How Hostels Keep the Social Atmosphere When Guests Drink Less

This coworking picked up the Naples conversation on Travel trends: What do travellers want from a hostel in 2027?

Guests are drinking less, and hostels everywhere are feeling it. Bar sales are down, pub crawl sign-ups are thinner, and the drinking games that used to fill the common room take a lot more effort to get going. In our latest HostelLife Hub coworking, host @Kraig Cooper (co-owner of MadHouse and RoadHouse hostels in Prague) brought together operators from party hostels, social hostels and smaller, quieter places to talk about what’s changing and what’s working.

Are hostel guests really drinking less?

Almost everyone on the call said yes. The shift has been building since COVID, and it’s most visible with younger travellers. They’re more comfortable spending time alone, they spend more time on their phones, and choosing not to drink has become normal, even cool. Some hostels are seeing guest spending move from alcohol to coffee and food. The harder part is the social side. Alcohol used to do a lot of the work of getting strangers talking, so now the hostel has to do more of it.

One of the great takeaways from the call: Include non-drinkers without singling them out

The strongest insight of the call: sober and sober-curious guests want to join in, but they don’t want to stand out. Being handed a glass of water while everyone else raises a shot can feel more isolating than skipping the moment entirely.

The fix is easy to put in place:

• Offer an alcohol-free version of every house drink, and make it look the same

• Serve it in the same glass as everything else

• List alcohol-free options on the menu, so nobody has to ask and “out” themselves

• Adapt drinking games so drinking is optional, for example beer pong with water in the cups and everyone sipping their own drink

It also opens a new revenue line, since guests pay for good alcohol-free drinks too.

What hostel activities work without alcohol?

Ideas shared include coffee crawls, morning market walks, afternoon pool or games sessions, cooking classes, quiz nights, card games and a dedicated meet-up table for solo travellers.

Join the conversation:

Kraig has started a thread to collect the best ideas from hostels around the world: Guests are drinking less, what are you doing about it? Add yours, or borrow a few for your own hostel.

Conversations like this happen every Tuesday at the HostelLife Hub coworking, free and open to all members. Come along to the next one.