Caves turned into boutique hostel experience

 

From fancy tents in the desert to treehouses. Hostels and hotels don’t stop surprising travelers with out-of-the-box experiences. In this interview, we bring to you one of such places. Caveland is a unique hostel where guests sleep in boutique caves on the beautiful Greek island Santorini.

Veronika, its owner, shares with us: 

→ The story behind Caveland hostel

→ Two key ingredients of serving unique hostel experience 

→ What’s her favorite thing about working in the hostel industry and

→ What’s their experience with FrontDesk Master

– How did you get into the hostel industry? What were the beginnings of Caveland?

– When I finished university, I moved to Shanghai to China, and I worked for a travel agency there, and later on, I opened a small business. 

I worked with students and young people, graduates coming for school/work exchange, like an internship. So I was working with the market of young people. 

At some point, I met my husband (not in China), and he was excited about one particular property, which was a former winery. He continued saying he would love to get this property one day and turn it into a hostel because he thought it would be a fantastic space. He used to stay in a similar concept in an old convent in Latin America. It seemed to him that converting sites that have history can be fun.

I came to visit him in Santorini and went to see the space, and it suddenly became available. I was back from China because I decided to sell my business there, so I thought that this could work. I had contacts from the industry, like travel agencies and youth travel agencies, so I knew how to work with that market. Plus, my husband is good with practical stuff, like interior design. So we signed the contract and did renovations for the entire winter. 

The place wasn’t a winery when we took over. It was a hotel and later apartments for rent for months (even though it was a winery 300 years ago). We needed to turn caves into dorm rooms or privates but in the way that we liked. Each room is different, with a different interior design.

This was 2010. Summer of 2011 was the first time hostel was opened.

 

– Can you tell us more about your ideal type of guests?

– We’re the perfect choice for someone who wants to stay 3-4 days and doesn’t want to be in a crowded place but wants to meet other people because we do activities – it’s like a community that we’ve built.

It’s a vast space; you rent a car, you park where you want. You don’t have to figure out what to do in the evening: we have dinners, movie nights, there’s always someone hanging out with you. So I think we have an authentic hostel culture here.

We are travelers ourselves. When we travel, we stay not always in hostels. We like Airbnbs or attractive accommodation, with stories – to learn a little more.

 

– What’s your favorite thing about working in the hostel industry?

 – I like the diversity of it. There are interesting people. Especially now in the mid-September, October there are the best people who travel. People who are slow travelers. This is when you can build a connection with people, chat with them, hear stories, have time to make friends, and get inspired. This time of the year, we have digital nomads, people who work on exciting projects. So that’s a very nice part of this work — meeting nice people, having a home-like atmosphere.

Another thing about this industry is that you can become very creative in terms of interior design. We like going to flea markets, collecting stuff, renovating furniture, creating artwork. So all these objects find their purpose in the hostel. We have each room different, so guests need to choose which one they prefer.

In terms of dorms, I have each room once; there are no two the same, even if it’s a girls-only dorm.

 

– Since Caveland used to be a winery – is this somehow reflected in your offer?

– Santorini is famous for wine. By wine connoisseurs, it’s known as Jurassic park of wine because it’s an island that, thanks to its location, there was never any disease on the grapes (which decrease the quality of the grapes). So people come to the island due to the wine culture. 

I think we have 13-15 wineries on the island, so it’s common to go for wine tastings. And it’s a nice experience because sometimes you have a wine tasting with fantastic food. There’s always finger food that accompanies, and people are always amazed at how nice the wine tasting experience can be. So we always recommend that to our guests.

Also, when we take people to our organized dinner, there is wine included, and we always recommend them to opt for the white wine, because it’s the one that is famous. At the end of the meal, you can have a shot of rakija which is double distilled skins of the grape, or they can choose the sweet wine, which is like a church wine and is famous here. It used to be exported to Russia to the Orthodox Church.

 

– High ratings on OTAs like Hostelworld mean you serve your guests well. So what’s the secret to the fantastic guest experience? What do you think plays a significant role in Caveland’s success?

– I think two things are important for a hostel and which you can always change. You can never change your location. Facilities you can always work with, but still, you can’t suddenly build a new swimming pool or jacuzzi. 

Two things you can always influence:

Cleanliness – people need to feel comfortable in their room because they are sharing. We are very strict with that. 

The second thing is staff and atmosphere. Those go together. I always have one team – a volunteer, who is in charge of chatting with people, bringing people together, organizing the dinners, and always being around. That kind of happy person who brings everyone together. 

I think it’s essential, and it doesn’t have to be necessarily my reception that brings everybody together. It could be just this person who has nothing else on mind, helping during the breakfast, sitting around, chatting with people, maybe helping a bit with housekeeping.

For the reception, it’s sometimes overwhelming. The receptionist needs to focus on money, housekeeping, etc. So having an extra person that is in charge of socializing with others – I think that works.

My volunteers usually stay 5-6 weeks because they need time to know the island a bit. People ask questions, so it can’t be somebody who has no idea about the place.

 

– Since you have dormitories and private rooms, and as you mentioned, you get digital nomads, you probably have a mix of guests? How do you keep on attracting types of guests that best fit Caveland’s atmosphere?

– Yes, amid summer we also have sometimes families. And we have older couples too, retired who stay for three weeks. And they enjoy the backpacker atmosphere.

I would say it’s because of our price – we’re not the cheapest on the island. When I’m doing the pricing, I look at other accommodations, not on the island. I’m trying to benchmark with hostels in, let’s say, Italy, Croatia, Barcelona, Spain. More or less the places that our travelers would pick.

So I think our pricing attracts good people – we’re not overpriced, and it attracts people who are also willing to do other things. They can spend a bit more on doing activities. Not budget people who have nothing in their pocket and can’t do anything cannot enjoy anything.

 

– What’s your experience with FrontDesk Master and our team? How did it help?

– The experience was good, and I think it works perfectly. We switched in January because I need a reliable system. It’s user-friendly, easy to use. It works well for us. When you’re used to using one system for many years, switching will always be difficult. For my reception staff who wasn’t used to the old one, it wasn’t too crazy. He became better at FrontDesk Master than me.

I recommend FrontDesk Master to other owners.

 

– What advice would you give to other hostel owners when it’s time to choose PMS?

– Patience! A lot of it and time. It’s hard to change from one reservation system to another cause you’re so used to something, and if you’re working business, that means you have reservations. It’s tough to have a moment. 

You have to find a good combination of the price point and the functionality. With FrontDesk Master, my decision points were:

• The booking engine on our website automatically shows a 7-day deal, even when they choose just three days, which is fantastic because it makes many people stay longer.
• The online check-in function. It’s perfect – people enter their details before they come, it’s a big relief for us. 
• Automated emailing like booking confirmations
• It works with the channels.

 

– What’s your favorite hostel memory?

– The first year when we were opening, before we officially opened, we let people stay for free from Couchsurfing. To pick up mistakes, understand what works and what doesn’t. So we met beautiful people through that.

Another favorite memory: before we opened, we traveled extensively through Europe, stayed in the different famous back then hostels. So we have nice memories from that time, like Portugal, which is amazing in terms of hostels.

See how easy it is to manage your hostel with FrontDesk Master