Our story
- How did it happen
- TL;DR
- History in the making
A hostel to us is an old detached house. Preferably a red one with white corners – and a large garden if possible. With this image in mind, brothers Christian & Fredrik started searching for a location for their dream enterprise. For nearly a year, they looked around among the city’s premises and talked to different landlords. Most often, they ended the day at their parents’ dinner table on Vegagatan. The bottom floor of a neighbouring building had premises that had been empty for years. The brothers had never given the building a thought, it was just too close to home (sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees). But after a while, their curiosity was piqued and they finally called that number from the “for lease” sign. The landlord was interested in their idea and was happy to show them the premises. The brothers immediately saw the potential.
“We could put a kitchen to make breakfast here... and check out the granite gneiss paving by the entrance! What a grand entrance!”
The dream of a future enterprise no longer involved an old red house. Now all they wanted was modern office premises on their mum’s street.
As you know if you’ve ever started a company, it rarely goes without a hitch. But after numerous visits to the bank, they solved the puzzle and were off to a promising start.
Finally, on 15 March 1996, they had the grand opening. Some thirty guests had been invited and there was champagne and cake. When the final guest had left, there was no time to rest as they had a large opening celebration that night for friends and family. They had to provide food and drink for around 70 people. Being a bit optimistic, they had also accepted some bookings for the first day. The premises were far from finished as they had only had access to them for a few days. In the middle of the celebration, guests started to arrive. As if that weren’t enough, Christian was a new father as of 30 hours and his wife was still in the maternity ward. He had barely slept since the birth. But things have a way of working out for the best, and they did this time too.
And it has been a really wonderful journey since then. Slottsskogens Hostel is now one of Sweden’s top hostels, which was evident during our years as an STF hostel, when we were named hostel of the year. Many of our guests say the same thing, as does our ratings on all the online booking sites.
At the start, the hostel had 96 beds. After several expansions, we now have capacity to receive about 260 guests in our three buildings. We are not looking to expand any further at the moment, but we are always striving to be better. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please share them with us.
We hope that you enjoy your visit and we are so pleased that you have chosen to stay with us. Best regards, Christian & Fredrik Dahl with staff.
CSR
We have a collective agreement and follows industry regulations for the staff to thrive.
Environmental certification and as far as possible we use local suppliers