April 14, 2025 • 28 mins
How can hostels balance cutting-edge technology with the irreplaceable value of human interaction? In this episode, Peter Zilke, COO of Safestay Hostels, reveals the secrets behind creating a vibrant community experience while leveraging innovative tech solutions.
Key Takeaways:
- Discover how Safestay uses social media not just for marketing, but as a vital communication tool that enhances guest interaction before, during, and after their stay.
- Learn about the importance of a robust property management system (PMS) in managing high transaction volumes and streamlining guest communication, especially in a hostel environment.
- Understand the role of AI in hospitality, including its applications in pricing strategies and internal communication, while recognizing the limits of technology in maintaining genuine human connections.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I'm probably at odds with some hotel COOs and
all that who go 110% on TAG. I'mgoing 90% on TAG. I mean, of
course, I embrace a %, but Iwill never embrace tech at the
loss of human interaction.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Today, we speak with Peter Zilke, the COO of SafeStay
Hostels. SafeStay operates 17hostels throughout Europe and
welcomes a wide range of guests,including backpackers, families,
and business travelers. We talkabout how SafeStay uses social
media not only as a marketingchannel, but also as a critical
(00:49):
communication platform to chatwith guests pre and post
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Peter, great to have you on the podcast. To get
started, I would love to do aquick intro if you could tell me
about your current role and abit about your company.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Sure. Look, I mean, first of all, thank you very
much for inviting me to thepodcast. It's great to be here
and talking to you. Yeah, myname is Peter Silke. I'm the COO
of SafeStay PLC.
SafeStay PLC is a London basedcompany. We are listed on the
AIM market on the London StockExchange. And SafeStay operates
(01:28):
a hostel and hotel brand calledSafeStay. So SafeStay Hostels
and Hotels, we operate 17hostels and hotels across Europe
in 15 major locations and over10 countries from Greece to
Scotland and from Portugal toPoland and anywhere in between.
(01:49):
So it's a quite large varietywhat we do.
Yeah, it's a typical hostelexperience. We offer value
travel for the backpackers, butalso for the families and groups
and more and more, well, moreand more families, but also the
business travelers. Because whatwe do as well is not the pure
hostel experience. They're alsoprivate hotel type en suite
(02:13):
bedrooms we have in all of ourhostels. So quite a mixed
offering from the accommodationside of things.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Tell me a little bit about the guest experience. What
makes your properties differentthan that stereotype that comes
to mind?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Look, mean, the stereotype you just mentioned,
we have that as welloccasionally. Let's not beat
around the bush there. Thathappens. And that's fine as long
as it's kind of enough. We areoffering a fun environment.
I mean, hostels is all aboutcommunity, meeting fellow
travelers, engaging with people,and finding and exploring new
destinations. This is what safestay is all about. Being able or
(02:53):
that travelers are able to bookat an affordable price, a clean,
upmarket accommodation in ashared bedroom, you know, in a
bunk bed with clean linen, whichis changed every time a new
customer arrives, of course, butalso with great communal spaces.
(03:15):
And I think touching on what youmentioned earlier, what makes
the difference between hostelsin the wider, the more generic
hotel accommodation side ofthings. It's really just
communal space to create thehostel vibe.
And yes, of course, it's thecollege backpacker. Of course,
it's the people who come onlyhome at two in the morning and
maybe had half a pint of beertoo many. It happens, of course
(03:37):
it does. But it's also thefamily with two kids and the
parents, let's say, who book afour bedroom dorm, and in
Central London, in the heart ofBarcelona, or two minutes away
from the Grand Place inBrussels, the accommodation
element of that trip is afraction for this family
(03:58):
compared to two hotel rooms at abranded hotel in the same
location. So that is really thefundamental difference what we
offer.
This community spirit, this kindof offering affordable
accommodation to family groups,backpackers. And I see it more
and more business people,travelers like myself sitting
(04:18):
with their laptop in thecommunal space, and also
enjoying to talk to other fellowtravelers when we are not on our
laptops and doing podcasts, forexample. So it is a very
refreshing new, not new, but arefreshing way of accommodation
business. We really, reallybelieve that.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
What's your average length of stay? Do you see
people staying for weeks at atime?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
We see that, absolutely. Look, it's an
important segment of ourbusiness. You know, the average
length of stay hover around twonights if we take the average
across the board. Of course, ourcore traveler is the backpacker,
as we said this earlier. Youknow, the millennials, the Gen
Zs of this world, you know, whodo the tour from North to South
(05:04):
Of Europe, 2 Days here, threedays there, one night there.
So there's our core customer, ofcourse, together with groups, a
school group from Spainexploring London for three, four
days and all that. But itaveraged out around two days we
have there. So which comesactually to one point, if I may
add on this, is the transactionvalue unit or the quantity of
(05:27):
transaction checking in checkingout and all that is quite high
in hospitals compared to mediumsized hotels.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Tell me about how you use technology at your
properties.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah look, I mean I guess we are always on the
silver plate because ourcustomer group is so tech savvy.
They are usually a little bityounger than myself, and
obviously grown up with thesocial medias of this world with
kind of exposed to technologyfrom their school days, and so
on. So our customer, our corecustomer is very tech savvy. And
(06:04):
we obviously need to supply theenvironment for them to interact
with us. And we need to interactwith them using tech.
So it's absolutely important.But also to provide good Wi Fi,
etc. So they can use their owntech, of course. So interaction
between our customer and us, orus with the customer, you know,
(06:27):
is massively important. Socialmedia is a super important tech
element to us.
It's probably more seen as alittle bit of a private add on
and a marketing tool. And ofcourse, it is for many
companies, but it's a massivelyimportant part of our tech stack
component, where we interact,communicate with our target
(06:48):
group, with our customer, onscale with messages we want them
to know, But also on a one toone, hey, I'm coming next week,
how does that work? That happenson Instagram and then all the
other areas. So social media ismassive, massively important to
us. But the core element, how weinteract is, of course, our
(07:10):
property management system,know.
And that's not unique to hosthostels. Hotels all have
property management systems. ButI mean, that this property
management system allows thequantity of transactions in
checkout. A 500 bet hostel is ahigh number of check ins and a
high number of checkouts everyday. Well, 500 at a maximum.
(07:33):
So whilst a medium sized hotel,let's say 150 to 100 bets, the
numbers of check-in checkoutsare lower the same with
bookings, etc. So the quantityof transactions is super super
high and the super importantelement that the PMS, the
property management system, candeliver. And the communication
through that system, you know,that we can interact and
(07:56):
communicate with them is veryimportant to us. We switched
over to a new propertymanagement system, well, only
two months ago, actually. Andthat's the reason why I have a
lot of grey hairs and all that.
But look, it's always achallenging situation. But the
provider we chosen, a companycalled Cloudbad, which is well
known in the industry,absolutely fantastic. I mean, a
(08:21):
transition of 17 properties in10 different countries with 10
different or more legalrequirements on reporting, on
registration, on fiscalelements, taxation and etc, city
tax and all that. So yeah, itwas a challenge to transition 17
(08:41):
properties within a period oftwo weeks. So it wasn't easy and
transferring all the data aswell.
But look, the team wasfantastic. The team from
SafeState, the project teamreally pulled out all the stops,
and the team from Cloudbatchreally added a lot of resources
to it and made it happen, whichis fantastic. And the reason why
(09:01):
the Cloudbets has elements toit, it has one element which
called whistle, for example,which allows us to communicate
with the customer, you know,direct interaction messaging and
all that. And in this day andage, you know, I mean, we have
as a combined group, we have4,000 beds. It's a high
occupancy environment.
(09:22):
So we last year, we finishedwith just around the 80%
occupancy. You see the volume ofthe guests we have. We provided
a million overnight stays lastyear. So to streamline the
communication between thecustomer and us was the core
element, which was the task andthe final decision to go with
(09:44):
Cloudbeds as a propertymanagement system. Because they
have the platform using AI,using translations.
If a guest from Asia comes andmaybe doesn't speak Greek,
although all our staff speakEnglish, but if there is a
barrier, elements like that arevery, very important to us. And
(10:04):
that reduces the time, thefrustration for customers, but
also for our staff. So techplays a massive, massive
important role in this customersatisfaction delivery. I really
believe that.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
I wanna go back to what you mentioned about social
media. I mean, I've probablydone 50 of these interviews and
I don't think anyone hasmentioned social media as being
considered part of their techstack. So talk to me about how
you use social. And do you havea vendor or an agency that's
managing it for you? How doesthe logistics work there?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I wouldn't say we use it in any super clever way
differently than the individualsocial media channel intended it
to be used. But we regarded asan important tech element in our
business. And I think this initself highlights the importance
to all our team members. Itouched on that we opened a
(11:03):
commercial office in Warsaw ACouple Of Years ago. Our sales,
our marketing, our HR, ourrevenue management systems all
in one central hub, as we callit, based in Warsaw.
So it's a lot of going forwardand backwards between our two
head offices in Warsaw andLondon, but it works fantastic.
And there we have two people whodo nothing but looking at social
(11:27):
media, seeing trends, seeingthat look, if competitors listen
to that, we also look at thecompetitors, what do they do?
You know, because that's marketresearch. It's the best market
research you can do. And I thinkto elevate the use of social
media to the importance as,yeah, maybe as the yield
management system price point Imentioned earlier, especially
(11:50):
with our customer target group,sharpened everybody's mind to
value social media, inparticular Instagram, as one of
their channels, you know,highly.
And what do we see? Peopleinteract, they like to interact.
I mean, again, it's the Gen Z,the millennials, this is the
(12:11):
form of communication. It hasits risks. I hear it loud and
clear from parents like myselfwith a 18 year old daughter, you
know, and I see that, but usedin the correct way with the
right guidelines.
And the marketing team inWarsaw, they created these
guidelines. They're using that.They interact with them. They're
using tools like quizzes andgiveaway quizzes and all that.
(12:34):
So real strong interaction, youknow, with our customer group,
but also as a messagingplatform, hey, look what we do.
But this is probably a commontool many of you. I think what
we really use it more thanothers is a communication,
direct messaging, talking toeach other or talking to
individuals, etcetera, etcetera,really spending the time to talk
(12:57):
to customer. The good oldreception chat in hotels, the
good old reception chat inhospitals, you can never replace
that. I'm probably at odds withsome hotel COOs and all that who
go 110 on TAC. I'm going 90% onTAC.
(13:18):
I mean, course, I embrace it100%, but I will never embrace
TAC at the loss of humaninteraction. I see it more and
more that there are hotels outthere, you don't have a human
and they have their place.Hostels are not in that
environment. So that's very veryimportant to me that the human
touch, the chat, the coffee,hey, let's have a what are you
(13:40):
doing this evening? Let's haveit be this communication, this
chat is really, reallyimportant.
But pre and post stay socialmedia is great to have that
Speaker 3 (13:50):
chat
Speaker 1 (13:50):
as well. So it's a very important element of our
tech stack %.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Do you promote Instagram, for example, as a
main communication channel, likepre stay when you send a
confirmation email to yourguests? Do you say like, have a
question? DM us on Instagram.And then when a guest does
message you, how do you connectthat conversation back to a
(14:16):
reservation ID? Or how do thoseconnect?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
No, we don't, to be perfectly honest. We are not
saying, look, you have to orthis is. I think it's just an it
was an evolution, it justhappened. It's just a natural
thing because of our customergroup. This is the way you
communicate.
You know, I still pick up thephone, but there we go. So it's
just a natural kind of thing.And people are quite happy.
(14:41):
Look, I'm arriving tomorrow inBarcelona, in our hub in Warsaw,
they have all that technologyaround them. They have access to
all the data in every hospitalacross Europe, they are
multilingual, you know.
Of course, we're using thetranslation tools to make it
easier to reply in the guest'slanguage. So it is not
(15:03):
integrated into our reservationsystem. It lives separately, but
it was a natural evolution touse that more and more as a
communication tool rather thanemail, even WhatsApp or even
phone calls.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
You said Instagram is probably the main channel. What
other platforms do you use?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Obviously on the traditional ones like the
Facebooks, you know, andLinkedIn for different purposes,
from a corporate perspective.But Facebook as well, I mean, I
don't want to come across in anyshape or form that I box certain
age groups into one social mediachannel and other age groups in
another. I leave that forsomeone else to analyse. But of
course, you know, the increaseof customers' families as a
(15:50):
customer group in our portfolio,somehow that is more associated
with the Facebook side. So wesee a higher communication,
higher interaction from thatside.
I leave probably the corporatecommunication out a little bit,
but LinkedIn is important. Ofcourse, we use that as a
platform to announce our annualresults, which come out shortly
(16:14):
in the next few weeks. So and itall looking fantastic. That's
great. Of course, we want toshout about that and interact
with our owners or shareholders,but also with the owners of our
properties, which we have greatrelations with because they
believe in hostels as well.
They decide, well, look, here'sthe property, you manage it for
(16:35):
us, you lease it from us, webelieve in it, and all that. So
it's a similar communication onthe LinkedIn side, not on the
quantity as on Instagram, but asimilar communication way or
communication tool or strategy.That's the word I was looking
for communication strategy aswe're using on the Instagram. So
(16:55):
Instagram is by far the more,the most important communication
tool with individuals. And I'mtalking specifically about
individuals, I'm not talkingabout the posts everybody sees,
you know.
I'm talking about behind thescenes, hey look, let's talk.
And occasionally someone says,look, let's take the
conversation offline, I emailyou. It happens, you know, and
(17:17):
then we facilitate this as well.So there's far more in the
background which you don't seeby the fancy little clips we
post, and the fancy littlephotos we post and all that. So
there's far more communicationin the background.
And I find that superinteresting and valuable for us.
But if I may just pick up onsocial media can be a scary for
(17:39):
many hotel or hostel operates, ascary element because people,
dare I say it, they can saywhatever they want, you know,
and quite rightly so. We'reliving in a free countries and
all that. But, and of course, weget criticism. Of course, we're
getting through this technologychannels and all that.
But you have to deal with it inthe right way. I mean, at the
end of the day, it helps us. Andwe integrate that with another
(18:02):
system we installed last yearcalled TrustView, which pulls
out TrustView, pulls out allguest reviews from Google
reviews, from Booking.comreviews. It doesn't look into
Instagram or from Goda reviews,Expedia reviews, brings it all
together into one platform,analyzes it, you know, tell
them, look, your customers arehappy with your location,
(18:25):
they're happy with yourcleanliness, they're happy with
your stuff. But they don't likethe temperature in your room for
whatever reason, and all that.
So it gives us great insightreally down to very detailed
analytics, what the customerappreciates or doesn't
appreciate, and we react onthat. So Trust You is another
kind of piece of tech weinstalled as part of our
(18:48):
platform for growth. It was alittle bit more around fifteen
months ago since we have that inplace. So this integration of
bringing everything together issuper, super important.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
One other topic I'm curious to get your thoughts on,
how are you currently using AIor do you have plans to
incorporate AI into youroperation in the future?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, look, AI, you know, everybody kind of says,
oh, AI, this is it, you know,and all that. So, and of course,
you need to you have to embraceit, but you have to embrace this
in a sensible way. You know, ofcourse, I get emails from
suppliers and say, look, youchat boot and this and reply to
customer reviews using AI andall that. To be honest, I'm not
(19:36):
brave enough yet to switch thattool on. For example, customer
reviews.
I know hotel chains do it. Somedo it. I don't I know some
hostel chains do it. I want tohave my general manager or the
deputy general manager behindevery response. And they looked
at it, that they register thefeedback we get.
(19:57):
One day, if we increase ourportfolio, etc, I might kind of
need to go into, especially inthe customer response area with
AI a little bit more. But I'myet to see a chat boot on AI
which interacts with customersin a satisfactory way from a
hospitality perspective. Thehuman emotion is still something
(20:20):
the robot will not be able toreplace, and probably never
replace. Saying that AI pricepoint, going back to our price
change or yield managementsystem, it's AI based. It is AI
based.
They're using AI technology,internal communication. Again,
another tech element, which alot of hostels or hotels or
(20:43):
other companies maybe not kindof focus too much. How do we
interact with each other? Know,I mean, I have 17 hostels, as I
said, you know, from Athens toEdinburgh, from Berlin to
Madrid. So, I mean, I travel alot, but you know, I can't see
them all the time.
How we interact and how weconduct meetings and using
(21:05):
technology on that. And we arenot particularly clever, but
we're using it to an absolutemaximum, the whole Microsoft
platform, the Teams, theSharePoints, you name it. And
yes, of course, in thebackground, we have AI note
takers for every meeting. Sothese AI these reports are
ready. So there's not someoneafter the meeting, oh, I type up
(21:25):
the notes, I send them out in aminute.
No, no, this is time you talk tocustomer whilst the AI do that.
So I think we're using AI whereI feel or where we feel
comfortable with in ahospitality environment, and it
will grow. Of course, there willbe more and more applications
and we will open up more andmore to that. And we use it in
(21:45):
the commercial element, we useit in the administrational side
AI, and we will continue to usethat absolutely. Between you and
me, and I hear a lot of peoplewho are listening to this
podcast disagreeing with me, I'mnot 100% convinced that it is
right for the human interaction,for example, to responding to
(22:06):
reviews.
I'm yet to be convinced thatthat's the right thing. Because
suddenly it becomes allautomated. And I read only
statistics. I want to read thatPeter from London had a problem
that his coffee was cold. And Idon't want an AI to reply,
sorry, next time it will bebetter.
I want to know about that, aboutPeter. And I may want to pick up
(22:27):
the phone to Peter and say,look, we got it wrong, you know,
come back, picks coffees on meor something like that. So
that's important. So AI has itsplace, absolutely, more and
more. But I think it needs to beused wisely, especially in the
hospitality environment.
Don't overstretch it yet. If I'ma business traveler, I class
myself as a business traveler,but I'm staying in our great
(22:48):
hostels, and I love it. But as abusiness traveler, you want a
quick check-in, you want a quickbite to eat, you may want a
glass of wine or soda in theevening, and you want to go to
bed. But this is only oneelement of our target group. We,
hostels, are providing socialspaces.
This is what we do. You know,people not checking into a
(23:10):
hospital to lay in their bed 20fourseven and all that. They
have a good night's sleep, theycome to the lounge, to the roof
terrace, which we have plenty ofin many locations, or they go
into the bar area. And they sittogether and have a chat. If I
may, Adrian, one short story.
My career was corporatehospitality. I know nothing else
(23:32):
up to recently. So I grew up inthe Hilton world, the Marriott
world. I worked in conferencecenters, and I loved it.
Absolutely, there's nothingwrong with it.
And I love to stay in greatbrands and all that. But when I
started two years ago, is when Itook over that role as COO at
Safe Stay Hostels, first of all,my colleague in the hotels, I
said, what's wrong with you? ButI said, man, look, this is the
(23:55):
fun side of hospitality. I'mgoing over there and it's great.
And one situation is only oneminute, it really sticks in my
mind for probably forever.
So my first trip to visit ahospital was Barcelona and our
property at Passe De Gracia,staying in the middle of town
opposite the BlenderingOriental. So I always said,
look, here you have one for £20a bet, over there you have one
(24:18):
for 2,000, Your choice, samelocation. I got up at 07:30 into
the breakfast room into the bararea. I was the only one because
everybody was still asleep,which is not unusual in
hospitals at 07:30. Sittingthere, having a coffee on my
own, of course, as you do openyour laptop or looked at my
telephone.
And someone else came throughthe door, the second person in
(24:40):
the whole room, tables empty,everything. And this, it was a
young lady. So she came, sit onmy table.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
I said, oh, is this table? She said,
Speaker 1 (24:50):
is the table for you?
Speaker 3 (24:50):
I said, yeah. Sure. Take a seat. I said, oh, what
are
Speaker 1 (24:53):
you doing today? Where are you from? And I said,
oh my god. Someone talks to me,you know, at breakfast, which is
probably not happening in acorporate hotel. You know,
someone talked to me unpromptedand we had a great chat.
So I said like, look, I juststarted as CEO at SafeStay, and
I got fantastic insight,obviously, But you know, that
(25:14):
was the eureka moment for me,you know. Oh my god, people talk
to each other. And this isexactly what is hosteling all
about. Talk to each other, meetfellow guests, learn about the
destination, and be inspiredwhere you travel. People crave
for that, you know.
We talked about Instagram andsocial media a long time. And of
(25:35):
course, you can use your mobilephone to use as a key card. We
installed that not too long as atest pilot up in our Edinburgh
property and all that. We haveall that. Of course, you can
check-in online, you can bypassthe reception and all that,
absolutely.
But hostile environment is thisinteraction. And this is
(25:56):
something which is refreshing,which is fantastic in a tech
dominated world that peoplestill want to talk to each
other. Tech is super important,and we embrace it 100%. We
installed training onlinesystems, Cloudbed AI driven rate
management, you name it, wetouched on some of them earlier,
(26:18):
and we will continue to do so.But one thing we will never lose
a safe stay is the hostlingcustomer interaction and
bringing people together.
That is what hostels do,bringing people together.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
That's great. I think that's the perfect topic to end
on. Thank you so much Peter fortaking the time. Really great
chatting with you. I'll open itup to you if you have any final
thoughts or anything else youwant to add.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Tech is brought at full center of what we do or
supports us what we do. And itwill obviously never go away. If
anything, it will increase inimportance to us, of course. And
our platform for growth hassuper high demands on the tech
stack, which we installed andwill install going forward. But
(27:04):
repeating what I just said aminute ago, tech will never
replace the human interactionand we should never lose sight
of that.
We need to use tech to bring ustogether and still have a beer
or coffee together and have achat when we travel and exchange
information face to face. That'simportant.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well, thanks so much, Peter.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Fantastic. Look, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
That's all for today's episode. Thanks for
listening to Hotel Tech Insiderproduced by hoteltechreport.com.
Our goal with this podcast is toshow you how the best in the
business are leveragingtechnology to grow their
properties and outperform theconcept by using innovative
digital tools and strategies. Iencourage all our listeners to
go try at least one of thesestrategies or tools that you
(27:51):
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time, sodon't wait until tomorrow to try
something new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
(28:15):
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
And I'm probably at odds with some hotel COOs and
all that who go 110% on TAG. I'mgoing 90% on TAG. I mean, of
course, I embrace a %, but Iwill never embrace tech at the
loss of human interaction.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Today, we speak with Peter Zilke, the COO of SafeStay
Hostels. SafeStay operates 17hostels throughout Europe and
welcomes a wide range of guests,including backpackers, families,
and business travelers. We talkabout how SafeStay uses social
media not only as a marketingchannel, but also as a critical
(00:49):
communication platform to chatwith guests pre and post
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Peter, great to have you on the podcast. To get
started, I would love to do aquick intro if you could tell me
about your current role and abit about your company.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Sure. Look, I mean, first of all, thank you very
much for inviting me to thepodcast. It's great to be here
and talking to you. Yeah, myname is Peter Silke. I'm the COO
of SafeStay PLC.
SafeStay PLC is a London basedcompany. We are listed on the
AIM market on the London StockExchange. And SafeStay operates
(01:28):
a hostel and hotel brand calledSafeStay. So SafeStay Hostels
and Hotels, we operate 17hostels and hotels across Europe
in 15 major locations and over10 countries from Greece to
Scotland and from Portugal toPoland and anywhere in between.
(01:49):
So it's a quite large varietywhat we do.
Yeah, it's a typical hostelexperience. We offer value
travel for the backpackers, butalso for the families and groups
and more and more, well, moreand more families, but also the
business travelers. Because whatwe do as well is not the pure
hostel experience. They're alsoprivate hotel type en suite
(02:13):
bedrooms we have in all of ourhostels. So quite a mixed
offering from the accommodationside of things.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Tell me a little bit about the guest experience. What
makes your properties differentthan that stereotype that comes
to mind?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Look, mean, the stereotype you just mentioned,
we have that as welloccasionally. Let's not beat
around the bush there. Thathappens. And that's fine as long
as it's kind of enough. We areoffering a fun environment.
I mean, hostels is all aboutcommunity, meeting fellow
travelers, engaging with people,and finding and exploring new
destinations. This is what safestay is all about. Being able or
(02:53):
that travelers are able to bookat an affordable price, a clean,
upmarket accommodation in ashared bedroom, you know, in a
bunk bed with clean linen, whichis changed every time a new
customer arrives, of course, butalso with great communal spaces.
(03:15):
And I think touching on what youmentioned earlier, what makes
the difference between hostelsin the wider, the more generic
hotel accommodation side ofthings. It's really just
communal space to create thehostel vibe.
And yes, of course, it's thecollege backpacker. Of course,
it's the people who come onlyhome at two in the morning and
maybe had half a pint of beertoo many. It happens, of course
(03:37):
it does. But it's also thefamily with two kids and the
parents, let's say, who book afour bedroom dorm, and in
Central London, in the heart ofBarcelona, or two minutes away
from the Grand Place inBrussels, the accommodation
element of that trip is afraction for this family
(03:58):
compared to two hotel rooms at abranded hotel in the same
location. So that is really thefundamental difference what we
offer.
This community spirit, this kindof offering affordable
accommodation to family groups,backpackers. And I see it more
and more business people,travelers like myself sitting
(04:18):
with their laptop in thecommunal space, and also
enjoying to talk to other fellowtravelers when we are not on our
laptops and doing podcasts, forexample. So it is a very
refreshing new, not new, but arefreshing way of accommodation
business. We really, reallybelieve that.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
What's your average length of stay? Do you see
people staying for weeks at atime?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
We see that, absolutely. Look, it's an
important segment of ourbusiness. You know, the average
length of stay hover around twonights if we take the average
across the board. Of course, ourcore traveler is the backpacker,
as we said this earlier. Youknow, the millennials, the Gen
Zs of this world, you know, whodo the tour from North to South
(05:04):
Of Europe, 2 Days here, threedays there, one night there.
So there's our core customer, ofcourse, together with groups, a
school group from Spainexploring London for three, four
days and all that. But itaveraged out around two days we
have there. So which comesactually to one point, if I may
add on this, is the transactionvalue unit or the quantity of
(05:27):
transaction checking in checkingout and all that is quite high
in hospitals compared to mediumsized hotels.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Tell me about how you use technology at your
properties.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah look, I mean I guess we are always on the
silver plate because ourcustomer group is so tech savvy.
They are usually a little bityounger than myself, and
obviously grown up with thesocial medias of this world with
kind of exposed to technologyfrom their school days, and so
on. So our customer, our corecustomer is very tech savvy. And
(06:04):
we obviously need to supply theenvironment for them to interact
with us. And we need to interactwith them using tech.
So it's absolutely important.But also to provide good Wi Fi,
etc. So they can use their owntech, of course. So interaction
between our customer and us, orus with the customer, you know,
(06:27):
is massively important. Socialmedia is a super important tech
element to us.
It's probably more seen as alittle bit of a private add on
and a marketing tool. And ofcourse, it is for many
companies, but it's a massivelyimportant part of our tech stack
component, where we interact,communicate with our target
(06:48):
group, with our customer, onscale with messages we want them
to know, But also on a one toone, hey, I'm coming next week,
how does that work? That happenson Instagram and then all the
other areas. So social media ismassive, massively important to
us. But the core element, how weinteract is, of course, our
(07:10):
property management system,know.
And that's not unique to hosthostels. Hotels all have
property management systems. ButI mean, that this property
management system allows thequantity of transactions in
checkout. A 500 bet hostel is ahigh number of check ins and a
high number of checkouts everyday. Well, 500 at a maximum.
(07:33):
So whilst a medium sized hotel,let's say 150 to 100 bets, the
numbers of check-in checkoutsare lower the same with
bookings, etc. So the quantityof transactions is super super
high and the super importantelement that the PMS, the
property management system, candeliver. And the communication
through that system, you know,that we can interact and
(07:56):
communicate with them is veryimportant to us. We switched
over to a new propertymanagement system, well, only
two months ago, actually. Andthat's the reason why I have a
lot of grey hairs and all that.
But look, it's always achallenging situation. But the
provider we chosen, a companycalled Cloudbad, which is well
known in the industry,absolutely fantastic. I mean, a
(08:21):
transition of 17 properties in10 different countries with 10
different or more legalrequirements on reporting, on
registration, on fiscalelements, taxation and etc, city
tax and all that. So yeah, itwas a challenge to transition 17
(08:41):
properties within a period oftwo weeks. So it wasn't easy and
transferring all the data aswell.
But look, the team wasfantastic. The team from
SafeState, the project teamreally pulled out all the stops,
and the team from Cloudbatchreally added a lot of resources
to it and made it happen, whichis fantastic. And the reason why
(09:01):
the Cloudbets has elements toit, it has one element which
called whistle, for example,which allows us to communicate
with the customer, you know,direct interaction messaging and
all that. And in this day andage, you know, I mean, we have
as a combined group, we have4,000 beds. It's a high
occupancy environment.
(09:22):
So we last year, we finishedwith just around the 80%
occupancy. You see the volume ofthe guests we have. We provided
a million overnight stays lastyear. So to streamline the
communication between thecustomer and us was the core
element, which was the task andthe final decision to go with
(09:44):
Cloudbeds as a propertymanagement system. Because they
have the platform using AI,using translations.
If a guest from Asia comes andmaybe doesn't speak Greek,
although all our staff speakEnglish, but if there is a
barrier, elements like that arevery, very important to us. And
(10:04):
that reduces the time, thefrustration for customers, but
also for our staff. So techplays a massive, massive
important role in this customersatisfaction delivery. I really
believe that.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
I wanna go back to what you mentioned about social
media. I mean, I've probablydone 50 of these interviews and
I don't think anyone hasmentioned social media as being
considered part of their techstack. So talk to me about how
you use social. And do you havea vendor or an agency that's
managing it for you? How doesthe logistics work there?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I wouldn't say we use it in any super clever way
differently than the individualsocial media channel intended it
to be used. But we regarded asan important tech element in our
business. And I think this initself highlights the importance
to all our team members. Itouched on that we opened a
(11:03):
commercial office in Warsaw ACouple Of Years ago. Our sales,
our marketing, our HR, ourrevenue management systems all
in one central hub, as we callit, based in Warsaw.
So it's a lot of going forwardand backwards between our two
head offices in Warsaw andLondon, but it works fantastic.
And there we have two people whodo nothing but looking at social
(11:27):
media, seeing trends, seeingthat look, if competitors listen
to that, we also look at thecompetitors, what do they do?
You know, because that's marketresearch. It's the best market
research you can do. And I thinkto elevate the use of social
media to the importance as,yeah, maybe as the yield
management system price point Imentioned earlier, especially
(11:50):
with our customer target group,sharpened everybody's mind to
value social media, inparticular Instagram, as one of
their channels, you know,highly.
And what do we see? Peopleinteract, they like to interact.
I mean, again, it's the Gen Z,the millennials, this is the
(12:11):
form of communication. It hasits risks. I hear it loud and
clear from parents like myselfwith a 18 year old daughter, you
know, and I see that, but usedin the correct way with the
right guidelines.
And the marketing team inWarsaw, they created these
guidelines. They're using that.They interact with them. They're
using tools like quizzes andgiveaway quizzes and all that.
(12:34):
So real strong interaction, youknow, with our customer group,
but also as a messagingplatform, hey, look what we do.
But this is probably a commontool many of you. I think what
we really use it more thanothers is a communication,
direct messaging, talking toeach other or talking to
individuals, etcetera, etcetera,really spending the time to talk
(12:57):
to customer. The good oldreception chat in hotels, the
good old reception chat inhospitals, you can never replace
that. I'm probably at odds withsome hotel COOs and all that who
go 110 on TAC. I'm going 90% onTAC.
(13:18):
I mean, course, I embrace it100%, but I will never embrace
TAC at the loss of humaninteraction. I see it more and
more that there are hotels outthere, you don't have a human
and they have their place.Hostels are not in that
environment. So that's very veryimportant to me that the human
touch, the chat, the coffee,hey, let's have a what are you
(13:40):
doing this evening? Let's haveit be this communication, this
chat is really, reallyimportant.
But pre and post stay socialmedia is great to have that
Speaker 3 (13:50):
chat
Speaker 1 (13:50):
as well. So it's a very important element of our
tech stack %.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Do you promote Instagram, for example, as a
main communication channel, likepre stay when you send a
confirmation email to yourguests? Do you say like, have a
question? DM us on Instagram.And then when a guest does
message you, how do you connectthat conversation back to a
(14:16):
reservation ID? Or how do thoseconnect?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
No, we don't, to be perfectly honest. We are not
saying, look, you have to orthis is. I think it's just an it
was an evolution, it justhappened. It's just a natural
thing because of our customergroup. This is the way you
communicate.
You know, I still pick up thephone, but there we go. So it's
just a natural kind of thing.And people are quite happy.
(14:41):
Look, I'm arriving tomorrow inBarcelona, in our hub in Warsaw,
they have all that technologyaround them. They have access to
all the data in every hospitalacross Europe, they are
multilingual, you know.
Of course, we're using thetranslation tools to make it
easier to reply in the guest'slanguage. So it is not
(15:03):
integrated into our reservationsystem. It lives separately, but
it was a natural evolution touse that more and more as a
communication tool rather thanemail, even WhatsApp or even
phone calls.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
You said Instagram is probably the main channel. What
other platforms do you use?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Obviously on the traditional ones like the
Facebooks, you know, andLinkedIn for different purposes,
from a corporate perspective.But Facebook as well, I mean, I
don't want to come across in anyshape or form that I box certain
age groups into one social mediachannel and other age groups in
another. I leave that forsomeone else to analyse. But of
course, you know, the increaseof customers' families as a
(15:50):
customer group in our portfolio,somehow that is more associated
with the Facebook side. So wesee a higher communication,
higher interaction from thatside.
I leave probably the corporatecommunication out a little bit,
but LinkedIn is important. Ofcourse, we use that as a
platform to announce our annualresults, which come out shortly
(16:14):
in the next few weeks. So and itall looking fantastic. That's
great. Of course, we want toshout about that and interact
with our owners or shareholders,but also with the owners of our
properties, which we have greatrelations with because they
believe in hostels as well.
They decide, well, look, here'sthe property, you manage it for
(16:35):
us, you lease it from us, webelieve in it, and all that. So
it's a similar communication onthe LinkedIn side, not on the
quantity as on Instagram, but asimilar communication way or
communication tool or strategy.That's the word I was looking
for communication strategy aswe're using on the Instagram. So
(16:55):
Instagram is by far the more,the most important communication
tool with individuals. And I'mtalking specifically about
individuals, I'm not talkingabout the posts everybody sees,
you know.
I'm talking about behind thescenes, hey look, let's talk.
And occasionally someone says,look, let's take the
conversation offline, I emailyou. It happens, you know, and
(17:17):
then we facilitate this as well.So there's far more in the
background which you don't seeby the fancy little clips we
post, and the fancy littlephotos we post and all that. So
there's far more communicationin the background.
And I find that superinteresting and valuable for us.
But if I may just pick up onsocial media can be a scary for
(17:39):
many hotel or hostel operates, ascary element because people,
dare I say it, they can saywhatever they want, you know,
and quite rightly so. We'reliving in a free countries and
all that. But, and of course, weget criticism. Of course, we're
getting through this technologychannels and all that.
But you have to deal with it inthe right way. I mean, at the
end of the day, it helps us. Andwe integrate that with another
(18:02):
system we installed last yearcalled TrustView, which pulls
out TrustView, pulls out allguest reviews from Google
reviews, from Booking.comreviews. It doesn't look into
Instagram or from Goda reviews,Expedia reviews, brings it all
together into one platform,analyzes it, you know, tell
them, look, your customers arehappy with your location,
(18:25):
they're happy with yourcleanliness, they're happy with
your stuff. But they don't likethe temperature in your room for
whatever reason, and all that.
So it gives us great insightreally down to very detailed
analytics, what the customerappreciates or doesn't
appreciate, and we react onthat. So Trust You is another
kind of piece of tech weinstalled as part of our
(18:48):
platform for growth. It was alittle bit more around fifteen
months ago since we have that inplace. So this integration of
bringing everything together issuper, super important.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
One other topic I'm curious to get your thoughts on,
how are you currently using AIor do you have plans to
incorporate AI into youroperation in the future?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, look, AI, you know, everybody kind of says,
oh, AI, this is it, you know,and all that. So, and of course,
you need to you have to embraceit, but you have to embrace this
in a sensible way. You know, ofcourse, I get emails from
suppliers and say, look, youchat boot and this and reply to
customer reviews using AI andall that. To be honest, I'm not
(19:36):
brave enough yet to switch thattool on. For example, customer
reviews.
I know hotel chains do it. Somedo it. I don't I know some
hostel chains do it. I want tohave my general manager or the
deputy general manager behindevery response. And they looked
at it, that they register thefeedback we get.
(19:57):
One day, if we increase ourportfolio, etc, I might kind of
need to go into, especially inthe customer response area with
AI a little bit more. But I'myet to see a chat boot on AI
which interacts with customersin a satisfactory way from a
hospitality perspective. Thehuman emotion is still something
(20:20):
the robot will not be able toreplace, and probably never
replace. Saying that AI pricepoint, going back to our price
change or yield managementsystem, it's AI based. It is AI
based.
They're using AI technology,internal communication. Again,
another tech element, which alot of hostels or hotels or
(20:43):
other companies maybe not kindof focus too much. How do we
interact with each other? Know,I mean, I have 17 hostels, as I
said, you know, from Athens toEdinburgh, from Berlin to
Madrid. So, I mean, I travel alot, but you know, I can't see
them all the time.
How we interact and how weconduct meetings and using
(21:05):
technology on that. And we arenot particularly clever, but
we're using it to an absolutemaximum, the whole Microsoft
platform, the Teams, theSharePoints, you name it. And
yes, of course, in thebackground, we have AI note
takers for every meeting. Sothese AI these reports are
ready. So there's not someoneafter the meeting, oh, I type up
(21:25):
the notes, I send them out in aminute.
No, no, this is time you talk tocustomer whilst the AI do that.
So I think we're using AI whereI feel or where we feel
comfortable with in ahospitality environment, and it
will grow. Of course, there willbe more and more applications
and we will open up more andmore to that. And we use it in
(21:45):
the commercial element, we useit in the administrational side
AI, and we will continue to usethat absolutely. Between you and
me, and I hear a lot of peoplewho are listening to this
podcast disagreeing with me, I'mnot 100% convinced that it is
right for the human interaction,for example, to responding to
(22:06):
reviews.
I'm yet to be convinced thatthat's the right thing. Because
suddenly it becomes allautomated. And I read only
statistics. I want to read thatPeter from London had a problem
that his coffee was cold. And Idon't want an AI to reply,
sorry, next time it will bebetter.
I want to know about that, aboutPeter. And I may want to pick up
(22:27):
the phone to Peter and say,look, we got it wrong, you know,
come back, picks coffees on meor something like that. So
that's important. So AI has itsplace, absolutely, more and
more. But I think it needs to beused wisely, especially in the
hospitality environment.
Don't overstretch it yet. If I'ma business traveler, I class
myself as a business traveler,but I'm staying in our great
(22:48):
hostels, and I love it. But as abusiness traveler, you want a
quick check-in, you want a quickbite to eat, you may want a
glass of wine or soda in theevening, and you want to go to
bed. But this is only oneelement of our target group. We,
hostels, are providing socialspaces.
This is what we do. You know,people not checking into a
(23:10):
hospital to lay in their bed 20fourseven and all that. They
have a good night's sleep, theycome to the lounge, to the roof
terrace, which we have plenty ofin many locations, or they go
into the bar area. And they sittogether and have a chat. If I
may, Adrian, one short story.
My career was corporatehospitality. I know nothing else
(23:32):
up to recently. So I grew up inthe Hilton world, the Marriott
world. I worked in conferencecenters, and I loved it.
Absolutely, there's nothingwrong with it.
And I love to stay in greatbrands and all that. But when I
started two years ago, is when Itook over that role as COO at
Safe Stay Hostels, first of all,my colleague in the hotels, I
said, what's wrong with you? ButI said, man, look, this is the
(23:55):
fun side of hospitality. I'mgoing over there and it's great.
And one situation is only oneminute, it really sticks in my
mind for probably forever.
So my first trip to visit ahospital was Barcelona and our
property at Passe De Gracia,staying in the middle of town
opposite the BlenderingOriental. So I always said,
look, here you have one for £20a bet, over there you have one
(24:18):
for 2,000, Your choice, samelocation. I got up at 07:30 into
the breakfast room into the bararea. I was the only one because
everybody was still asleep,which is not unusual in
hospitals at 07:30. Sittingthere, having a coffee on my
own, of course, as you do openyour laptop or looked at my
telephone.
And someone else came throughthe door, the second person in
(24:40):
the whole room, tables empty,everything. And this, it was a
young lady. So she came, sit onmy table.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
I said, oh, is this table? She said,
Speaker 1 (24:50):
is the table for you?
Speaker 3 (24:50):
I said, yeah. Sure. Take a seat. I said, oh, what
are
Speaker 1 (24:53):
you doing today? Where are you from? And I said,
oh my god. Someone talks to me,you know, at breakfast, which is
probably not happening in acorporate hotel. You know,
someone talked to me unpromptedand we had a great chat.
So I said like, look, I juststarted as CEO at SafeStay, and
I got fantastic insight,obviously, But you know, that
(25:14):
was the eureka moment for me,you know. Oh my god, people talk
to each other. And this isexactly what is hosteling all
about. Talk to each other, meetfellow guests, learn about the
destination, and be inspiredwhere you travel. People crave
for that, you know.
We talked about Instagram andsocial media a long time. And of
(25:35):
course, you can use your mobilephone to use as a key card. We
installed that not too long as atest pilot up in our Edinburgh
property and all that. We haveall that. Of course, you can
check-in online, you can bypassthe reception and all that,
absolutely.
But hostile environment is thisinteraction. And this is
(25:56):
something which is refreshing,which is fantastic in a tech
dominated world that peoplestill want to talk to each
other. Tech is super important,and we embrace it 100%. We
installed training onlinesystems, Cloudbed AI driven rate
management, you name it, wetouched on some of them earlier,
(26:18):
and we will continue to do so.But one thing we will never lose
a safe stay is the hostlingcustomer interaction and
bringing people together.
That is what hostels do,bringing people together.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
That's great. I think that's the perfect topic to end
on. Thank you so much Peter fortaking the time. Really great
chatting with you. I'll open itup to you if you have any final
thoughts or anything else youwant to add.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Tech is brought at full center of what we do or
supports us what we do. And itwill obviously never go away. If
anything, it will increase inimportance to us, of course. And
our platform for growth hassuper high demands on the tech
stack, which we installed andwill install going forward. But
(27:04):
repeating what I just said aminute ago, tech will never
replace the human interactionand we should never lose sight
of that.
We need to use tech to bring ustogether and still have a beer
or coffee together and have achat when we travel and exchange
information face to face. That'simportant.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well, thanks so much, Peter.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Fantastic. Look, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
That's all for today's episode. Thanks for
listening to Hotel Tech Insiderproduced by hoteltechreport.com.
Our goal with this podcast is toshow you how the best in the
business are leveragingtechnology to grow their
properties and outperform theconcept by using innovative
digital tools and strategies. Iencourage all our listeners to
go try at least one of thesestrategies or tools that you
(27:51):
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time, sodon't wait until tomorrow to try
something new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
(28:15):
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
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