HOSTEL AMO ESTE LUGAR

The story of Susana, who decided to change her life and open a hostel, without ever having stayed in one before

FROM ARTIST TO HOSTEL OWNER

Susana dedicated her life to plastic arts. She made decorative paintings, murals, and art. But she felt that she lacked a challenge.

She always enjoyed meeting people, experiencing, new places and welcoming people to her home. She then decided to venture out and open a hostel.

But there was a small detail: she had never stayed in a hostel before. She knew about the prejudice of people who thought that a hostel was poorly maintained, dirty, messy, that people just wanted to party, but she wanted to do something different, to break these prejudices.

She wanted something new for her life. However, her greatest difficulty in planning the business was to believe in herself. In a business so new and so different from what she did previously, she was afraid of not being able to cope.

“The biggest challenge I encountered was myself. I wanted a change in my life, I had the thought that I knew nothing. I wanted something new and I knew something good was going to come, and something very good came up. And since we’re at the ball, let’s dance! But I was very afraid of something so new and so different ”.
SUSANA

The opportunity came, and she grabbed it.

IN A DECLINING MARKET, SHE GOT HER PLACE IN THE SUN

Susana says that the tourist market in Uruguay is experiencing difficulties, the occupation has dropped a lot, operating costs are very high and you cannot charge much for the daily rates. But even starting in this unstable scenario, Susana managed to create a different hostel, overcome her fears and prosper in a short time.

The hostel is 100 meters from the bus station, which attracts the attention of guests and makes it able to maintain a good occupation.

In addition, she wanted to create a beautiful, cozy, clean and great service environment, to demystify the false idea that people have of hostel. And she mastered it.

Guests are delighted with the cleanliness and organization of the place.

“I always saw in the social media reviews that the guests said it was a good thing to be able to walk barefoot throughout the hostel area, but I didn’t understand why. One day talking to a guest, I understood that it was because the hostel was very clean! We have high praise for the cleanliness and the relationship with guests. ”

She always trains her volunteers to have a first-rate service.
The hostel is quiet, it still doesn’t have a bar. But Susana is already thinking about expanding, making a bar with a barbecue to give her guests more experience.

HER GREATEST DIFFICULTY: UNDERSTANDING THE OTA’s OPERATION

As she had never worked in the area, Susana’s main difficulty when opening the hostel was understanding how to manage OTAs.

“I almost went crazy, a lot of information, something totally different from what I had already experienced and I had no idea what the operational was like”.

Luckily, she was referred by a person who said she needed a management system. That’s when she met hqbeds.

With the help of the system, she was able to understand the administrative part of the hostel much more clearly, and already started to operate with the house organized.

She says that the system is very easy to use, once you understand it. ”It has a quick response, with just a quick look you already understand everything. It is very easy to teach volunteers with video lessons. It helps us a lot.”

LOVE FOR WHAT YOU DO

Despite having all the difficulties at the beginning, the antagonism between wanting to change and the fear of succeeding, Susana says today that she is fully happy with the decision she made.

She runs the hostel practically alone, her husband gives full support, but has her own activities, but even though she doubts her ability, she managed to undertake a successful business on her own.

Today she has the help of 3 volunteers.

And already thinking about expanding: she wants to open another hostel in eastern Uruguay, in the area of the most famous beaches in the country.

“We are going to give this hostel more time to develop further, but I want to expand. Opening a hostel is a big challenge, but it is worth it. The experience you share with guests, the anecdotes … all of this fills your soul. And that is the main thing, having your soul full! ”

HOW HQBEDS HELPS SUSANA WITH LOVE IN THIS PLACE

• Simple and intuitive system, with easy learning for new volunteers;
• Map of beds and channel manager that avoids overbookings;
• Inventory control of products sold, with the possibility of dividing the inventory into different sectors, among others;
• Report categorizing expenses and calculating financial results in real time.

THE BACKPACK OF HQ CONTINUES!

We will bring real stories of hostel owners from all over to find out what they have learned, how they evolved and the passion of each one for the hostel lifestyle.

See you in soon!