BHostel

A flood left Zack Reed without a home in 2022. So he started working in hostels, and it changed how he sees the world.

In this episode of BHostel, recorded at Ember Hostel in Denver, Zack tells the whole story. It starts with his first hostel job at the International Travelers House in San Diego. It ends with a book about his life inside American hostels. Along the way, he shares how the front desk taught him to set boundaries without losing empathy. He explains why life on the move frees you from things you cannot control. And he makes the case that the stigma around American hostels is wrong.

Whether you have never booked a bunk or you have worked a hundred desk shifts, this one is for you.

Find Zack's book, "Same Bag, Different Bunk: My Life Inside American Hostels," on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/0ePggvFG

If this episode changed how you see hostels, rate BHostel on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Then send it to a friend who has never stayed in one.

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One year. Four losses. Her job, her cat, her relationship, and her mother.

Then Jemelle opened a Pokémon pack, and everything started to change.

In this episode of BHostel, recorded at Ember Hostel in Denver, Jemelle shares how the Pokémon TCG helped her rebuild after the hardest year of her life. After a layoff from the video game industry, she paid off her credit card debt through budgeting and real sacrifice. She found community in hostel life. And she found her way back to joy through collecting.

She rips packs live on the show and walks a total beginner through his first pack opening. Along the way, she makes the case that the Pokémon collecting community is moving away from resale value and toward shared joy, nostalgia, and kindness. Childhood interests are not a distraction from adulthood. They are the antidote to it.

Her advice for anyone going through it: keep going, find your people, and never stop searching for what makes you happy.

Filmed at Ember Hostel, Denver, Colorado.

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One year. Four losses. Her job, her cat, her relationship, and her mother.

Then Jemelle opened a Pokémon pack, and everything started to change.

In this episode of BHostel, recorded at Ember Hostel in Denver, Jemelle shares how the Pokémon TCG helped her rebuild after the hardest year of her life. After a layoff from the video game industry, she paid off her credit card debt through budgeting and real sacrifice. She found community in hostel life. And she found her way back to joy through collecting.

She rips packs live on the show and walks a total beginner through his first pack opening. Along the way, she makes the case that the Pokémon collecting community is moving away from resale value and toward shared joy, nostalgia, and kindness. Childhood interests are not a distraction from adulthood. They are the antidote to it.

Her advice for anyone going through it: keep going, find your people, and never stop searching for what makes you happy.

Filmed at Ember Hostel, Denver, Colorado.

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Chelsea runs bookings, marketing, and community at NW Portland Hostel, a 200-guest space in Portland, Oregon.

We get into the unwritten code of hostel life, the public café and free event space, cultural exchange, sustainability, and how the place adapted to survive the pandemic.

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Two college students. One firehouse turned hostel—a conversation about identity, immigrant families, and rewriting the story you were handed.

Some interviews you steer. This one you just hold on to.

We pulled up, back in 2021, to Firehouse Hostel in downtown Austin, just off the 36, and found two travelers who feed off each other's energy like a current. Andrea Rivera is 20, from Dallas by way of Honduras. Abby Botta is 19, from a self-described tiny cow town in Woodstock, Connecticut. They are broke, they are brilliant, and they came to a hostel for the same reason most great stories start. It was cheaper, and the kitchen is where strangers become a three-hour conversation.

What begins as a budget travel chat opens into something much bigger. Andrea grew up the daughter of first-generation immigrants, where the rule at the door was simple. Come home alive, and come home with a good story. Abby grew up watching two doctors push the limits of their fields, with a grandmother who measured love in acceptance letters. Both of them are queer. Both of them are figuring out how much of the script they were raised on they actually want to keep.

This is the episode where two teenagers casually drop a philosophy most adults spend decades chasing. Andrea calls it "making the comfortable uncomfortable"-the idea that real growth lives on the far side of complacency, and that quietly pushing your own boundaries pushes everyone around you to grow, too. Abby reframes the whole game as an economy of happiness, where filling that account first lets the rest follow. They talk about old institutions and crusty paper on the wall, about hiring the kid with blue hair and neck tattoos, and about the fear of waking up at 30 and reverting to everything they swore they would leave behind.

And then, near the end, they turn directly to the listener. To the 14-year-old still closeted in a town that has no room for them, Andrea offers the truest cliché there is. It gets better, and the moment you can take control, you are holding the pen to your own book. Abby adds the part nobody warns you about. Find your community, but vet your people, because shared identity is a starting line and not a finish.

It is funny, wide open, and one of the most honest hostel kitchen conversations we have ever captured.

Storytellers, this one is for anyone who ever felt like the story they were given did not fit. Press play.

In this episode:

• Why two college students chose a hostel over a hotel, and what the kitchen taught them
• Reading the room in communal living, and the roommate rule that keeps you safe
• Growing up as a first-generation immigrant versus old-blood New England
• "Make the comfortable uncomfortable," and why growth needs friction
• The economy of happiness versus the economy of wealth
• Old institutions, blue hair, and hiring for potential over pedigree
• Parting advice for anyone still closeted in a community with no room for them

Guests

Andrea Rivera is a 20-year-old traveler from Dallas, Texas, with roots in Honduras. Abby Botta is a 19-year-old traveler from Woodstock, Connecticut. Both are students at a small, historically women's college.

Recorded at

Firehouse Hostel, downtown Austin, Texas.

Trust the process, and you be the storyteller.

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Season 4 of the BHostel podcast opens inside Northwest Portland Hostel, where backpackers, neighbors, and strangers become something closer to family. Through late-night conversations, quiet moments of vulnerability, and a deep love for hospitality, this episode captures what happens when the people who run a hostel care as much as the people who stay in one.

This is the audio track from "Stay," the documentary series by BHostel, exclusively produced by Cloudbeds, that goes inside the hostels shaping how we travel, connect, and belong — told through the people who build them, the communities that surround them, and the guests who carry their stories home.

Press play, settle in, and listen to the hostel come alive.

🎧 Watch the full documentary on YouTube
🌐 More from BHostel
☁️ Produced by Cloudbeds

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FROM THE VAULT: We are reaching back into the BHostel archive to bring you one of the conversations that shaped the direction of this entire show.

 Two best friends quit their careers, sold everything they owned, and rode Honda Africa Twin motorcycles from Southern California to a hostel bar in Austin, Texas. This episode was originally recorded live at Firehouse Hostel on Sixth Street, and it is one of the most honest conversations in the BHostel catalog.

 Evan Leal worked at Northrop Grumman. John Emberson was a heavy-duty mechanic. They had stable careers, real paychecks, and a path everyone around them said was the smart one. Then one night on a two-hour drive home, they stopped putting their lives off and started living.

 They quit. Sold their stuff. Bought motorcycles. And started riding east with no real end date. DoorDash deliveries funded the trip. Hostels kept them connected to other travelers. And a dream about owning a bar somewhere in Australia kept them moving forward.

 We are republishing this episode because the question at its center never gets old: What happens when you stop saying "one day" and start saying "now"?

 In this episode, you will hear:

 — How Evan and John went from talking about leaving to actually quitting their jobs within weeks

— What it is like to fund cross-country motorcycle travel with DoorDash deliveries

— The motorcycle accident that happened the day before this interview (and how Evan walked away without a scratch)

— Why they chose Honda Africa Twins for long-distance adventure riding

— Their plan to ship motorcycles overseas, ride through Europe, and end up in Australia

— The moment John decided, he refused to become the person who regretted never traveling

— Real advice for anyone sitting on a dream they keep putting off

If you are a new listener, this is a perfect place to start. If you have been rocking with BHostel from the beginning, press play and remember why you stayed.

 I am Bryant Perkins. This is BHostel. Trust the process, and you be the storyteller.

 —

 BHostel is a travel storytelling podcast exploring hostel culture, global identity, and the people who choose to see the world on their own terms. New episodes and vault classics available on all platforms.

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A shadow on the wall. Cold air in a closed room. Or just a bunkmate?

In our first Halloween special, we share spooky hostel moments, producer stories (Patrick Star, Hammerhead, Perry the Platypus!), and the heart behind BHostel: community. Hear Bryant and the team trade real hostel tales, from Firehouse Hostel's late-night "orbs" to solo travel romance in Ecuador, and why we keep telling stories between seasons.

If you love hostel life, travel community, and a little scare with your bedtime story, this episode's for you.

Follow the show and leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts—your words help travelers find BHostel. Share your hostel story: [email protected]

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At Denver's 11th Ave Hostel, Bailey and friends share first-gen roots, the family dinners that shaped them, and how hostel community becomes chosen family. They also get honest about microaggressions and why acceptance starts with respect. If you've felt in-between cultures—or found "home" on the road—this conversation belongs to you.
 👉 If this resonates, follow & leave a quick review to help travelers find BHostel.

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Bailey once struggled with severe anxiety. Now, after traveling from Omaha to Denver, he's found confidence, community, and a calling to help others. In this episode of the BHostel Podcast, host Bryant Perkins sits down with Bailey to discuss hostel life at 11th Avenue Hostel, Denver nightlife, and how travel friendships can be as powerful as family ties.

Subscribe + leave a quick review to help other travelers find the show.

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