World's first skyscraper hostel opens in moscow

Photos: Facebook.com/HLHostel

The words "hostel" and "skyscraper" go together like "bankers" and "backpackers", but they can all be found in Moscow's financial district, where a twenty-something opened up his own budget accommodation right opposite the tallest building in Europe: the world's first skyscraper hostel.

Moscow City's 148-acre business site (officially called the Moscow International Business Center) was designed to be a hub of wealth. In the wake of the Ukraine crisis, though, with sanctions imposed by other countries, the Russian economy has seen better days: so, too has its skyscrapers. In the years leading up to 2007, the country grew 7 per cent per annum on average. Now, even Mercury City Tower, the tallest building in Europe, has a vacancy rate of 32 per cent, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

"Somebody had the idea that if you build a lot of skyscrapers in one spot you have an international financial Centre," Darrell Stanaford, a real estate analyst from Romanov Dvor, told the New York Times. "But it doesn’t work. You need other things, too."

There are still skyscrapers being built, with eight current under development and two more in the pipeline. How, then, to fill up its empty desks?

25 year old Roman Drozdenko had one solution: High Level Hostel, a budget bed and breakfast two thirds of the way up a largely vacant skyscraper. On the ground floor, marble sculptures and posh elevators abound. 43 floors up? A bearded man cooking scrambled eggs in a kitchenette. The cubicle? Bunk beds. The conference room? A common room, complete with Xbox.

"We thought, ‘why not open a hostel in a skyscraper?'" said Drozdenko. "Nobody’s done that before."

They are not the only ones entering financial territory: according to the Times, almost 60 per cent of tenants are now non-financial companies, ranging from small start-ups to even a culinary school.

While some suited businessmen might worry about opening a company in a building where students in sweatpants stroll about, the building managers are apparently not bothered.

"There were no questions regarding our guests," says Roman. "In fact, there were no questions at all."

In Russia, youth hostels rent you.