Hostels in Bucharest attract mostly foreign tourists

Hostels in Bucharest report businesses with profit margins of 25% even during the crisis, on a tourism market characterized by dramatically lower demand for hotels, compared to the last year, while hotel revenues decreased by over 30% in the first part of the year.

In the first part of the year, the occupancy in hostels exceeded 60%. The main guests, approximately 90% were foreign tourists on vacation.

Ovidiu Pungan, owner of Alex Villa hostel in Bucharest, stated that EUR 100,000 have been invested to expand the accommodation capacity in Alex Villa hostel. Therefore, the unit was closed for 5 months. The owner plans to develop the accommodation capacity up to 50 bed places in the future, through own financial sources. At present, the unit, which started to operate as hostel since 2005, benefits of 28 bed places in seven rooms.

Approximately 80% of the accommodated guests at Alex Villa were foreigners, especially French tourists, who spent one up to five nights.

The unit reported an occupancy rate of only 60% this summer after re-opening. The owner justifies this through the lack of promotion during the construction works. In 2008, the unit collected approximately EUR 16,000, out of which EUR 4,900 represented the gross profit, according to the Ministry of Finances. 

Veronica Dragoiu, owner of Friends Hostel Bucharest, with 22 bed places, stated that 90% of the unit’s guests are foreign tourists. The tariff ranges between EUR 10 and 14 per night.

Miorita Hostel, located on Lipscani street, which operates with 6 rooms 3 star classified, attracted mainly foreign tourists, the ratio being 9 to 1 Romanian tourist, according to hostel’s representatives.

Ildiko Matyas, President of the hostels association on the Romanian market, Youth Hostel Romania, YHR, stated that the number of Romanian tourists accommodated in hostels has not registered significant fall compared to the hotels in the capital during the first six months of this year.

Matyas considers hostels are best represented in cities such as Sibiu, Sighisoara, Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest.

Last year there were 54 bed places in hostels in Bucharest and 1,672 bed places in the country, according to the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics.

Sursa: Ziarul Financiar [05.10.2009]