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 2006 and have worked in seven properties since – from front office 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
- 5 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 2006
From the front desk to the director’s office. The full version, including further education, is in the CV.
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since March 2025
Director
Coffee INN Hostel Berlin – Hostel Berlin Betriebsgesellschaft mbH
208 beds, café on the ground floor. Building all structures and processes from the ground up, developing a hostel group.
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March 2020 – March 2025
General Manager
NEOHOSTEL Berlin – MAXFLI Beteiligungs GmbH
600 beds, 33 staff. Developed an in-house property management system together with external developers, plus brand building.
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Dec 2018 – March 2020
General Manager
Cityhomes Dikili GmbH
Letting twelve villas in Dikili, Turkey, and building a structure for third-party holiday rentals – alongside running Cityhostel Berlin.
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May 2010 – March 2020
General Manager
Cityhostel Berlin – EGI GmbH
450 beds in 109 rooms, breakfast restaurant, bar and three conference rooms in Berlin-Mitte.
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Aug 2009 – May 2010
Head of individual reservations
MEININGER Hotels
Individual reservations for a growing chain – and which parts of that transfer to independent properties.
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Oct 2007 – Aug 2009
Property manager
Baxpax Downtown Hostel Berlin
First leadership role: rota, onboarding, complaint handling.
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June 2006 – Oct 2007
Front office agent
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.