New OB Hostel Owners’ Upgrades May Include Covering Exterior “OB-esque Hippie Floral Design”

OB Hostel, July 2014, by Emily Fagan

By Matthew Wood

When the Ocean Beach International Hostel was sold last month, OB residents couldn’t help but be a little worried about the future of the neighborhood relic.

Fortunately, the business is in the hands of USA Hostels – a company that started in San Diego with a hostel in the Gaslamp District and seems to have the best intentions of the relic on the heart of Newport Avenue in mind.

Here’s  USA Hostels president David Reuter response to those worries:

“We’re in it for the long haul. We’re the owners and operators. It’s going to be a hands-on approach. We’re interested in becoming members of the community.”

He said the sale had been years in the making. The previous owner, John Asher, had approached Reuter when he bought the place in the 1990s – around the same time Reuter had started his hostel business.

“He came to me and said, ‘Hey it would be great to make it a hostel.’ I was broke and couldn’t really do it. So he ran it himself,” Reuter recalls. “We would talk a few times a year about business. So when he was ready to get out of the business, he called me and said, ‘Hey, are you interested?’”

Ocean Beach International Hostel’s Jack McKeon and Maria Argyropoulos-Minos. Photo by Matthew Wood

It’s a first for the business that Reuter, a former San Diego resident who lives and works in Hawaii now.

“We’re really excited. This is our first beach hostel,” he said. “It’s kind of a twist on a new vibe for what we have currently. We’re excited about taking what John has done and putting our stamp and spin and culture on it.”

He cedes control of most of the operations to Chief Operating Officer Maria Argyropoulos-Minos, who has brought in OBcean Jack McKeon to help manage the place.

“I’ve been living and breathing this hostel for the past two months,” she said.

They said their biggest goal is making sure guests are safe, something they said had been a concern in the past.

“I’ve tried to make security a top priority,” McKeon said. “Make sure it’s a backpacker hostel and not something else. We’re really trying to represent ourselves to the community and open communication.”

They have employed overnight security guards on the weekends while tweaking the guest policy to make sure only residents get in to the building at night. Reuter said they are also trying to keep drugs out of the building as much as possible.

“I’ve heard some stories that there were a lot of drugs in there,” he said. “It was a bit of a wild, wild West. If our kids want to go out and have some beers and whoop it up, that’s all right. But it’s not an after party.”

Reuter said they will keep the guest policy – and pricing – similar. People who stay there need to be from at least 100 miles away, Reuter explained, and they have to be able to prove they are just passing through the area.

Rooms can sleep up to six people, but there are also private facilities. Prices range from $25-$70, depending on the time and the room.

“Summer time is pretty much sold out every day,” Reuter said. “Winter, weekends and big events we’re pretty busy.”

One change guests will see right away, as the group works on moving the hostel’s main entrance. You may have noticed the front porch has been blocked off with plants. Argyropoulos-Minos said that’s part security measure and partly a way to create better flow for our guests.

“We want to try to make it more garden-like,” she said.

They’ve also been busy upgrading some of the hostel’s features, including new doors and electronic keys for the rooms and an upgrade on the floors. They are also using the winter down time to put in new bunk beds with USB outlets for the 28-room, 90-bed facility.

“Just give it a little facelift. Give it a little love,” Reuter explained. “A lot of the furniture was a little bit tired.”

Argyropoulos-Minos said the whole place is ready for some cosmetic changes.

“We want something that will stand up to the weather. People track in a lot of salt and sand in here.”

The owner said he liked the peace sign up on the roof. One thing they are torn about changing is the paint job. The incredibly OB-esque hippie floral pattern adorning the outside of the building makes it stand out in a neighborhood that takes a lot to stand out. Newcomers to the area might think the unique work has been there for years, but it has only been up since last summer.

The big question: Will it stay with the new owners?

“When I looked at it, I was like, ‘Well, that’s a little over the top,” Reuter said.

He has been on the fence about whether or not to change it. While most of the feedback they get is positive, they have received some complaints from neighbors who say it is an eyesore.

“People are very passionate in OB,” he said.

None of the owners would give a concrete answer about the future of the exterior, though Argyropoulos-Minos offered up a novel solution:

“I think everybody else on the street should paint their building to match it.”

What is clear is that the new owners are going to put the hostel’s best interests first. They are all lifelong travelers who seem to take pride in making the hostel experience enjoyable for guests.

“We’re not in this for the money, that’s for sure,” Argyropoulos-Minos said.

Reuter is excited about the impact the place can have on the community.

“When you’re busy and you’ve got 40 or 50 kids in there, I don’t know what the economic impact of the hostel is, but I’d like to think it’s very positive,” he said. “Our guests aren’t hobos. They’re travelers with some disposable income.”