect to be very busy except in July... in Munich, we had less than 60% occupancy in the first year; in Berlin, we´ll be above 80%, easily.

Originally Posted by aboriginalhostel

At least you made us to know that!

Yes, for crying out loud! At least we can rely on the German girls!

Originally Posted by aboriginalhostel

I'd say you know the best hostel recipe, you just have to wait until its ripen together!

Please don´t use that metaphor, very bad karma. The Berliners are terrible cooks. Northern Germany´s cuisine is definitely inferiour to Britain's!

Originally Posted by aboriginalhostel

It is indeed, but the compliments are to Sion from NosDa, who mentioned it first!

Is there anyone you don´t know??? You are right, he is a clever guy.

I stopped trying to make sense of weird ratings though. Or do you have a good theory why we always get incredibly good ratings during Oktoberfest? The guests pay a silly price for their beds, it´s so loud that it´s impossible to sleep, there´s dirt and puke everywhere, there´s an endless line at the reception 24/7, there are sometimes 12 people in an 8-bed dorm because most guests frequently end up in bed with someone they don´t remember the next morning, ... wait... maybe that´s why!

I start thinking that you can still improve on your front desk software...

The software at the hostel is fine, but my notebook at home needs to be replaced urgently!

Checked the figures: 57% are 25 or younger /// 64% are 26 or younger.
Anyway, that is just from a random day in winter. I guess our summer guests are younger (no university holidays in winter!).

Originally Posted by gordo

oh lord... i get enough of the 'when are you going to get a real job?' from back home already.

that said, i do own a van... even if it is back in Canada.

Hehe... my Mom never believed I have a "real" job until I told her how much I make here - more than she does!