Hostel shows flipside of backpacker accommodation

Every day at 6.30am, the sweet smell of pancakes wafts through the halls of Albany's 1849 Backpackers, one of Australia's best-rated hostels.

Owner Rob "Danny" Daniel flips pancakes for up to 100 guests every morning, a tradition he began one morning three years ago with the desire to make his guests feel at home, and one of the reasons his business is among the top rated on backpacker-focused website HostelWorld.

About 105,000 pancakes later, the 100-bed hostel is highly rated on websites Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor and is one of the very few to have a perfect 100 per cent rating on HostelWorld, alongside others in backpacker hotspots including Cairns, Nimbin, Noosa and Port Douglas.

"I think that's where the feedback comes from across the world … from making people feel good and safe," Mr Daniel said.

He and wife Paula took the lease of the once-derelict former London Hotel five years ago with the aim of improving the perception of backpacker accommodation.

"You get some great hostels around the place and they're talked about, but when you've got people who just don't care, combined with a massive party scene with 40 or 50 people drinking every night - it's just a nightmare," he said.

The couple have welcomed guests ranging from teenagers to those in their 70s, who are welcome to pick fresh herbs from the garden, chill out on the veranda with resident kittens Max and Tigger, or jam in the music room.

A mix of travellers were in the communal rooms when the Albany Advertiser visited this month, from 55-year-old businessman Dave Tomsic, hailing from Oregon in the US, to 35-year-old German engineer Nico Schwetje, backpacking with a group of six around the State's south coast.

There were visitors who had made the place home, too, such as 24-year-old Aaron Margetts and fiancee Georgia Cathorne, 22, from Essex in the UK, who had planned to stay one night in Albany on their way to Adelaide and, nine months later, are part of the 1849 team.

Mr Margetts, who is now the manager of 1849 Backpackers, said he believed the reason it was so highly rated online was because of its homely feel.

"Everyone is so friendly, the type of people that you get here are the type of people you feel comfortable talking to," he said.

"You feel like you want to help them out and contribute to their travels.

"A lot of people who come through these sorts of places are people who are doing their gap year, or they've spent the last 10 years dreaming of travelling to Australia and they are finally getting their chance to live out their dream, and you're being a part of that.

"So I think when you're involved in any hostel, or anywhere that has not just the average person going on their weekend trip here or there, they're going to be showing kids photos of these places and inspiring them to go and see these places as well.

"(The good reviews) set it apart that little bit more, in that you feel like you're not just working with any hostel but if you can be part of something that has this massive reputation and people are talking about, that obviously reinforces that feeling of being part of something bigger, and I think that's something that everyone wants to do, no matter what job they're in."

Curtin University School of Marketing Associate Professor Luke Butcher said it was be- coming commonplace for potential guests to use reviews and ratings on online booking sites as a guide.

"Word of mouth, or 'word of mouse', as they call this, is obviously a really powerful way of communicating," he said.

"I think people have a lot more trust for their peers, and with that, comes a degree of impartiality or at least the perception of that."