Today, hostels are found all over the world - from the largest cities through to the smallest towns and villages, offering socialisation, a cheap place to sleep, and in some cases a basic breakfast too. They come in various shapes, sizes, and quality - and lord knows I've stayed in a fair few dodgy ones in my time. Hostels are for solo travellers, groups, couples, and everyone in between. Hostels should be an all-encompassing place that offer a warm smile after a long travel day, open to one and all.
Well, that's how it should be - it doesn't always end up like that. Hostels are becoming more and more built by large-scale chains and corporate entities that end up as a cheap hotel, rather than the backpacking hostel they try to advertise themselves as.
The true backpackers hostel is on the decline as they struggle to keep up with the high-tech card keys, free breakfasts, and memory foam bunk beds that can be on offer at these chain hostels for the same or sometimes better price. Despite the world becoming a more open place with visas becoming easier to get for citizens of countries around the world (this is a broad generalisation, but travel is becoming more frictionless overall), as a people we are more closed off than ever. We spend more time on our phones, more people choose to work remotely and spend time on their AirPods instead of socialising. These are all reasons for the decline of a true social, backpacker hostel.
But sometimes hostels fail because the owner just doesn't quite get 'it' - and that was definitely the case with one of my favourite hostels - 'Relax' Hostel, which was based in Himara, southern Albania. One of my favourites because of its location - Himara is a fantastic beach town in southern Albania with deep blue sea, fantastic views, and plenty to do. It was a fantastic hostel because the owner Romeo was eccentric, funny, and in all senses of the word - a true hippy.
Background
After attempting to walk across Albania with my good friend Fred, I had to pull out at about the halfway point. Both my feet had been engulfed in blisters, my knee was in considerable pain, and I'm sure both Fred and I were at varying degrees of sunstroke. Fred did continue however, but I just couldn't find it in me after two extremely long and gruelling days of walking.
It was from the central town of Elbasan that I accidentally ended up in Himara after trying to get to Vlore, one of the coastal cities. The bus became too full to the point where I could not actually get off. The last stop was in Himara so I just kind of stayed on until there. My logic was that I'd stay the night there then head back the following morning. I had actually planned to come to Himara, just after a few days in Vlore first.
After getting off the bus in Himara, I began walking up the high street looking for another hostel I had found on my offline maps that had been listed and, while walking, a man from above shouted down to me, "Hey backpacker! Hostel?"
"Yeah!"
As I walked up the stairs and into Romeo's hostel, little did I know that this would be a canon event - a place that would become mythical legend in years to come. The hostel was clean on the surface - it would do for the night. Beach towels were provided free (cleanliness questionable but ok for a beach towel), breakfast was provided in the cafe downstairs, and the bed was simple but, again, would be absolutely fine for a budget backpacker like myself. It was definitely a beach hostel and feeling grains of sand on your feet combined with the salty air from the Adriatic Sea opposite really did evoke nostalgic feelings of beach holidays as a kid.
Despite the initial good impressions early on, a few problems became apparent early on which really were early signs of the hostel's eventual demise.
Problem 1: Anger management?
At my first stint of Romeo's Relax Hostel, I was one of two guests, the other being a middle-aged German lady who herself was a bit eccentric, but that is to be expected for most middle-aged people who choose to stay in dorm rooms at backpacking hostels (nothing wrong with that, it's just you do have to be a little bit eccentric to choose that over a nice hotel let's say). As Germans stereotypically are, she was a bit brash and I think as an individual struggled to pick up on social cues.
Romeo seemingly became unhappy after finding that the German lady had used some of his personal belongings (the hostel doubled as his home) to which he became quite irate and rather angrily kicked her out of the hostel unceremoniously. While, if she had indeed used his belongings, his reaction may have been understandable - surely a more professional response would have been in order. Nevertheless, I liked the hostel and Romeo had been perfectly reasonable with me.
It seemed that Romeo lived this double life, whereby if you were in his good books, you would have a fantastic hostel experience - home cooked omelettes, free kayak use, a warm welcome. But if for whatever reason you did something that maybe he considered bad, then you would feel Romeo's wrath. Unfortunately for unsuspecting guests, these weren't infrequent events and many would feel the tension from time to time which meant that these guests often ended up leaving poor reviews of the hostel, which lead to another problem...
Problem 2: Google Reviews - Good Reading, Bad Publicity
As customers came and went - a good 50% of them would seemingly have a bad experience and so, naturally, this translated into online reviews. While any normal hostel owner might change their attitude, take a personal reflection, and learn from them, Romeo doubled down and would leave unprofessional, yet absolutely hilarious, responses to reviews left about the hostel online.
In August 2019, a couple of years before I stayed there, the hostel seemingly burnt down after Romeo was passed out drunk on the terrace after leaving candles on. They attach a photo of the burnt down hostel and an emotional warning for travellers not to stay there or risk their lives (thankfully I did not see this before my own visit there, otherwise I may never have gotten to experience the 'relax' at all!).
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| Exhibit A |
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| Health and safety? Nah man, just relax π |
While Romeo's response to the above review was relatively chilled, it seemed like he could have used his own advice in this next review, where someone accused him of having a mental condition and hooking up with female guests out in the open:
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| Exhibit B |
Of course, there's a lot of 5-star reviews listed too - Romeo and his hostel were very polarising. I'll leave it to you to search and find them all - but these are just two of the responses I found which fail to address genuine concerns of paying customers. Unfortunately, in a town such as Himara which is famous domestically and an up and coming destination for international tourists too, reputation is just so so important.
While it is possible to survive on luring in clueless backpackers who stay on a bus too long like me, it's not sustainable when the majority of travellers to the area will look to pre-book and pay for a hostel/hotel upfront.
It seems that Romeo did become aware of this and did try to change a few things...
The Rebrand: Too Little, Too Late
After I left Albania, I was fascinated by Relax Hostel. It had become a thing of mystic and interest to Fred and I and as such, I continued to follow reviews left on it. I just found it so fascinating and interesting, not so much the reviews - but the response to the reviews as I've shown above!
Slowly but surely, the negative reviews overtook the positive ones and it got to a stage where the hostel, which was once positively rated, slowly became the bad egg of Himara hostels. Romeo seemingly recognised this and began a rebrand and changed the name from 'Relax' Hostel to 'Don Hostelo' (don't ask what that means because I don't have a clue). Despite this name change, the poor reviews kept coming in - it was clear that Romeo failed to learn anything and simply hoped that if he changed the name of the hostel, all the old reviews would disappear? Obviously this failed and, like the old saying goes, doing the same thing but expecting different results is the definition of insanity.
I recently learnt after a quick search that Relax Hostel/Don Hostelo was no more. Google lists it as 'permanently closed'. Despite this being official recently, I had had this fear as I did manage to go back to Himara in May 2023 and tried to visit the hostel - but no one answered the door when I knocked.
The End of an Era
In a world of ever more commercialised hostels and the owners being men in suits many miles away, the days of hostels being run by eccentric hippies is slowly dying off. For young backpackers who aren't too bothered how clean a hostel is if the vibes are off the charts, Relax Hostel was perfect. One could sit out on the terrace, enjoy the sun, read a book, and love life. It was a thirty second walk from the beach and sat on top of the main strip where you could get cheap, delicious food, drink a coffee, or even hire a moped all within the space of thirty metres of each other.
Unfortunately the world of commercialised travel, where people can post a review of their experience online to share with the world immediately for millions to see, has made it harder for the eccentrics like Romeo to stay afloat. And that's no excuse for his behaviour and professionalism at times, but I do feel the world needs more hostels run by hippies who are a little eccentric, not chain hostels run by men in suits and CEOs.
However, as can be seen with the curious case of Romeo and Relax Hostel, there still has to be a level of decorum and professionalism so that the art of backpacking can continue to live on not just in Himara, but around the world.
"Every one of us is with a mental condition, I'm not gonna judge your condition." - Romeo
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