2030 Vision

We are the leading concept in the rapidly growing boutique hostel space – combining the social atmosphere and budget-friendly aspects of a hostel with the creature comforts of a boutique hotel.

Our network of boutique hostels provides guests with an unmatched opportunity to blend work and travel, enabling them to spend more time exploring than they ever thought possible.

We proudly refer to ourselves as a boutique hostel and serve as the inspiration for multiple concepts in our space.

Our corporate employees have built, and continue to improve upon, the growing stable of “proprietary to ONDA” systems and processes that make up our back office. These systems, designed for scale, free our site staff from clerical work and enable them to deliver consistent, excellent service to guests across our locations. One example of such a system is our Guest Service Ninja program – a decentralized team of highly trained, multilingual guest service specialists who remotely assist guests across our portfolio of locations, 24 hours a day. Our corporate staff members are well-traveled and have walked countless miles in our guests’ shoes, many having previously been ONDA guests.

The ONDA site employee experience is focused on providing friendly, helpful service to the guests standing right in front of them. We hire for personality, selecting individuals who are a positive contributor to the on-site vibe. Our typical site staff member has grown up in the communities in which we operate and acts as an ambassador of their home to our guests. We do not have a recruiting budget, instead relying primarily on word of mouth referrals from existing employees. As a result, we have a backlog of site applicants, giving us a competitive advantage when it comes time to staff new sites.

We put a strong emphasis on promotion from within and imbue our staff with the same travel experiences that inspired us to found ONDA. To-date, we have sent 20 members of our site staff on an expenses-paid backpacking trip to Thailand to experience traveling from the perspective of our guests. Our staff have come back from these trips with fresh ideas for how they can improve professionally and how we can improve as a company, many of which we have incorporated into our product.

A strong track record of profitability over the past six years has enabled us to finance our growth organically. As a result, we take outside investment prudently, from those investors whose vision aligns with our own, and opportunistically, allowing us to pursue growth opportunities with outsized upside to our operations. We communicate candidly with our investors and frequently rely on them for support.

We’ll soon be operating in each of the top ten tourist destinations in Costa Rica and we’ve started laying the foundation to begin operations in our second country. We have grown profitably and responsibly, with our locations achieving best-in-class unit economics. We have an active, positive impact on the lives of our guests, staff, investors, and communities.

We have a core group of about 1,000 travelers who stay with us for more than 60 days each year. This group is primarily composed of travelers who have taken advantage of remote work policies that emerged post-COVID and have perfected the art of working on the road.

This core group is the nucleus of the ONDA family – having formed lasting friendships that extend beyond their time with one another at ONDA. They have formed ad hoc groups to facilitate communication and frequently plan trips with one another, reuniting at ONDA annually.

While on-site, they act as the social glue that is an integral part of the experience for all of our guests. When they travel elsewhere and return home, they act as brand ambassadors for ONDA, broadening the reach of our community and welcoming new members into the fold.

Our core guests’ favorite part about ONDA is the “just get here” experience we provide. They know if they can get to Costa Rica, we will take care of the rest – accommodation, meals, tours, transportation, workspaces, social activities, and most importantly, community – countrywide. We’ve removed the lingering barriers to international travel and have mainstreamed gap years and workations, enabling our average guest to travel an additional 3 weeks per year.

ONDA locations act as informal social hubs for the communities in which we operate. Our spaces are frequently utilized by our friends and neighbors to advance causes that are important to them. We are our neighbors’ first choice of venue for important community events.

Since day one, we’ve embraced the concept of practical sustainability – for example, our elimination of single use plastics (including straws). We’ve worked with our development team and advisory board to secure LEED certification for a number of our existing locations.

We have a program whereby our guests contribute 1% of their total spend at ONDA to community improvement initiatives. We educate our guests about the issues that are important to the communities in which we operate and give them opportunities to actively participate in community improvement efforts.