behind the counter x Eli & Maria
Eli and Maria are not just life partners, but they are business partners as well and together they have built a green oasis of nature in the beautiful city of Málaga — The Urban Jungle Hostel.
The Urban Jungle Hostel is not just a hostel, it a way of life, a place where humanity and nature entwine, organically designed to offer unforgettable experiences! And Eli, Maria and Curro (their furry baby and managing director of the hostel), are nothing less than picture-perfect when it comes to kindness, humility, peaceful co-existence, respect and everything environment positive.
Join us as they share with us their life philosophy and shed light on how hostels can play a major role leading to a better and greener future.
How did you both start the hostel and how were your lives before it?
We used to be backpackers, and we travelled around the world before starting our own hostel. We stayed in really cool hostels with concepts that didn’t exist in Spain because, in Spain, there weren’t a lot of design hostels or dramatic hostels. We really loved the hostels we stayed in around the world, and we wanted to do something similar here in Spain.
Above all, we love the philosophy behind the hostels; of community and sharing, which is what really grabbed our attention. So it became our dream little by little. When we stayed in Spain, we never chose a hostel to sleep in. We chose apartments or hotels, but whenever we travel abroad, we always choose hostels because you get to meet local people, you get to share travel stories with them, and you get that sense of community.
Also, we used to work for big travel companies. I was working for booking.com in the global chain's department, handling the marketing strategy for super huge hostel chains with over 3000 beds. Maria worked as a sales director in a huge travel company for many years too. So we both had the skills and the experience to start a small hostel ourselves that would revolve around our own philosophies of life.
So we asked ourselves, why not? Let’s try it, let’s do it!
We wanted to bring that concept to Spain, and that’s how it all started. The seed was planted many, many years ago, and over the years we acquired the right skills and experience too, so we started working towards our dream slowly. The journey was quite natural, and it all happened organically.
Where did you draw your inspiration from for the hostel’s unique design and activities?
Our inspiration comes from nature, and we wanted to incorporate our go-green lifestyle into our hostel. Also during our backpacking trip to the Caribbean, mostly in Costa Rica and Panama, we loved the way hostels there were 100% eco-friendly, and the way they lived in synchrony with nature and practised respectful tourism. So we really got most of our inspiration and ideas from there.
We wanted to do something very green, very natural with real plants because they have a lot of benefits for people. So basically all the plants at our hostel are real. We wanted to implement those green habits into our hostels. That’s why the name as well, Urban Jungle — we obviously wanted to be in a small city, but we wanted to be as green as possible. We wanted to implement as many green and eco-friendly elements as possible, and we are still working on it because it’s a never-ending job, you know.
What is the philosophy behind the urban jungle?
The philosophy is very clear, be a traveller and not a tourist, which means a lot.
It has a lot of meaning like we are a super local business and we try to implement everything that is local, for example, for our family dinners, we only buy local produce and we support all the small businesses around the area.
Also, our philosophy is to be healthy. Obviously, we do like to party and we like to have fun too; we like to have drinks when we go out, but at the same time, we want to take care of our body and our environment. For example, we do yoga classes in the mornings; we do meditation as well and we try to recycle as much as possible. All our mattresses and all our linen are eco-friendly. Of course, it was expensive, but it’s totally worth it because guests just love it and it’s great for them to know that they’re sleeping on an eco-mattress. They feel it and they know it.
And I think it’s because of our philosophy that guests really love us. We have to be more careful with the environment especially in these crazy times and in the future too. Sometimes it’s very difficult to implement something like a vegan family dinner because it’s a bit of a challenge nowadays, it takes a lot of time. But at the end of the day, it’s totally worth it because even though you take double the time to do a big family dinner; to buy all the produce and prepare it, but after that, you feel good and it’s rewarding because you are not harming anything.
So yes, that is our philosophy — we want people to experience the local city and to be as green as possible (as much as we try to be) and to know that being healthy can be fun too!
Speaking about the pandemic, how are you guys doing at the moment?
Eli — Well, thank God that Málaga is like a very nice city, so we have many, many digital nomads and thanks to them, we are here and we are surviving. We have adapted some of our facilities and amenities as per their needs as well. We have adapted to long-term stays and restructured our pricing. Although we have adapted to the changes, we are still coping with it. It’s been nine months to the pandemic, and we only opened in July and we were doing okay, but from November onwards it’s been a bit low. However, we are very grateful since we have long-term guests staying who are really really pleasant people! And we want to keep them happy, even if we had to say no to other guests who disrupt the atmosphere we have so painstakingly created.
Our environment is very healthy and we like to attract guests who really love it here. We do have a social atmosphere at night and we have dinner together; we organise vegan dinners as well. But suddenly, these two guys who were staying with us, who always wanted to party and drink on the rooftop all day long were disturbing other guests and disrupting the sense of community. So we had to tell them to leave, even though it was during the pandemic because they were breaking what we were building and went against our philosophy. So even during tough times like these, we have to say no to guests who don’t follow or respect our philosophy. It would be better for them to stay in another hostel or a place that matches their needs and lifestyle. The long-term guests were very happy to see us stand up for ourselves and them, and they appreciate it and speak good about us to other people and travellers.
We always try to bring as much quality as possible for them to stay happy with us, to bring value to our daily lives, you know, with the meditation and yoga classes or cinema nights, we try to adapt to them and to be very close to them and make them feel like they are part of a family. We always ask, what do you like? Would you like to make paella one of these nights? And we all do it all together and we are really grateful for that. And I think that’s really the whole point in these times.
Maria — The thing is, when you are a small hostel, not the biggest one, you can manage the situation differently because you can be more flexible because your customer has to be more flexible too due to of the pandemic. At this point, we are not super big nor are we super small, so we can benefit from the situation and be more flexible and give some value to them, the travellers.
We receive a lot of calls and emails regarding date changes, refunds, cancellations and things like that and we have to adapt to it even though it’s difficult for us. Honestly, if someone cannot make it here and they have non-refundable rates for five weeks, we try to be kind and honest. Even if it’s non-refundable, we don’t tell them we are running a business and they have to pay because we understand these difficult times and maybe that kindness will come back, maybe they will remember that and choose to come back to us in the future because we were good and honest and did not steal their money.
It’s not all about the money, it’s a lot more than that; it’s about taking care of the people who choose you. Although it’s difficult because we end up losing money, we look at it as an investment for a better future. We have to look at the larger picture and not lose sight of what really matters because this pandemic will eventually pass.
Curro — Woof, Woof, Woof! (translates to — I totally agree!)
What are the qualities a hostel owner must have?
First of all organisational and social skills, you have to be social to run a hostel for sure and very organised.
Secondly, the secret is to listen to your guests, know what they want.
For example, a lot of guests come and ask us, “Hey, do you organise yoga classes” and then during a yoga session another guest asked, “do you organise meditation sessions?” And I was like, “no, but we will!” So the secret for everything is to listen to your guests and, and try to be as close to them as possible because they are the ones who are choosing you. So I think that’s one of the most important factors and it’s been constant work for two years, we haven’t stopped a single day.
Our heads are always full of ideas like; why don’t we do this? Why don’t we try that? It’s like you start with an idea, but then you change completely because your customers are asking you to create new things or to develop a new concept. And obviously, some things fail and some things don’t work beautifully and just stay as naturally for us. So I think that’s the most important thing to be organized, obviously, and to be social and flexible and adaptable.
Are there any future goals of expanding the hostel?
Yes, absolutely yes!
We do plan to expand and currently, our heart and mind are set on the Asia market, but we won’t tell you anymore, it’s a secret! Haha.
The reason we picked Asia is that we really like their philosophy of life there, we like the way they live their lives, it’s very different compared to Europe. We genuinely think that Asia is the future.
It’s hard during the pandemic, we are trying to fight it and survive like everyone else. We are trying our best to be flexible and adaptable as much as possible.
Hopefully, it will pass soon and we will continue working towards expanding and introducing our philosophy in Asia. Obviously, there is going to be a lot of work behind the scenes and it will take a few years, but we definitely want to make it happen.
Can you give us any advice on how hostel can contribute to a greener community living?
Our advice would be to switch on your curiosity and really take the time to learn and have the willingness to do it because that is the future.
Nowadays, it’s a must, going green has become a necessity, otherwise, the future of our planet will be in danger. You need to take out the time to sit down and to understand as a local, what you can do and how you can cooperate with your surrounding environment.
It’s more than just avoiding plastic!
For example, we used to give our laundry to a laundromat who would give it back to us in plastic. We spoke to them and tried to educate them on the effects of plastic and how it’s against ‘our philosophy of life.’ We encouraged them to find a different alternative to plastic, or we’d have to look for another laundromat or do it ourselves.
Obviously, it takes time and energy to find new providers or to buy your bags for laundry, but it’s worth it because we want to to be better people and treat nature with respect. Fortunately, it’s a success story, the laudromat found an alternative!
It’s baby steps when it comes to positively influencing people you live with or people you work with. The challenge here is to have the time and the willingness to actually do it. If we don’t start now and understand the future needs of the generations to come, we’ll become obsolete. If we don’t do it, traveller won’t come to us anymore because they are becoming more and more conscious of the necessity of going green.
If hostels around the world don’t take time to go green, in a few years they will become obsolete. Hostels have an advantage and act as great platforms for spreading awareness of a greener community. Many travellers come and go, and they carry ideas and thoughts to other places. As hostels, we are truly fortunate like that.
When you receive fifty guests a day who share ideas like, “oh when I was in Panama, I saw this cool green project or oh when I was in India I came across this eco-friendly concept”, we have to work with that and use it to our advantage and understand how beneficial it is for us.
The ‘S’ in ho(s)tel stands for ‘Social, Sense of community and Sharing’, which is what makes us different from hotels, and more likely to contribute to a greener future.
