Quick Update from Hostel Territory:

We've been talking for ages (pretty much since we opened Hostel One) about opening Somnio Dos. It's been a slow going process between getting the first hostel open and running smoothly, the economic crisis affecting bank lending, and the realtors here being worthless on the whole. We really hadn't found too many interesting options until recently. Currently, we're going forward on two options for a second hostel.

The first place is an entire floor of a building that is in the same neighborhood as the existing hostel. It would require construction, but eventually it would be around 13 rooms. There's a big terrace on the back, so four rooms would have little patios. There are some great architectural details - beautiful doors, ornate molded ceilings. The location is great, and the price/contract terms are good. Now we're working with our architect and engineer to figure out if everything can get up to code and figuring out licensing issues and a construction budget.

The second place we're looking at used to be a hostel. It looks like they closed down 2 years ago, and just abandoned it with all the furniture and everything inside. It's covered in about 1cm of dirt, and we were actually afraid to go into some of the darker rooms/hallways. The neat part is that this place has a license with the town hall for a 2 star pension, meaning we could avoid the headache of getting everything up to code and having an inspection. The problem is that the owners of the license (the previous tenants) are nowhere to be found. We´re going to have to do some investigative work to find them and convince them to sell us the license before we could consider renting the space. Then, a lot of Mr. Clean, rubber gloves and face masks will be required.

So that's the scoop. We're pusing ahead on both until it comes time to make a decision/significant investment. I'll keep you posted!

I just got a call from a girl speaking Spanish with a very thick (difficult to understand) French accent trying to sell me some complex information system. What with the one computer Somnio Hostels SL has, I was not at all interested. I listened politely to her clearly scripted speech for about 2 minutes, waited for a brief pause, cut in to say "Sorry, I´m not interested" and hung up.

The phone rang again. I answer "Somnio Hostels?"

And I hear a snotty "Why did you hang up on me?"

Me: "Uh, I´m not interested in your complicated IT system as I explained."

Bitchy French girl: "Well fine then, we´re better off without you."

What? Is she for real? Are they taking tele-marketing to a whole new annoying level where you can´t even have peace after hanging up on them?

Little advice to the guest doing cleansing aloe vera shots every morning, I'm not sure they'll be as effective if you chase them with espressos and beers.

Thanks to Paulina for bringing us this awesome Somnio Barcelona cake this weekend!


The cake is from http://mericake.blogspot.com/