Hostile Hostel: Slumming It In The Resort Town

When it comes to the economics and use of space in rentals, there are varying contractual agreements than can benefit a property owner.  In commercial and industrial property, we tend to see lease agreements that extend for years at a time.  It is not uncommon to find a tenant who signs a lease for a 5-year period.  This provides stability both for the business that occupies the space and the also for the landlord.

In the residential real estate world there are various options.  Many homes and apartment housing units are rented out for a year at a time.  Sometimes, depending on the market and the quality of the home, landlords choose to lease these spaces on a month-to-month basis.

On an even shorter term basis is the hotel.  These spaces are leased for a day or two at a time but come with full service cleaning.  So does the motel.

Also, many owners will rent their property on a daily basis as a vacation rental.  This is common for single family homes in resort type areas.

Next comes the hostel, which allows for a room rental while sharing common toilet and kitchen spaces. Bedrooms can be rented on a nightly basis.  It is this kind of housing which I have some recent experience.

My wife is an assistant leader in a local girl scout troop and invited me to attend their troop trip to Moab, UT.  When I inquired about housing she said they were renting a couple houses for a few nights.  My mind immediately went to a vacation rental.  The girls and I all thought that would be a really fun experience for the kids.  Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding.  We followed the troop leader in a caravan to this location when we got into town.  The hostel offices are conveniently tucked away in the back of a large self-storage facility on Hwy 191.  You can imagine what was running through our heads.  I wonder if they rent the storage bays nightly as well.

Across the street the hostel owners had a couple homes.

 Both of these homes were vintage 1971 on the interior.  Some hodge podge updates had been made. From the quality of the work, I would guess it was done by past tenants who traded for rent.  To make things even more interesting, the building the girls slept in was listing 2 inches to the starboard side of the house.

The first thing the adults in the group experienced was digital withdrawals.  There was a collective gasp of desperation on our floor as laptop and tablet batteries expired one after the other.  

 When the refrigerator from 1971 went out and the new one required a ground wire, some improvisations were made to accommodate it.  The "Extension Cord Punched Through The Wall" trick does it every time.

Our basement bathroom was updated...sort of.  I use the word loosely.

Attention had been made to panel the bathroom walls and ceiling in a cheap plastic fiberboard to discourage the growth of mold and mildew.  Fortunately, the big black screws they used to mount it didn't distract at all from the flower decor on the wall.

Overall we had a memorable experience.  It took the kids and I a couple hours to get past the underwhelmed feeling we experienced when we first arrived.  Once we disposed of the Playboy magazines left in the closet by the previous guests, and figured out we could sleep on top of the provided bedding and use our own blankets instead, we made ourselves as comfortable as possible.

The upside is it cost the troop just $10 per person per night.  The owner was making about $200 per home per night.  When you look at those kinds of numbers, and the low maintenance standards required to keep up the building, its pays to be a hostel owner.