behind the counter x Katrin Indriksons
Agüita House, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Meet Katrin Indriksons, Manager of Agüita House in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, one of the coolest surf hostels in the area! Katrin is just 22 and being the Manager of the hostel is something that she never planned or imagined would happen. Besides being a surfer, a dancer and a musician, Katrin is super charming with a very reassuring aura and an easy-going vibe.
The pandemic, of course, has been tough on a lot of people, not just those from the hospitality industry, but Katrin’s story is a serendipitously hopeful one during these tough times. Join us as she shares her story and her insights on the post-pandemic travel trends. Katrin also provides relevant tips on the features to look out for when choosing a PMS.
How did your journey with Agüita House begin?
I started my journey with Agüita House as a guest actually and I never imagined I’d be the Manager here someday. I was travelling before the pandemic happened and I had planned to go backpacking to Europe and I ended up coming here. Back then, the hostel had a different owner, and I stayed here for three weeks as a guest. Right after that, they announced Spain was under lockdown and quarantining was compulsory. So I had to decide whether to stay or to go back home to Germany and I decided to stay.
The previous owners found a new business opportunity and wanted to sell the hostel business and one of the current owners, Jacopo Scafura used to be the Manager of the hostel then. He along with two of his friends, Damiano Finizio and Nicola Gasparro decided to take over the hostel because they had so many wonderful memories here. It really is an amazing place with super nice people.
I started working at the hostel in June when the hostel opened back up. After working there for three months, the owners asked me to take more responsibilities and take on the Manager role because I knew the hostel very well by then, so I started managing the hostel in September. I had also really fallen in love with this place by then so it was an easy decision to stay.
Having a fresh approach during the change of ownership, especially during the pandemic must not have been easy. What was the kind of challenges?
The quarantine in Spain started in March and the previous owner decided to close the hostel at the start of May, so everything from there had to go really fast.
The new owners took over the hostel within a week and everything was new to them. I mean one of them was the previous manager of the hostel, but of course, being the manager and being the owner is completely different. They first had to learn how to do all of this and then we opened again in June and we had like three-four weeks to get all the paperwork done. Then to think about okay, what do we choose as a name? What do we want to change, How do we want the hostel to feel?
In the beginning, there weren’t a lot of guests until October-November. I would say we weren’t even half full. It was really empty because there were a lot of restrictions and not a lot of travellers, and then it boomed big time. The Canaria islands are such a holiday place right now and it was the first place that opened up again and the first place with the least restrictions. We received a lot of travellers, especially people from Europe and from Germany.
So since last November, I’d say we’re actually full and I’m really happy and grateful because I know that not all the hostels have been this lucky to be able to say this but we are almost completely full every night.
In the beginning, it was a bit of a struggle and the struggle we have right now is still the restrictions of course, but guest and staff safety is our priority, so wearing a mask is mandatory in the common areas. We’ve reduced the capacity and we’ve tried to optimize our check-in system with less contact and with more digital work instead of paperwork. So we’re trying to change our process a bit and I think we’re doing really fine. I think we’re doing really good and it was a really tough thing to take over a hostel when there’s a pandemic, but I feel like we managed pretty well.
That definitely sounds like a success story! Okay, so what does Agüita mean? How would you describe the essence of Agüita?
We thought about the name for a long time and we wanted to pick something that could be easy on your memory. Also, the name had to do something with Gran Canaria.
So Agüita is, of course, a Spanish word and it means ‘small waters’ that comes from the word ‘agua’ which means water. But here in Gran Canaria, it’s also a slang word like cool or wow! For example, you’ll hear surfers using it a lot, after they catch a really nice wave they come back to the others and say Agüita!
So we thought about this and thought it’s just really nice because you know we’re a surf hostel, in a really cool place super close to the beach. So we thought it would be a nice name and apt for the hostel.
The owners of the hostel literally live the word Agüita and they have a really nice life attitude. They’re all surfers and they’re all close to the house, of course, some more than others, but they always interact with the volunteers and with the guests. Having a really good relationship with them is super important for us because the essence of us, I would say, is being a family. Also, because we’re a really small hostel.
We reduced the capacity because of COVID restrictions so we want to reduce the number of people in the house to make the vibe less stressed for everyone. Currently, we’re not that many people so you really feel like everyone knows everyone. We live together in a more or less small space so we all get to know each other. Almost every guest that writes a review always mentions the family vibe. So this is something we really want to accomplish, and it’s super important for us. When I was in the hostel back then, that was one of the nicest things for me because I wasn’t travelling much alone before, so coming and feeling like part of a family and meeting super friendly people was amazing for me!
Also, as a manager, it’s my task to provide this family vibe to all the other guests and I want them to have the same experiences that I had when I was a guest there.
What kind of travel trends have you observed post-pandemic in Gran Canaria?
In the beginning, when I mentioned we were half full, we had a lot of Spanish guests and Gran Canaria guests back then, not many people from outside because the travel restrictions were way stricter. We had almost only long time stayers and digital nomads who arrived wanting to stay only for a week and then decided to stay for months, these are people who wanted to escape from the COVID situation in their countries. We had one guest who actually stayed almost half a year here. Sometimes he would go camping somewhere or went back to Barcelona for a week, but then he would come back, he would always come back. He stayed for half a year and worked from Agüita. A lot of our guests decide to take that similar kind of road.
Now it’s changing a bit again because we have fewer restrictions. We anyway try to keep the hostel more for short-term stayers now. We can’t really lower our prices that much for digital nomads that want to stay longer because of the rent we have to pay and because of the location (which is super amazing and I’m super lucky to work in a hostel with this kind of location).
Usually, we have many people who come here and who fall in love with the place and decide to stay longer in Gran Canaria. They end up finding other people in Agüita with who they’ve bonded because of the family vibe. So finding friends here is super easy and then they go and rent an apartment together. Things like this happened a lot of times actually! They stay in the apartment and somebody leaves and somebody comes back to meet up and stay for a few weeks. You always see the same faces here, like the same hundred faces.
Now we’re getting short-term travellers again from Germany who comes to surf for two weeks and they leave again. Or someone from Switzerland comes to just visit a friend. Now we’re starting to see a little more of other European country nationals.
I mean the countries whose citizens are allowed to travel, are actually coming back, and that’s a really good thing for all the hostels here.
What are the two must-have qualities of a hostel manager?
I would say the first thing is to put the traveller first; put the guests first. So for me, it’s important that everything I do is to optimise the hostel's operations and to give the guests a better experience. This is the main reason I love to do my job.
The second thing is I would say is being able to compromise for the needs of the guests, volunteers and hostel owners.
I’d also like to add that never in my life have I worked somewhere where I’ve felt like I have gotten so much out of my job. I have never felt like I’ve had to give something up even though, of course, you have a lot of things to do and you have a lot of things on your mind. Managing a hostel is more or less a 24x7 job but I still get so much out of it. The friends I’ve made, the meaningful conversations, and the great people I work with are absolutely priceless and makes me very thankful for my job. I feel like this is a job where you really don’t have to give up on anything but you get so much in return.
When I arrived and started at the hostel, I was just 21, I’m 22 now and never in my life did I imagine that I would manage a hostel. I have grown so much and learned so much. Every day is a different scenario where I have to step out of my comfort zone and learn something new from the people I live with and the owners, who are all 29. So we are a really young hostel with a fresh approach, of course, there’s a lot we still have to develop but we are able to reflect on our mistakes, improve and be innovative.
Agüita house is one of the first hostels to use counter, How has your experience been so far and what advice would you give hostel owners when selecting a PMS?
I have to say counter really changed a lot of things for us, before counter we were using another PMS, which was good too, but when we started using counter, I realised how complicated the previous PMS was. We started using counter shortly after I started working in the hostel so I kind of evolved with counter which is amazing for me because it’s so easy to use.
The most important thing for me though when selecting a PMS is the kind of service it provides. For example, if I have a question or something is not working, or if I feel something could be improved, there is someone who answers my queries within half an hour.
It’s amazing that we’re able to communicate and have calls, that someone is texting me back and wants to genuinely help and assist. This is something I feel no other PMS provides, and this makes a massive difference because you feel like you’re not alone. If you work with a new software and you don’t know how something works in it, you feel assured knowing that there’s always someone there who can explain it to you and always open for conversation.
The PMS itself is digital, of course, and digital systems are supposed to make things easier for hostel owners, managers and staff. For example, even when I’m not in the hostel, like when I had gone on a holiday for a week, I could always keep an eye through my mobile on the counter app if we had new bookings and what’s happening in the hostel. I wouldn’t be able to do that without it or if we were using books for this. So it definitely makes life so much easier, saves us a lot of time and stress too.
Lastly, tell us one of your favourite hostel memory or your favourite part about interacting with guests?
One really nice memory that I remember back in my head is when we had a Norwegian author staying at the hostel for a few weeks. She arrived with her dog, which we allow from time to time in the hostel if they’re trained. In the beginning, everybody was a bit unsure of it but by the end, everybody fell in love with this dog. The dog kind of became the hostel’s mascot, and every new guest that arrived quickly became fond of it, too. Everybody was always around it, taking pictures and just chilling. Everything became about the dog, he had become part of the hostel family and we all could feel itand Kira could feel it too!
However, my favourite part about interacting with guests is spending time with them at night on the beach which is just five meters out of the main door. Gathering around, playing the guitar or the ukulele, singing songs, drinking a beer and just talking away the whole night.
Thanks to the weather here, we can do it the entire year-round. This quality time we get to spend with our guests during the beach nights is my absolute favourite.
