Looking up in all real estate bibles , ‘LOCATION’ is the Achillean point whether or not your hostel is surviving or falling! All along your left and right of the BTS lines, every building been sealed with sold while the rest unsold’s price has been skyward incredibly high. However when there is a will , there must be a way : super premium location may not be the ultimate truth! 

‘Travelling’ ignites travellers’ dreams to enclose in their pockets. One of the dreams they have grabbed home is to transfer a residence or a building into a ‘hostel’ just to embrace the experience of extending hospitality to foreign guests. Let’s imagine of 35 million foreigners arriving at Thai airports, some waiting with luggage for limosines from luxury hotels to pick them up, others marching under the tour leader’s flag to check in at designated hotels according to the tour programme, yet there is another grand group with big backpack ready to scatter around according to the applications for their advance self-reservation points. The latter group has long been with Thai tourism and still going strong in a long future run.

Hostelworld, a top line of all hostel agencies worldwide, a source of more than 15,000 networks has stated an apparent point that during the first half of 2017, total reservations of hostel and economy accommodation had skyrocketed to 3.9 million transactions. The increase was 11% with Asian accommodation engagement of 21 %, whereas Thailand was one of the main destinations from almost 1,300 systematic hostels in 53 provinces. 

Koa San road has been incapable to monopolize backpackers as in the past with a matter of fact that there are friendly rate accommodations through all the city areas from Sukumvit, Silom, Siam Square etc which beckon on tourists to come over. The previous hostel fixed formula has then adjusted to an ‘open’ location as much as ‘opened mind’ of new trendy tourists who likely to shake off their tiredness and walk a bit further in exchange for a new horizon of worthy experiences. 

The definition of best hostel locations, on the other hand, are far different from the 4-5 stars hotels as the victorious hostel locations deem not to be situated just in the heart of the city. 

‘Mass Transportation’ plays most important role in pricing with the favour of the shortest walking distance. However, hostels situated down by the alleys may also win tourists’ heart with the closer communities nearby enchanting visitors with their immaculated environment. Most of the hostels’ clients have sorted after and been granted with this kind of spell while the luxury hotels fail to offer.

Please keep in mind that all tourists are not party animals. Some are ‘peaceful’ and some are ‘explorer’. A charming hidden place at the end of the alley or the suburban area is worth steadfast roaming around if that hostel is a true oasis of heart and soul. Besides, location is not always the factor easily to ‘promote’ or ‘demote’ the hostels. The primary factor genuienly consists of a maintaining of ‘cleanliness’ and ‘security’ which had been determinated the highest review scores or the switch-off of rising star hostels already in the past.  

Therefore, most importantly, your dreamed-hostel must not situated in risky areas. The investment on security system to protect life and assets, the separation of common area and residential area, keys for guests only, big lockers with entire lock system, all of these modern technology will sustain trendy hostels in centralizing all ‘crossing points’ of security into one intelligent key which comes in form of key card, key chain or wrist band to please the new generation after all. 

Lastly, the investment in the owner’s ‘well acquainted’ area is an advantage in order to feather on salable highlight points of the area. A narrative story of the local nearby such as the signature dishes within the area, the coffee shop not to be missed or the superb neighborhood museum should be inserting in.

The flourish of hostel business depends on these mere factors. No need to rent the most expensive building on a main road and work your fingers to the bone just to return the capital unknown when to be recovered.