The Tux in the Backpack

Allow me to insert a more personal post on this Flashpacking Blog. It has to do with Flashpacking as well, of course.
The thing is.. maybe I don’t want to be a Digital Nomad. I know I am a nomad and that is not too likely to change, but maybe I want to be a slower, employed nomad instead of a digital one.

maybe it takes more effort...

There’s a lot of blogs and websites out there telling you how to “live your life making money online”:

How not to be location dependent; how to be an expert in social media, blogging, viral stuff, ebooks; how to be the ultimate digital nomad.

Many of them are very well done, and sure their authors make a very decent living out of it. But I’ve also seen a lot of bad ones, the “make a trillion online in a month” ones, where they show you proudly some Adsense receipt and ask you to give them your email address (if not also some of your money).

Well all this made me think that maybe a lot of what we see online is just a more advanced, refined version of the old crappy MLM and affiliate sites. I’m not saying this out of disillusion because I’ve tried and didn’t work for me. After all I’m living in a very affordable place at the moment (Budapest) and I’m making some little income. I could continue doing this is some place that I love and that’s even cheaper (like Thailand or Indonesia).

But as I’m trying to find out my next destination (and occupation) my thoughts go more or less like this:

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Popularity: 100% [?]

Hilarious video in which Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain talks about backpackers.

He’s notoriously a super-fast talker, and the Irish accent won’t be easy for everybody to understand, but surely the main idea will come out.

Maybe because he mentions that he’s getting too old and comfortable to backpack (”I had one of those moments when you go: I’m not doing that anymore”), or maybe because he prefers wheelie suitcases (”look, it’s on wheels, you feckin’ eijit”), but we like to think that Dara could easily be interested in travelling as a flashpacker.

Popularity: 51% [?]

In Part I of this interview we asked Josh Cohen, the man behind HostelManagement.com about him, his website and how it can be beneficial to hostels owners, and then taking advantage of his expertise in the field, we asked what is his definition of a hostel, and if hostels offering single rooms (Flashpacker ones for example) can be considered real hostels. We now continue asking Josh his opinion on hotels sold as hostels, the type of guests in hostels and their choices, and of course his point of view on the Flashpacking phenomenon.

The Tux in Backpack: What do you think of Hostel booking engines offering proper hotels in their results? And of budget hotels calling themselves hostels?

HostelManagement.com (Josh): I think that budget hotels calling themselves hostels is bad for real hostels.  It doesn’t bother me that booking engines offer hotels, but they should more clearly distinguish hotels from hostels, and stop listing hotel prices as “beds” when the entire room has to be booked.  Selling a hotel or motel room for “$50 per bed” isn’t fair to the solo traveler because the price is really “$100 per room” — or even “$400 per room” depending on the minimum number of “beds” that has to be booked.   It’s impossible to know the actual price until you try to book the property.

hostel room or hotel room?

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Popularity: 54% [?]

What is a hostel really? Would you consider a place offering rooms for a quite expensive price a hostel even if they define themselves so? What is the line between an expensive hostel and a cheap hotel? And are hostels catering for Flashpackers hostels at all? We ask Josh Cohen, who is an expert indeed, having helped Hostels marketing themselves and improve their quality since 2004 with his Hostelmanagement.com.

The Tux in Backpack: First of all Josh, can you tell us more about yourself and Hostelmanagement.com?

HostelManagement.com (Josh): I starting working in hostels in 2001.  I noticed that the quality of some hostels was lower than it could be, and that the solutions to the problems were often very simple.  In 2004 I decided to create a website where hostels could exchange tips on how to make hostels better.  The main goals of HostelManagement.com are to increase the quality of existing hostels and to help develop new hostels, especially in places where there aren’t many hostels.  HostelManagement.com focuses on the hostel industry from the perspective of the hostels themselves.

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Popularity: 66% [?]

You read often definitions of Flashpackers as backpackers who travel on a bigger budget or with some tech accessories. Somehow a general idea is emerging, that some accessories are the one that makes the Flashpacker. Well I’d like to state something different; bringing some accessories (especially on their own) with you while travelling don’t necessarily means you’re a Flashpacker.

Let’s have a look at the most common ones.

Digital camera
Ahem, who doesn’t bring one on a trip nowadays? My parents are in their late sixties, they do have a digital camera, but trust me, they’re not Flashpackers. It would be even more “Flashpacker” to have a non-digital camera nowadays; that could mean you’re into good old professional pictures.

Mobile phone
As above. I don’t think 86% of travellers (according to a Hostelworld study in 2006 that’s the number then of people travelling with a mobile phone) are Flashpackers.

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Popularity: 28% [?]