Hello, my name is
Alexander Dolle-Koch
I have been running hostels for more than 20 years – and hosting still gives me the same pleasure it did on day one.
What drives me: giving travellers a home for a while, and making teams strong.
On top of that, I enjoy bringing interesting people together and advising colleagues across the industry.
About me
Twenty years between front desk and P&L
I started at the front desk in 2005 and have worked in six properties since – from a 60-bed hostel to a 600-bed operation with 33 staff. Everything I know, I learned on the floor: reading occupancy, building teams, cutting cost without guests noticing. Today I run the Coffee INN Hostel in Berlin-Schöneberg and advise operators facing the same questions.
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Operations & P&L 95%
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Revenue & distribution 85%
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Team building & leadership 90%
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Systems & digitalisation 80%
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Sales & networking 88%
- 20+ years in hospitality
- 6 properties managed
- 600 beds in the largest one
- 24+ countries visited – many more than once
My work
Hosting in Berlin – a job between logistics and warmth
Running a hostel is varied, demanding and rewarding in a way that is hard to capture in a job description. No two days are alike: the morning is about occupancy figures, rotas and whether the delivery arrives on time – the afternoon is about explaining to a family from Brazil which platform they need, or giving a solo traveller from Seoul the one tip that changes her stay in Berlin.
Berlin itself is what makes this job special. The city is constantly in motion, reinvents itself again and again and packs history, subculture and the present day into the smallest of spaces. Hosting here is not renting out beds; it is opening a door to this city for guests from all over the world – and becoming part of something that reaches well beyond the front desk: the neighbourhood, the Kiez, the industry, the regulars in the café.
That takes more than business skills. Organisation and management experience are the foundation; without them nothing works. But what decides the matter is empathy, imagination and the willingness to give more than expected at the moment it counts. You do not recognise a good hostel by its price or its fittings, but by how guests feel there – and by whether the team behind it likes coming to work. Hospitality cannot be ordered from above; it has to be lived.
In the end that is what remains: not the night’s stay, but the experience. The conversation over breakfast, the coffee that happened to turn into a friendship, the feeling of belonging somewhere for a few days in an unfamiliar city. When guests are still telling the story months later, you have done the job right.
Looking for someone to take over a property?
Tell me what it is about. I reply within two working days – including when I am not the right person for it.
Portfolio
Properties, networks, roads
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Coffee INN Hostel
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NEOHOSTEL
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Cityhostel Berlin
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Berliner Netzwerk
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Hostel Round Table
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Long-distance hiking
Career
In the industry since 2005
From the first night shift to running the house. The full version, including further education, is in the CV.
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since 2021
Director
Coffee INN Hostel, Berlin-Schöneberg
208 beds, café on the ground floor. Full responsibility for operations, staff and result.
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2017 – 2021
Head of operations
NEOHOSTEL, Berlin
600 beds, 33 staff. Built the operating structure for a 24/7 business at that scale.
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2014 – 2017
Head of operations
Cityhostel Berlin
450 beds, 30 staff. Focus on occupancy management and channel mix.
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2012 – 2014
Project lead
Cityhomes Dikili, Turkey
Setting up and running a holiday resort – different country, different season, same key figures.
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2009 – 2012
Property manager
MEININGER Hotels
Standardised processes inside a growing chain – and which parts of that transfer to independent properties.
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2007 – 2009
Front office manager
baxpax Hostels, Berlin
First leadership role: rota, onboarding, complaint handling.
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2005 – 2007
Front desk
Happy Bed Hostel, Berlin
The beginning. Night shifts, check-ins, and the realisation that this industry never gets boring.
Contact
Let us talk
Email is fastest. For anything longer than two paragraphs, a call works better.