New Orleans is not hostile toward hostels, said Jeff Anding, Vice President of External Affairs at the New Orleans CVB, at NOLABA’s Real Estate Breakfast on Sept. 14. Instead, he said hostels provide authentic and experiential aspects of a trip to New Orleans that travelers crave.

David Gindin introduced The Quisby, a hostel in the Lower Garden District, to the real estate professionals in attendance Thursday, and Sarah Berger of Hostelling International USA spoke about the upcoming HI New Orleans hostel that will open on Canal Street in 2018.

Here are some key takeaways from Thursday’s breakfast. To request an invitation to a future monthly Real Estate Breakfast, contact NOLABA Vice President of Retail Attraction Brenda Canada.

Quisby is Old English for “an odd or eccentric person,” Gindin said. The hostel is located at 1225 St. Charles Avenue and has four different types of rooms, including private doubles. The standard quad room sleeps four.

“The stigma around hostels has faded a lot in the last 10 years because there are good companies opening properties in the country now,” he said. “It was not unfounded before – there were a lot of hostels that were just flop houses for a long time. But now there’s less of a gap between a traditional hotel and a hostel, so people have been overwhelmingly supportive of us. Neighborhoods in New Orleans are very supportive of us.”

Berger said a signature program HI New Orleans will offer is travel scholarships for travelers 30 and younger. The hostel will feature 24 private rooms, 122 dorm beds, common space, a public cafe and community rooms. Dorm rooms feature a reading light, charging station, privacy curtain and luggage locker. When HI New Orleans opens, New Orleans will join a network of more than 4,000 hostels worldwide and more than 50 across the country. 75% of hostel guests are under 35 years of age, Berger added.

Anding said only 21.6% of visitors to New Orleans currently fit that age demographic, so the advent of hostels in the city could help increase that number and set the tone for repeat visitors.

“We need to be filling the funnel,” he said.