behind the counter x Lyuba Sorokina
Lyuba Sorokina is a super-woman, who managed to graduate and start a hostel all at the same time! Lyuba along with her partner Sergey Sorokin Co-founded The Soul Kitchen Hostel which has not only been voted the best hostel in Russia and all of Europe but also the best hostel in the world on multiple occasions. However, after the pandemic crisis, it has now been transformed to Soul Kitchen Coliving. Join us in getting to know Lyuba’s story, her insights about the hostel industry’s current concerns and how to turn things around even in times of crisis and uncertainty!
How did you start your journey in the hostel industry?
During my graduation, I chose the faculty of tourism and services; it happened actually by complete coincidence, this was the only faculty that I had enough course scores for. In the beginning, I was like “Tourism, What?” I wasn’t sure about it, but it was around the same time I started working at a hostel, this was around 2006. The hostel was close to my university, and I worked there as a night receptionist for two years. It was a really nice hostel with a party atmosphere, and I was super inspired to be surrounded by people from all over the world the international environment it had.
You see, Russia is a really huge country and you don’t usually get to have so many foreigners around you. It’s not even a huge international hub, you only have these “little islands” where you get to meet an international community and the hostel was one of them. And that’s how I fell in love with the concept of a hostel where you sit around a table with people who are really open-minded from all around the world.
After working at the hostel, I worked in a couple of other places too, but not for a long time. Basically, there were a few hostels in Saint Petersburg, but none of them had any vacancies for a receptionist post, and I really wanted to work at a hostel because I couldn’t imagine working anywhere else except a hostel, but there were no vacancies anywhere!
So this is the part where I met my future partner,
and we decided that we wanted to do something together. We wanted to start our own business but not necessarily a hostel back then, we were thinking of other things. We had so many things going on at the same time; I was about to graduate and I had to do my final assignments, at the same time I was chalking out a business model for the hostel and we were also sourcing for investors, which we managed to find. We opened our hostels just a few months before I had to graduate and had my finals, which for me was a perfect combination because I could show my professor that everything is actually made and working, I was really proud and they were really proud, this was back in 2009.
The first hostel we opened was also called The Soul Kitchen, but it was much smaller than the one we have right now. We were running it from 2009 until 2012. It had a total of 30 beds and it was close to the train station, it was really nice, and the location was convenient, but being close to the train station, some streets nearby were shady. However, it was really cool, and we had a lot of fun events there! We were the first to implement a lot of activities in the hostel and not just offer accommodation.
We wanted to continue growing and moving forward. It was around the same time that we had enough funds to be able to travel and we were introduced to the hostel management community in Europe and the meetings were incredibly impactful for us. We learned a lot, and suddenly we knew everything we wanted to implement in our new hostel.
So in 2012 we closed the original hostel and opened it in the location we are at right now, and since then we’ve been here! We started with thirty beds and now we accommodate up to hundred beds. To think about it now and to be really honest, I haven’t worked anywhere else except hostels!
What do you find most distinctive about the hostel industry compared to the hotel industry?
I think this is a topic we can talk about forever, we probably need an additional interview just for this! haha. I think every hostel operator and every hotel operator have a different approach to the industry. You can say that if you sell shared rooms then you are a hostel, but I believe that you can have a hostel without shared rooms too because it’s not only shared rooms that define a hostel. It’s also the approach of the site and the guests because if you position yourself as a hostel, you’ll attract sociable people who want to socialise with everybody else.
So I thought of this trick, that we can have a hostel or still position ourselves as a hostel with no dorms, because who cares really? Hostels have always had private rooms too, and now we have more private rooms than dorms which usually is the other way round with hostels.
Even though we are one of the more expensive hostels in town, the private rooms are very popular since it’s cheaper than hotels and still provides the social hostel community environment. We have over two hundred hostels in town, and there is a lot of competition. We are number one by rating and price, and those who come and stay with us, don’t stay because of the price, they know what they want and what they are looking for.
Having said that, I think what really differentiates a hostel from a hotel is the social atmosphere. There is a social space that is meant to be social! Even the way it is designed and managed encourages socialising amongst guests. People meet and naturally talk to each other and then decide to do certain activities together and these things just happen organically, which you won’t find in a hotel.
What is the philosophy of The Soul Kitchen?
Our major focus is on our customers and the quality and experience in general. We don’t think of it as we are selling beds, we are selling experiences. We are constantly trying to improve and think of all the details of the experiences; like what other experiences can we offer, who do we partner with, how other local businesses can benefit from the space as well. Basically, we try to perfect every angle of the hostel like the location, staff and overall experience.
How has your hostel evolved during the global economic crisis brought about by the pandemic outbreak?
After the pandemic hit, we took a big turnaround! We used to have a rule of a minimum two-night stay and a maximum of two weeks stay. The rule was in place because we didn’t want our guests to stay with us long term and we were focused mainly on international travellers. But now, it’s completely different, we offer co-living which is mainly long term.
So sometimes we still do short-term, but because of Covid, we don’t want to have a high turnover of different guests. We now prefer to focus on the long-term. We really had to change our mindsets and the way we do things around here. The way we manage the hostel now is completely different, and it took us about three-four months to change our own mindset and perspective to do what we’re actually doing now.
After transforming into a co-living space, we still have a community vibe, which is the key. However, not so much of a hostel vibe. A hostel vibe is when you have travellers sitting around a table in the kitchen discussing what kind of tourist activities to do and what Russian restaurant to visit. Nobody talks like that anymore, but it’s important that we still have the community. It’s a major change, and we have to think who are current customers are because our customers are not the same anymore. We don’t have any foreigners at all, our current customers are all local digital nomads. Our chosen target group are remote workers who like to travel but can’t do it right now; who want to be in an environment that’s open for communication and where they can mingle with each other.
At the moment, we have implemented a lot of other events like professional workshops and classes, which we would never have done before because it would have been irrelevant.
What has been your biggest learning lesson in the industry?
Especially as a hostel owner in Russia, I think learning to be flexible is my biggest learning experience. l always had it in my mind, but apparently what I think now is that it was never enough. Like for example, we invested in these really expensive beautiful beds, but we have lost flexibility because of it; once we remove them, we cannot install them back, once we disassemble them it’s as good as destroying them. So there’s no turning back when it comes to the dorm beds.
Now I would go with a more flexible approach towards things like these. Instead of opting for built-in furniture, I’d opt for more flexible furniture that’s detachable and movable so that they can be moved from the dorm rooms to the private rooms. The flexibility that we already have are with the common rooms, we are lucky to have a lot of common rooms. Like we had a quiet space which we have turned into a co-working space and that’s great, but if we had non-detachable units, it would have been harder to be flexible.
Another example; we have removed our reception unit and we are not going to put it back anytime in the near future because it takes up a lot of our space. And right now we use the space for other things like yoga classes which makes more sense.
Any advice to those who want to enter the hostel industry?
I think the key to successfully running a hostel is thinking outside the box. You cannot go down the same tracks you have in the past.
And I’m not so positive here, but I don’t think we will ever go back to how it was. We have to move forward, think of new approaches, we have to be flexible. Everything in your hostel has to be flexible, not only the rooms but the common areas as well. It has to be flexible in a way that you can use the same space for co-working, for meetings, for events; that suits for long term use and short term use as well. In general, I think now is the time we have to look for new ideas and it’s not the time to look for places with fixed rent that are expensive. Crisis always brings about new opportunities with it, it forces you to step out of your comfort zone and think outside the box.
Considering the fact that you have been in the industry for a long time, what changes have you observed in travel behaviour over the years?
I think there is a big trend of being generally conscious about things while travelling. There is a trending term called ‘slow travel’ where you travel by car and explore everything at a very leisure pace. It’s much more eco-friendly than travelling by plane (also considering that there aren’t many flights operating at the moment).
Another trending term of 2020 is ‘staycation’, it’s more about travelling within your country or neighbouring countries without going too far away and exploring your immediate surroundings.
Like right now actually, I’m not living in Russia, I’m living in Slovenia. It’s a really small country, but because of the lockdown, I’m constantly exploring it and there is so much to explore, more than any travel guide can suggest! Everything is extremely beautiful and you kind of deep-dive more and explore more with smaller destinations.
Lastly, more people are working remotely and a lot of them are combining work and travel, so combining your hostel with a co-working and co-living space is a smart idea and will attract great opportunities for the future.
