Hostel/24″/dt1st/mark2nd
By SARA FISHER
Staff Reporter
In the lobby of a converted Hollywood hotel, a couple of twenty-something Australians are flopped on a leather couch watching a big-screen television. Several young Londoners are chatting and smoking. The front-desk phone rings constantly.
The receptionist turns callers away, saying there is a full house at the new Hollywood International Hostel on Vine Street.
It’s getting to be a familiar story.
The privately owned youth hostel opened its doors in early June and has been at capacity or near-capacity ever since. A hotelier would likely be rolling in profits with that kind of patronage, but for hostels, part of a worldwide institution dedicated to providing affordable and safe places for young travelers, a full house doesn’t necessarily signal a strong bottom line it’s just enough to stay in business.
“I don’t make a lot of money, but I’m not complaining,” said owner Demitris Papakosmas.
Added General Manager Glenn LaCour: “This is a very cost-intensive business. We just carefully watch our expenses, and we do it on volume. That’s the key.”
The hostel is located in a 1924-vintage hotel, which in years past has been used as a flophouse and a homeless shelter. With 150 beds, the newly renovated facility has been operating at between 90 percent and 100 percent capacity since it opened three months ago.
The sole source of revenue is the $15 per night guests are charged for a berth in a dorm-style room, or $37 per night for a private room. (In order to keep out locals looking for a cheap place to live, visitors must have a passport and an international plane ticket.) Most guests range in age from 18 to 29. Papakosmas would not reveal revenues, except to acknowledge that the profit margin is slim.
“I’m here because the Hilton is too expensive and there are some major roach motels in this town,” said Colin Spencer, a tourist from London who has stayed at the hostel for seven weeks and plans to remain for two more. “This place is clean, safe and affordable. I don’t need anything else.”
Spencer’s long stay is unusual. So is that of Izora Sharif Lough-Malaysia, a British student who decided to spend her summer break working at a local Starbucks. She’s been living in the hostel for about two months.
More common are clusters of travel companions who blow through town within a couple of days. Erica, a 19-year-old from Australia, sat in the lobby with her oversized, overstuffed backpack balanced against her knees. She and a newly met friend looked over a map of California, trying to decide how best to get to Santa Barbara.
“Everyone staying at this place has been pretty cool,” she said. “It’s the standard hostel atmosphere: You meet people from all over, and you fall in step together for a while in your travels. Everyone’s really open.”
Erica found out about the hostel over the Internet, which is currently the hostel’s only form of advertising. It soon will be included in the latest editions of guidebooks geared to low-budget travelers, such as the Lonely Planet and the Let’s Go series.
A bigger marketing boost is provided by Papakosmas’ other hostel on Hollywood Boulevard, which he has owned and operated for the last four years. Located in the heart of the boulevard’s most popular tourist section, that facility frequently had to turn kids away. Now the overflow goes to the second hostel.
Despite the full beds, competition for low-budget travelers is stiff. There are about 20 hostels in the Los Angeles area, with several privately owned competitors in Hollywood.
One of the busiest is on Second Street in Santa Monica, steps from the beach. Run by the non-profit hostel organization Hostelling International, the place attracted 78,000 visitors for the 12 months ended in March.
“To compete with HI (which charges $19 per night), we have lower rates and give better service,” LaCour said. “And of course, we do it by volume in terms of the amenities, too.”
There’s an array of perks offered at the Hollywood hostel, including free continental breakfast, and free transportation to and from airports and the Amtrak and Greyhound stations. Free movies screen daily in the lobby, and free dance parties, music and comedic performances are held on the rooftop sundeck almost every night. The hostel organizes daily tours of the city and the area’s amusement parks.
As LaCour moves through the building, he greets most of the guests by name. To keep costs down, Papakosmas and LaCour carry the workload mostly on their own shoulders, usually starting their days around 5 a.m. and ending late at night. They have a couple of full-time employees working the front desk, which is manned 24 hours a day.
Another source of labor: the guests themselves. A few with valid work visas are willing to swap a couple hours of work per day for free room and board. Tasks vary from answering the phones to cleaning bathrooms, but for cash-strapped wanderers, it’s a popular way to see the world.
With summer coming to an end, the hostels soon will see a dip in visitors, though international travelers flock to Los Angeles year-round.
To ensure that the beds stay full even during the slow season, Papakosmas and LaCour are looking to advertise on college campuses. “We want to promote hostelling in America,” LaCour said. “Most kids have no idea what it is or how important traveling really is.”
The one immovable cost is rent, which Papakosmas said already is pretty steep. And after the major retail projects under development on Hollywood Boulevard are completed, lease rates are expected to increase.
Undaunted, the duo is looking to start hostels in other cities. Most foreigners make a standard loop through the West, according to LaCour, swinging from Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon to San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Papakosmas and LaCour are currently investigating what city offers the best opportunity
