Riga Hostel Blog

Back again

2007-02-08T18:09:00.000+02:00

Hi, after a long time here you have a new post. The life in the hostel keeps going on as usual, people comming and people going, some problems and some good news.
It was summer when I posted for last time, it was really hot in the hostel and Riga, with thermomenter near 30º C, now, it´s 14 Pm and we have -12º. Somehow, I like this changes, I like to have a hot summer, when we can enjoy the sea and the beach and after this cold winters with snow, frozen rivers and lakes and all this stuff.
The summer in the hostel was good, many people as expected and longer than the previous year. The same with the fall season. More people and during a longer period. The winter season, which started after Christmas is being quiet but we are starting to see the begining of the spring comming earlier.
I have to comment as well, the new staff we have. Some of our girls who worked during last year has left the hostel and the country, looking after new experiences and better salaries, but they will be back soon, don't worry. As a result of this vacances we have found some new staff which includes an australian guy lost in Latvia in the midle of the winter, and a Latvian nice girls who is the greatest Gun's and Roses fan I've ever seen (and listen).
Finally, we have to introduce you our new neighbours: Restaurant Moscow. Situated at the entrance of the building, this is small restaurant which will feed some of us many times. As it is closed yet I can't make any comment about the food they serve.
Ok, that's all for today, if you want to know something else, post a comment or write us a mail.
See you soon
Riga Hostel

Summer

2006-07-11T17:29:00.000+03:00

Joder!!, It's so warm here in Riga, it's imposible to work. The only thing I'm thinking is to go to beach as soon as possible. Like we did last saturday. Was a nice experience, barbecue, sun, beach and fun.
Next weekend once again.
I will publish pictures soon

Renovation

2006-05-31T20:11:00.000+03:00

So with the summer arrives the toursits and with tourists the money, and with the money the work. From tomorrow we are opening 8 new rooms in our baby hostel
http://www.central-hostel.com

After this we'll start with the works here. We have to make one room with showers, as required by many comments and guests, and make two more small rooms, probably one more double and one with 3 or 4 beds. So, I hope for July we'll have everything ready.

One year

2006-05-31T19:48:00.000+03:00

Yes, exactly one year ago we were oficially opening a this hostel. We had wonderful people then and a big party to celebrate. Like we had yesterday, has been a long time since the last big party and we have to do this more often, everybody likes this.
I will publish some pictures soon

During this year there have been many things, but what is really hard is to see how the hostel becames old. Just one year ago everything was new and clean, white and shiny, now the things start to break, make noises and look dirty, which means that we have to start to replace this things which usually are made to have a long life.
Also this is hard because we still haven't finished the hostel, we have to make some more showers and change one room, and then you see how money disapear very fast.
Anyway, we are in the begining of the high season and this means that we have some more money that we had during winter, so we can spend it.

World Ice Hockey championship. Riga, May 2006.

2006-05-10T13:26:00.000+03:00

We were expecting this event since long time ago, a lot of people and $$money$$. Finally it's being a little bit disappointing, but anyway the situation is not bad. We have had and we are having some hockey fans in our hostel, and others, most of them, people who simply doesn't care about this sport.

Anyway is beautiful to see Riga full of colours and people, and if you want to came and enjoy it, you have time until 21st May, of course place to sleep in Riga Hostel.

A little bit of history (II)

2006-05-02T16:39:00.000+03:00

After the official opening there were still many thing to do. And was only after summer when we finished almost everything. We were new in this job, so sometimes there was a bit of confusion. Something were forgotten, some we didn't know, others difficult, but all the problems became nothing with the feeling of seeing the people in the hostel having a good time.

The first month finished good, we had a 70% of beds sold and people was writing good comments about the hostel. Of course, there was also some who didn't like, but that is normal.
This month we had also many work. We were working 24/7 4 persons and one cleaning woman. With shifts of 12 hours during 7 days and one month we were really stressed and tired.
With this situation and after the first month we decided to find one more person to help us in the hostel. First we took one young girl, who was giving flyers for the hostel, to help us in the evenings, but this result to be not the right decision. She was good, but too young and we couldn't trust her. Then, after some interviews, we found Edite, an energetic latvian girl with a lot of enthusiasm for this work. She really did a good job here but she could work only one month.

The summer was going good, the hostel was full and we liked the job. We meet many new people and made a lot of new friends.
For mid august, we finished our last room. It's in the top floor and when we rented the place was completely empty. The work here was difficult, there was some technic hard work to do and in this country is not easy to find good people for this kind of work.

Finally, the summer was 2 months long, July and August. On September, the people dicressed a lot and we were only in a half percent of beds sold. Anyway this is enough, but this was the begining of the scary winter that we were expecting since the beginning of the summer.
With the end of the summer, we also observed a change in the kind of visitors. The usual summer tourist, was changed by a weekender with more interest in have fun that in visiting new places. We also had the great surprise of the Erasmus students. From all the countries and from all nationalities, we were welcoming gusts during all winter. Groups of students, usually more than 5, who came for the weekend to enjoy Riga, Tallin and Vilnius.

The winter was long, 5 months and very quiet, but we survived, and anyway the ambient in the hostel is better with less people, you can offer more personal care and people fels more like visiting a home. Also we were living there, which give you more time to enjoy.

And this is the end of our history, the present, which will became history, you will can read it here.

Riga Hostel

A little bit of history

2006-05-01T16:22:00.000+03:00

Riga Hostel was phisically born during May 2005 but the idea came long time before.
On summer 2004, 3 latvian girls (Gunta, Kristine and Inga) decided to spend their holiday in a
workcamp in Serbia. In that travel and during the stay in a Budapest hostel, Kristine, a chaotic girl with many ideas, view the posibility of make something like this in their own city: Riga. On the same time, Gunta, a vocational busniess woman, saw the realistic part of the idea, that part which Kristine couldn't see, and with the union of this 2 minds the firsts steps for Riga Hostel were already done.
Some days later, in Serbia, in the small city of Sremski Karlovci, one spanish guy was arriving to what was going to be his third
workcamp, there he was going to meet many people and many good friends for the rest of his life, but more important than this, he met a latvian girl, Kristine, who was going to be responsible of giving a wild turn to his life.
Some months later, after a very good experience in Serbia, Juan went to visit Kristine for two weeks in Riga. Those two weeks became three months that saw the first search for hostel places in Riga and the opening of the first version of
Riga Hostel web page (October 31st), when there was still nothing to publish, but anyway we were very happy of having a web page.
After Christmas, the Riga Hostel company, was oficially registered and on february we found what seemed to be the right place for the hostel. After long conversations with the owner, two months later, we signed a first contract that for us was like getting the hostel, but that was not true. Two weeks later the we lose all our hope when the second owner of the house didn't accept the idea of making a hostel, his idea was to have one embassy or something with more level than a group of young and cheap travelers. (4 months later, we saw how this place became a hostel just 50 m. away from our).

After this moment of confussion we started our research again, the work was not difficult, in Riga old town there were many places to rent which could be good hostel locations but, the problem was with the owners. After more or less 30 calls, almost nobody gave positive answers and the people who showed interest resulted to be not very trustful or simply stupid.

Finally, one misterious call from one agent, gave us a place where everything was ok. The house was located inside old town, completly new inside and outside and space enaugh for a lot of beds and diferent confirgurations for rooms. But it was not perfect, it had a vertical estructure, which made the hostel less lively, small place for common room and a lot of stairs to climb, but was already may and we couldn't wait more. So finally, when owner said yes, we were more than happy.

Now was the moment to work.
We needed to finish some things in the hostel and of course buy beds, many beds. There were some showers left, there was no kitchen and one room was completly empty. With the support of
Dzintras Cirules Arhitektu Birojs, we started the hard works in kitchen, toilets and showers. On the same time we found the money to pay a big part of the total spenses. Also we bought many things until complete everything to make one empty house a good and nice place to live. We were lucky to have one of the room ready to use, with bed included, which let us give a good welcome to our first guest on 19th May. Christiano, a brazilian guy who was living in Barcelona and travelling across europe. He stayed 3 nights with us and payed our first Lats. The good feeling of the moment after being thinking about this during months and after all the problems we left behind, make us the most happy people in Riga.
During the next days we were finishing rooms and setting up the hostel in may internet bookings sites, which sent us the first bookings for the summer and following weeks. Everything was going perfect.
Of course, we also had problems, with the work, with the money and with the place. We discovered things which we didn't think before. Like our neighbours, Foxy lounge and Pupu lounge, one not very nice and second not very quiet. This gave us a little bit of disapointment, but it disapear along with the people who was arriving.

Then, June 1st, was the day of the oficial opening, all rooms were more or less finished, all the 62 beds were made, the kitchen was ready, all the bathrooms, matresses, pilows and blankets, glasses, plates, forks, knifes and spoons, chairs, tables, internet and telephone, tv, books, guides, maps, free coffee and tea, workers and loads of ilusion and energy.

To be continued...

Riga Hostel has blog

2006-05-01T14:15:00.000+03:00

Hello friends

Following the worldwide tendency of having blog and because the hours at reception are very long, Riga Hostel, has decide to make one.
Here you'll find hostel's daylife written from a personal point of view, to give you the opportunity to understand how this hostel is going on from the other side of the desk.

We welcome all your comments, because that is the best way to improve our service for you and next visitors, so please, don't be afraid to be critical with us.