Urban Rocks Interviews the Crash Pad
Dan Rose and Max Poppel are the owners of the forthcoming Crash Pad. Jonathan Berry and Kelly Fuller from Urban Rocks asked them a few questions about their project...
Jonathan: What is the impetus for this idea or project?
Dan: Max and I moved here from the Boston area several years ago, largely because of the climbing. It’s no secret that Chattanooga has a fantastic wealth of climbing, and there’s no place here for the vibrant climbing community to gather, rest up and meet after a day of climbing.
Max: Beyond an affordable place to stay, it’s right downtown, on the Southside of Chattanooga. In addition to the climbing, Chattanooga is an amazing destination for all things outdoors and what has been lacking is a community hub or base camp. So we are excited to have a place for outdoor enthusiasts to gather.
Kelly: The name of your place is the Crash Pad and your slogan is “An Uncommon Hostel”, what makes you so uncommon?
Dan: I would say that we are a hostel in the sense that we will be charging rates comparable to other hostels, and we won’t be a full service hotel. We’re not a traditional hostel in that we will have a beautiful new building, and we’ve put a huge amount of research and thought into this. It is, across the board, more similar to a B&B or a boutique hotel. It’s going to be very nice, and well kept.
Jonathan: Talking about the amenities, what are you going to have to offer for the guests that come and stay with you?
Max: As far as accommodations we will have custom, hand-built bunk beds, and private rooms with queen beds and a sink. Right down the hall from the beds, there will be nice communal bathrooms (this does not mean group showers!) and laundry facilities. The building will have two floors of rooms, and a living room area with a full kitchen stocked with spices and dish ware. We also have a full acre of land and are committed to providing some interesting green-spaces in which to gather.
Dan: We will provide an awesome landscape, free Wi-Fi and computer terminals, on-site private parking, and free coffee and breakfast with the price of your bed.
Kelly: How lon g have you guys been working on this project?
Dan: We’ve been talking about it for years. The idea has evolved from a climber-oriented campground in the Suck Creek area, similar to Miguel’s in the Red, to something more urban. It’s also evolved to appeal to a much broader demographic than just the climbing population.
Kelly: Did you guys do any kind of research or anything in particular to plan for this project?
Max: We’ve done a lot of research. We made a lot of trips in the Southeast to check out what our neighboring hostels are doing, and we also made a trip out west. We flew into San Diego and drove up to Seattle, hitting nine cities and fifteen-plus hostels. We took a lot of what we learned from those trips and directly applied that to our project.
Dan: We checked out hostels of all kinds, running the gamut from huge Hostelling International affiliates to smaller, privately owned ones. We took a lot of notes and hung onto a lot of stuff that we liked, and more importantly got rid of the things that we didn’t like.
Kelly: Are you going to be affiliated with Hostel International?
Dan: No, we will be privately owned.
Max: They have a lot of really great standards that we will also be upholding but we are really excited to be independent and be creative with how we run the hostel.
Jonathan: So you guys mentioned that you will be in downtown Chattanooga. What part of downtown and why did you choose this area?
Dan: Downtown Chattanooga has a few different areas. There’s the heart, which has the Aquarium and many restaurants. But down on the Southside there is a block or two on Main Street which is seeing some pretty awesome revitalization. Lots of old historic buildings are being revamped into restaurants, bars, art galleries, etc. It is the up-and- coming, locally owned and operated area that has a lot of exciting new projects.
Kelly: I heard that you will be preserving a section of an old building on your property as well. Can you tell us about that?
Max: There is one existing structure on the land that we currently plan to demo. We will reclaim as much of the materials as possible and try to reuse them in the bunk beds and other fixtures in the hostel. There are also a couple of beautiful old brick walls that we will be bracing, putting solar panels on top of and integrating into the landscape. Green building is important to us and we will be LEED certified, but beyond the certifications it has been important to us from day one to go green with the building practices and beyond.
Jonathan: Do you know how many people the hostel will be able to house at one time.
Dan: Around 30 people. We have 12 bunks (24 beds; only one body per bed, please!) and six private rooms. We’ll have a handful of cots, so we can turn a private room into a family room.
Jonathan: So this will be a bit more of an intimate setting?
Dan: Definitely, especially compared to some of the hostels out on the West Coast, where there are 150 - 200 beds and a staff of 15 people. This place, at least right off the bat, will have Max and me there and that’s it.
Kelly: So any future plans for the hostel?
Dan: We hope that it’s so busy that we’re forced to expand.
Max: We are also hoping that it is busy enough to justify opening up one of the coolest bars that Chattanooga has yet to see on the same property.
Kelly: Alright guys, thanks a lot for talking with us. The Crash Pad, An Uncommon Hostel, coming to Chattanooga, TN in early 2011.
Max: Big thanks to Urban Rocks Gym. For those looking to follow our progress, check out www.crashpadchattanooga.com or facebook.com/TheCrashPad.