Brooklyn now hostile to hostels

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By Jaime Lutz

Brooklyn Daily

What’s a budget-conscious tourist to do?

Just three years ago, Brooklyn appeared to be a hotbed of new hostels— budget hotels popular with hipsters and young Europeans . But lately, it’s gotten hostile for hostels. While never plentiful, the scant number of Brooklyn hostels has dwindled recently.

Several weeks ago Williamsburg’s Zip112 Hostel, on N 6th Street between Wythe Avenue and Berry Street, closed, according to neighbors. The place was beloved. All its reviews on Yelp are five stars, with some travelers calling it the best hostel in New York City.

Zip112 isn’t the only Williamsburg hostel to close. The phone number of the Metropol Hostel — formerly on N. 4th Street between Bedford Ave and Berry Street — now directs to the law offices of Charles D. Naylor. The building where it once was now looks unassuming, devoid of any signage. A photographer for this paper rang all three buzzers at the location recently in the early evening, but no one answered.

As recently as 2010, the hostel was providing towels, lockers and free breakfast for travelers, according to website reviews.

Part of the problem is a city crack-down on illegal hotels. Many hostels fell into this category after a 2011 law made it illegal to rent whole apartments in residential buildings for periods of under 30 days.

At this point, it’s hard to find an open hostel in Brooklyn, particularly one with good access to Manhattan, which most travelers insist on.

One exception is the New York Loft Hostel on Varet Street between Bogart and White streets in Bushwick. It can house up to 170 people, making it significantly larger than most hostels in the city. In its four years of operation, it has had to navigate the peculiarities of New York City laws governing hotels.

“For New York City, if the hostel is operating for profit, the maximum number of beds you can have in a room is three,” explained Sarah, the front desk manager at the New York Loft Hostel. She asked that her last name not be printed. This is significantly less permissive than laws governing hostels in many other cities, she said, meaning that it’s hard to make much money without a lot of rooms. The for-profit New York Loft Hostel, for instance, has 100 rooms for rent.

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