a new way to consider hostels
Not just hostels, but more. «Our goal is to develop a new concept of hostel: not just a place to sleep, but also a space where you can find culture, art and travel information». This is what Guy Verlinde, project manager of Insideout, wants to focus on for the i-hostels network. The keynote of it is to have an innovative cooperation between independent hostels located in different European cities, such as Amsterdam, Bruges, Rome, Barcelona, London, Budapest and Berlin. «Every hostel of the network has a strong identity connected with a particular way of travelling and is the only i-hostel in his city».The beginning – I-hostels is the result of the idea of two people: Koen Demeulemeester and the already mentioned Guy Verlinde. «We were aware of the potential of a hostel -tells Guy Verlinde- so in 2006 we begun to organize some activities in a youth hostel of Gent: graffiti workshops and courses for youth workers. All projects were received very positively by the travellers and the locals. Many local youngsters came into contact with the youth hostel through those projects. The youth hostels became more than just a sleeping place and for the youth service it was an ideal location to organize projects and exhibitions». This was the starting point for the creation of the network. After the successful projects Koen and Guy developed the idea to start a co-operation between different equally minded hostels in Europe. «There were many small hostels who wanted to do extra projects- continue Guy- but they just didn’t find the time to develop them. Being in a network, should have given them the space and time to actually get it started». During the Gomio Independent Hostel Conference in Krakow at the beginning of April 2006 Koen Demeulemeester dropped the idea to some hostels. The enthusiasm about the network was amazing and already 13 hostels wanted to join. So first, on the 1st of September 2006, the Non profit organisation InsideOut was founded and later, after the approval for a grant from the European Union, this wild idea of setting up a network became a reality: the i-Hostels Network was founded at a partner seminar on the 23rd of March 2007 with 19 partner hostels.
Emel Ince and the Create your own art project
Today – Now i-hostels is a consolidated reality supported by the creativity of its 29 members. Their aim is to cooperate with the other i-hostels to connect travellers to the local artistic and cultural city life, giving them the opportunity to be creative and meet others who think the same. So i-hostels are meeting points where people can hang out and share their trip experiences, but also places where to find exhibitions, performances, lectures, cooking sessions, space for painting. This is the case of the “Create your own art†project supported by Emel Ince, a Turkish girl who is doing her European Voluntary Service for InsideOut in Bruges since october 2007. «We try to invite people to put their impressions of the city into a creative work – tells Emel – We provide a table with some creative materials, like drawing paper, pencils, paint, markers, and scissors. Then we hang the best artworks and we also put them on a web page: www.flickr.com/photos/ihostelscom linked to our web site: www.i-hostels.com ».
Evolutions – The network at the moment has 29 hostels located in the most important European cities. «The goal – as Guy Verlinde said during the last i-hostels seminar in Bruges – is to reach 35 hostels, improving at the same time the network through a better communication and a continuously offer of new projects on information, culture and art. It’s really important to have a good information exchange between the network members, this makes the network active and allows a real growth of it».
So if your are an artist or a traveller interested in culture, i-hostels is what you are looking for. Go on the Internet and book your next destination in one of the i-hostels in Europe.
Don’t forget to join our myspace: www.myspace.com/ihostels
by Sidney Cardella
