The Company Re-Inventing Hostels With Smart Design and Social Media

[gallery ids="108257,108259,108255,108256,108258,108261,108262,108263,108264,108265,108266"] In Europe, Generator Hostels is leading the way in the burgeoning "hip hostel" market with high-concept design and unique programming, fueled by a relentless storm of 24/7 social media among guests and staff. This is a hospitality brand forged out of the sharing economy and Millennial/Gen C travel trends. Generator is also aggressively targeting older travelers in higher income brackets with a growing selection of single guest rooms. There’s massive space for global growth here as the hybrid hotel/hostel model offers a new accommodation genre that provides excellent location, exceptional value, and private rooms for people uncomfortable paying rising hotel rates in popular urban centers. So far, the end result has been devoutly loyal guests sharing their experiences with past and potential guests in an exponentially growing online network. Which, of course, is exactly what mainstream hotels are trying to achieve, faced with fracturing guest demographics, non-traditional competition and executive leadership sometimes entrenched in the past. “I attribute the growth of our company to the incredible and increasing sophistication of young travelers today,” says Josh Wyatt, 39, director of hospitality/leisure at Patron Capital Partners, founder of Generator Hostels and Harvard MBA grad. “Over 90 percent of our guests are walking into a Generator with a tablet or smart phone, and they have an incredible amount of info at their fingertips. As a result, for us to be successful we have to have an equally sophisticated product.” It’s working. This spring, the 154-room Generator Barcelona opened with 22 percent of its room count dedicated to singles/couples. Generator Venice opened last month with average rates starting at 35 euros. Next year, the enormous 950-bed Generator Paris and 264-bed Generator Rome are scheduled to open. America is next. “We have great ambi