Hostel Takeover (Seattle, USA)

[Hostels]

Are you ready for a hostel takeover?
http://www.komonews.com/economy/47960207.html

Interesting article from Seattle, Washington:

When newlyweds Ashley and Joseph traveled from Denver to Seattle for their wedding trip, they skipped the plush honeymoon suite in favor of a private room in a Ballard hostel for $70 a night.

After they told people they met where they were staying, “We got a lot of funny responses,” Ashley said. “A hostel? On your honeymoon?”

Call it a hostel takeover. Business travelers, retirees, conventioneers -- all have bedded down at Hostel Seattle, Lee Tindel’s two year-old independent hostel overlooking Shilshole Bay...

On hostel numbers:

This season, numbers have dipped a bit at both local and international hostels, but inquiries from prospective first-timers are up at the Portland (Ore.) Hostel in the Hawthorne neighborhood, manager Michelle McKinzie said.

On the line between hostels and hotels:

But how do you know if you’re booking a hostel or a budget hotel? Increasingly, the line between the two is blurred. Hotel chains are trying to attract price-sensitive travelers by offering “hostel-style” accommodations while hostels are adding amenities and spiffing up their interiors to lure discerning travelers looking for deals.

On flashpackers:

They may call home with Skype, but flashpackers have been known to go retro, too.

“They love vinyl,” Tindel said. He often points them toward local record shops like Sonic Boom and Bop Records.

[PatrickO`D]

Interesting story, but I would not say its big news. Everbody in this industry knows there is alot of downward pressure on Hotels these days.When your average rack rate in a city is $170 a Hostel becomes very attractive. I think it is good and healthy that there is more Hostel competion in Seattle. It sounds like there could be up to four Hostels in Seattle within a year, I wonder if that is beyond saturation point.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by PatrickO`D

It sounds like there could be up to four Hostels in Seattle within a year, I wonder if that is beyond saturation point.

Well Buenos Aires has 150 hostels and Mildura in Australia has 15 hostels and there are plenty of tiny towns in New Zealand with 4 or 5 hostels (for instance Turangi with 3500 people and 4 hostels).

Seattle is at least 100 times more appealing to the average independent traveller than Mildura or Turangi so I would say it has a way to go before it reaches saturation point.

Still the amount of business a hostel gets depends on international budget travellers visiting that country and in the United States it is relatively low, but I see no reason why that can't increase.

All cities in the United States can do with more hostels, especially those that have more than a million people but less than five hostels.

[Scotch Argus]

Funnily enough we had a German couple here about 5 years ago who were on their honeymoon. They had chosen to do a hostelling trip staying at YHAs for their honeymoon. This meant they were by and large sleeping in seperate dorms. Sounded interesting.

There are so many stories in the media these days about "boutique hostels" and "flashpackers" etc that I think these things tie in with the debate about what a hostel is by definition. The one thing these stories have in common is usually that they are dispelling the "myth" that hostels are about shared dorms and partying backpackers (or in the UK smelly outdoor types). What this means is that people are now coming who's expectation of hostel is not that it will be shared dorms - and in fact are sometimes shocked by the suggestion they would share with a stranger.

Whilst they might not be the traditional hostel market, a lot of the YHAs around the world are trying to target these people through press releases about their latest new hostel. This is raising the bar about what people expect - and for a lot of them it isn't shared dorms.

Originally Posted by Tim

Still the amount of business a hostel gets depends on international budget travellers visiting that country

Whilst this may be true of some hostels in some cities around the world, it's by no means true for all hostels. You can build up a market in a lot of places that is not dependent on international budget travellers. They may be a portion of your market, but if you diversify as much as possible you can somewhat insulate yourself from some of the negative effects of being totally dependent on this market.

[PatrickO`D]

The HI website says the new Hostel plans to open on July 31st. We will have to wait to see how big it is, number of private rooms, amenities, etc...