 |
The experience is something like camping where the facilities afford you the moments of either solitude or moments of brief confederacy with others seeking mostly solitude. The people who stop and go through the hostel are the story, and they come in various sizes with backpacks or bags, and it is the condition of the facilities which is so important to keep them coming back.
Hostels are popular with people on an itinerant schedule who are coming and going as they need to be, or see fit. Hostelling is an alternative to hotels, motels, or camping, or for others who seek a budget conscious-night or two in peace and tranquility.
Hostels are places to consider staying and good example is the Nicol Street International Hostel in Nanaimo, B.C., which takes in people from around the world on their way to endless varieties of destinations. Each has a separate story and some wish to share it. Others are aloof and merely stopping on the way for a snooze on their way to someplace or something important.
Guests of the Murrays (John and Monika) at 65 Nicol Street come from all corners of the world including (and you name it): Germany, Mexico, Japan, Australia, India, Ireland, England, more from Japan, more from Australia, a few from Mexico, one this past month one came from a place south of Nepal.
The Murrays Nicol Street facility is quaintly tucked into a location near the centre of the city, a block from Commercial Street, a crossroads at the central landing for travelers from the Lower Mainland going to Vancouver Island. The city of Nanaimo serves about 150,000 people and has a municipal population of 70,000, where BC Ferries lands millions of people through the year at two terminals Departure Bay and Duke Point Ferry Terminals.
The Nicol Street International Hostel is a founding member of a hostel organization that endeavours to serve the international traveling public. The hostel is a service-oriented facility that puts a clean and secure environment on the market for international travelers who need a night (or a short spell) in a bunk or single room.
The hostel facilities at 65 Nicol Street include a tidy bungalow with three rooms, four bunks to a room, and a few single rooms in the basement. A smaller two room-house overlooks a tidy garden and walkway that leads from an outdoor shower to the tenting area. Guests of the facility enjoy a view of the harbour including Newcastle and Protection Islands, watching seaplanes leaving and arriving in the city core, and a direct walk to the largest shopping mall in the downtown.
Moni Murray explained, "We started in 1985 with HI Hostels for 9 years and then we started Pacific Rim Hostels," she said, "and that became Pacific Hostelling Network," which is best known as www.pacifichostels.com.
The Pacific Hostelling Network is a non-profit organization that has affiliations around the world, and with Backpackers of Canada, "Our membership in the Pacific Hostelling Network runs north and south from Canada to Mexico on the Pacific Coast," she said, "and the Backpackers hostels run facilities from east to west across Canada."
The pacifichostels.com network covers travelers from Alaska to Mexico. Staying in the hostel requires no upfront membership costs, which are absorbed in the fee at guest registration. Moni said the network is organized around biannual meetings, "We meet twice a year and strategize the international website and brochure marketing program for the member-hostels.
"We absorb marketing costs and pay a per-visit fee for promotion of the members. Our association's marketing strategy affords the members a composite budget to promote far-flung hostelries and pass along public information," and they pool the valuable marketing dollars instead of taking profit out for promotion.
"We are the grassroots of hostels. We are the supplier of low-cost accommodation on the Pacific Coast," she said. Pacifichostels.com has both small and large facilities in their membership, including the Seattle Green Tortoise and the Banana Bungalows in San Fransico. Generally they are small independent operators.
"The bi-annual sessions create the opportunity to talk about problems and solutions to accommodation issues, including security, inspection, and alarm systems." Pacifichosteling.com facilities range from small to large, rural to urban. The organization is able to incorporate start-up hostels that need advice and entrepreneurial support.
The clientele could not be more diverse, "Our guests come from all over the world, summer and winter. In the summer deep sea divers camp and hose off their gear in our yard. In winter the snowboarders stop for night on their way to Mount Washington," some of the best boarding and skiing in B.C..
Because the market is budget wary, "The operators of hostels must face the reality of small margins," said Moni, "It's not a big paying proposition. It's not a huge profit and the industry is changing. More hostels are beginning to cater to B&B and retreat clientele. More couples are visiting hostels. It's an ever-changing marketplace."
Moni said the nationalities visiting the Nicol Street are ever-changing with world economics, something she and John have witnessed first-hand since they began hosting world travelers in 1985. After 24 years they've seen a lot of trends and hosted guests from at least half the countries in the world. "In the beginning people thought I was weird to open such a business."
Moni had a long career working for the CO-OP in Nanaimo. "My cohorts all figured it was a ticket to failure." Well they didn't have a notion about the single-minded determination of Monika Murray, did they? It was Moni's inspiration and energy that contributed so much to the development of Pacific Hosteling Network. Visit www.pacifixxostels.xxx for more information.
