Option 1: Show up
and askWhen I first met Miranda, she was trying to check me into Hostel Casa del Parque in San Jose, Costa Rica. I say “trying” because she was being trained, and had literally started the job an hour earlier (but by hour three she was a pro and had already left me a detailed
map of where to find the nearest swimming pool in San Jose!). We started talking and I learned that she was from Seattle, and was currently backpacking through Central America.
Lea: “Oh, so how did you get a job
working here, then?”
Miranda: “Well I got here yesterday
and I just asked.”
L: “What do you mean, you just asked? How long do you have to
commit for?”
M: “Oh, I think I’ll probably stay
about 3 weeks or so…I’ve been doing this all through Central America.”
L: This was a thing? One could just ask? I was bewildered. “How
much are they paying you?”
M: “I’m just working for a bed! And
I get commissions from the tours and taxis that I book.”
It turned out that about half the reception
staff was actually working-for-a-bed staff. And it looked really fun. I wanted
to get in on this deal. So, after a 4-week stint volunteering at a butterflygarden in Montezuma, I found myself back at Casa del Parque, just in time to
conveniently replace the 19-year-old Belgian volunteer, Oliver.
 |
| Work involved a lot of tea breaks |
Me, to the hostel manager, Roger:
“So…I’m thinking of spending the next 10 days in San Jose, and I know Ollie is
leaving soon… can I work here?”
Roger: “Okay. Oliver, train her
tomorrow.”
And that’s how I got the job.
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| The staff hard at work in San Jose, Costa Rica |
I ended up saving $10/night by
working there, but I did have to work about 30 hours per week. Some people
might find this ridiculous. It’s worth doing a quick cost-benefit analysis when
you’re going to work at a hostel, especially in a poorer country like Costa
Rica. My 30 hours/week of work were saving me a mere $70… which means I was
being paid only $2.33/hour.
However, there are a few things to
note.
First, $2.33 is a pretty standard
hourly wage for a Costa Rican. And second, the work was fun and easy. I was
working at reception (despite my lack of knowledge of the Spanish language – Me
answering the phone every day: “Hola, Hostel Casa del Parque… uno momento por
favor” while I went to find someone who spoke Spanish). Reception involved
sitting at the table answering the phone, front door, emails, and checking in
and out guests. Half the time, this just meant talking to people, giving them
advice on where to go and how to get to the bus station, cooking fun dinners
with the guests, hula-hooping in the back yard while listening to “Get Lucky”
for the 30th time that
afternoon, and playing with the hostel cat. And just for the feeling of being
part of the awesome staff, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Tips for Option 1:
·
Get to know the
hostel staff first, and stay there for a couple days before you ask to work
there. This is also a good idea because you might realize that you don’t really
like that hostel or city. It's always smart to check everything out before committing
·
You’ll most likely
have more success (and more fun) at smaller hostels, as you’ll find that being
a part of the staff will feel like being a part of a crazy little family!
·
Most places will
probably want to you stay for at least a couple weeks (since they have to train
you)
·
As always, it
helps if you speak English and the local language of the country you’re in
Option 2: Contact
directly in advance
Another example in which I “earned”
a lot more was when I worked at Hostel Hayarkon 48 in Tel Aviv, Israel. In this case, I
was working about 25 hours/week, and the price of a dorm bed was a staggering
$33/night, or $231/week. So I was basically earning $9.24/hour. This was a
great way to spend the summer in Tel Aviv for free, because at $33/night I
couldn’t have stayed there for very long!
 |
| Party on the roof in Tel Aviv |
I got this job with a bit of
pre-planning. I knew that I wanted to spend the summer in Tel Aviv, so I looked
at the map of Tel Aviv hostels on HostelWorld and picked out a few that had
good ratings and a great location.
 |
| Must have high ratings and be next to the beach! |
I sent out a few emails about a month in
advance, saying that I had some travel experience, I’d stayed in a lot of
hostels and worked in one, and I was planning to spend June-August in Tel Aviv.
Unfortunately, my email method was not very successful and I got almost no
responses.
I thought about it, and realized that maybe hostels would prefer to see who I was. So, I found the Facebook
pages of the hostels I was interested in and sent them a message. I got a
response within a couple days from a high-rated hostel a block from the beach.
A few messages back and forth later and I had a free place to stay for the
summer!
 |
| Pre pub crawl: German, Canadian, British, American, British, and French! |
Since this was a much larger hostel than the one in Costa Rica, my
duties were a bit different. I was in charge of running breakfast in the
morning, manning the laundry room, planning group dinners and social events,
and getting everyone out the door for the weekly pub crawl (which I got to go
on for free!). All in all a very different, but worthwhile experience.
Note: this
option, and the one below, requires a bit more advanced planning and
commitment. If you’re doing a multi-country backpacking trip it can be
difficult to know where you’ll be in a month’s time, and you may come across a
great city along the way that you wish you could spend more time in…On the
other hand, if you’re heading to an expensive part of the world it can be
comforting to know that you’ll have a free place to stay for a given period of
time. For example, hostels in Brazil quadruple in price during holidays and the
world cup, so pre-arranging a hostel to work in during these times might be a
smart option (but know that you’ll be giving up 20-30 hours/week of your trip
to working).
Option 3: Use a
work-exchange or volunteer website
If you’re willing to make plans in
advance and you’re not having luck with the directly contact method, there are
a few websites that allow you to create a profile about yourself and contact
“hosts” (such as hostels) that you’d like to work for on a work for accommodation
(and sometimes food) basis.
The most popular ones are:
- Thousands of
postings of hostels, organic farms, families (for au pairing), guest houses,
and more. All have a brief description of the host and overview of the
work-exchange agreement, including number of work hours expected, type of
accommodation offered, etc. You create a profile about yourself and hosts can
also contact you, offering you a place to work for them. Membership to the
website costs 22 euros for a two years, or 29 euros for two years for a
couple/two friends.
- Very similar to
Workaway.info; often the same hosts are posted on both sites. Membership is 20
euros for two years, but the site layout is not as user-friendly. Workaway.info
has better search options.
Another site that lists volunteer
projects is GoEco.org. At the moment, they have listings for hostel internships in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Israel. Note that this site requires a $300-$350
placement fee, but you can conveniently secure a spot working at a hostel without much
effort on your part. Most jobs have a 6 week minimum.
Option 4: Use a
hostel job board
I’ve found a couple good job boards
advertising hostel jobs around the world. These jobs usually require a longer commitment
(often 3-6 months), and are occasionally paid. They may be more stringent on
things like being able to legally work (i.e. they might only want people with
an EU passport for jobs in Europe) and speaking the local language (a lot of
them are reception jobs). The best ones I’ve found are:
Both have extensive forums where
people can discuss how to get a job in hostels, jobs offered, jobs wanted, etc.
In addition, you can see the competition as people often post their CV and
interest in the job directly under the job advertisement.
A recent posting on Hosteljobs.net
from a hostel in Barcelona looked like this:
Garden House Hostel in Barcelona is
looking for a responsible, helpful, fun, easy going and social person in
January, we offer:
- accommodation with other staff members
- breakfast (the hostel has a kitchen too)
- laundry
- basic salary
- commissions
- free accommodation in FeetUp Hostels in other spanish cities
- breakfast (the hostel has a kitchen too)
- laundry
- basic salary
- commissions
- free accommodation in FeetUp Hostels in other spanish cities
... and a great work environment where
you can meet travellers from all over! The job is about 40hs, 5 shifts per week
and 2 days off. It´s a great opportunity to meet a lot of new people, enjoy
spanish culture and save money!
Send a short description about yourself,
C.V. with a picture, contact information and details about how long you can
stay in Barcelona for. A Skype interview is required so please include your
Skype ID.
It´s important that you have an European
passport, we provide you with everything you need to get the spanish
"ID", work contract and work insurance.
There’s also Hosteltraveljobs.com, and a quick
search of “hostel jobs” on Google will come up with dozens of other similar
sites.
 |
| The party continues... |
Working at a hostel is a great way to see a city as more than a tourist. You will:
·
Make friends with
the local staff (and get to hang out with their friends)
·
Learn a few useful
skills (such as how to use a hostel booking software)
·
Practice the
language of whatever country you’re in
·
Save a ton of
money on accommodation
·
Enjoy staff perks.
In Tel Aviv, I got to go on free pub crawls (guests paid $20), do my laundry
whenever I wanted, and help myself to unlimited drinks that the hostel sells to
guests. Being in the kitchen every morning, I also had first pick of all the
great food that guests would leave when they checked out.
·
Finally, it’s nice
to combine travel bumming with work experience so you have something to put on
your CV!
It’s usually a very flexible job,
and you should still have plenty of free time to travel on your days off. Try
it out sometime!
