In what used to one of the thousands of growling buses that plied the streets of Santiago, a group of entrepreneurs have developed the Rolling Hostel to provide a new kind of experience to tourists in Chile.

This hostel on wheels has capacity to house fifteen guests, ten in five double cabins plus another five on individual sofa-beds at the back of the bus.

More can be accommodated in tents that attach to the outside of the bus.

A shower can also be installed on the side of the vehicle although more frequently the hostel parks in camping sites where guests can make use of the existing facilities.

A trip on the Rolling Hostel offers tourists the possibility of visiting uninhabited natural locations and to spend the night in the middle of the deserts, next to enormous glaciers or tucked in between mountain lakes and volcanic geysers.

How Rolling Hostel came about

Pablo Dutilh and Karel Dohondt met in Spain in 1998 when both were taking part in an exchange with the same university. Six years later, Karel arrived in Chile on holiday.

Together with Pablo Egaña, they looked for ways to take advantage of the possibilities of practising adventure tourism and eco-tourism in Chile with the idea of creating an interesting product for the European market.

The idea of developing a tour based around a vehicle occurred to them when a priest friend offered them a bus that he had received as gift.

After looking a several alternatives, they settled on the idea of a bus. They had sufficient resources to invest in a prototype vehicle, a maintenance shop and to provide working capital, but needed more funds to apply for necessary patents, test journeys, strengthen their business plan and carry out market research and marketing. So they decided to apply for seed capital from Innova Chile, the business innovations arm of Chile's economic development agency CORFO.

EuroChile: support for an inter-cultural project

In order to win seed capital from CORFO, it was a necessary to find a patron. That was what led the entrepreneurs to EuroChlie. This business foundation seeks to strengthen commercial ties between Chile and the European Union: develop sectors in the country to strengthen its position in the European market, facilitate the transfer of technology and promote the creation of innovative and efficient businesses between the two regions.

Tourism has been identified as one of the priority areas, given that there is great interest in the numerous possibilities offered by Chile for special niche tourism, particularly eco-tourism.

According to EuroChile´s tourism director Miguel Garcia, "one of Rolling Hostel's leading characteristics is the fusion of European and Chilean cultural references to establish a strategic alliance."

A market for this kind of tourism already existed in Belgium so Karel Dohondt saw the possibility of promoting Rolling Hostel there.

A common friendship and idea led to "an initiative that took advantage of Chile's competitive advantages in eco-tourism and the trend in Europe to look for holiday locations that combine nature, adventure and sustainable exploration. The trips have even been designed to be led by a Chilean and a Belgian. This was the intercultural alliance in which EuroChile was created and led us to sponsor the project with Innova CORFO."

Pablo Egaña admits that the role of the institution has been fundamental. "EuroChile provides professional advise and this is very important for people who lack knowledge or that have fixed ideas about what they want from their business," he says.

Where Rolling Hostel goes

Among the trips that Rolling Hostel makes is "Desert and High Plains" that runs between the months of May and October and costs 1,100 Euros. The trip explores Chile's Norte Chico or Lower North, including the Elqui Valley and its pisco plants; and the Norte Grande or Upper North with its desert landscapes, salt-flats and flamingos and the high plains as well as the beaches and islands of the third region.

A second tour is "Volcanic Patagonia" which also lasts 21 days and runs between December and February. Tourists that opt for this tour will discover the Conguillío, Pérez Rosales and Chiloé national parks as well as the Huilo Huilo and Futaleufú reserves. The Rolling Hostel will also visit the cities of Valdivia, Chaitén and Puerto Montt and the private Pumalin park.

The third trip offered by Rolling Hostel is "Glacial Patagonia" which costs 1,500 Euros and follows Chile's Southern Highway to reach southern Patagonia, visiting locations in Argentina as well as Chile. Over 22 days, passengers will discover the Torres del Paine, Los Glaciares and Monte León national parks as well as lake Bayo, Puerto Rio Tranquilo and the Perito Moreno glacier. At the little city of Ushuaia at the end of the world, passengers have the chance of concluding their tour with a boat trip to visit a penguin colony and lamb barbecue.

Rolling Hostel: more than a journey, an experience

Celso is the driver on the Rolling Hostel. With a kind face and a serene personality, he is a favourite with guests. Pablo Dutilh says that it hoes not matter how much effort he puts into organising activities to entertain travellers, they always prefer Celso.

Although he does not speak English, Celso manages to communicate, inviting tourists each evening to speak about the best and the worst of each day.

Pablo says that working on the bus has been a highly enriching experience as the Belgians - who have made up the majority of passengers on Rolling Hostel - are a very sincere people that take life very seriously.

An oxygen dependent priest, a policeman and a driver are among the people who have ridden on Rolling Hostel.

"Beyond the bus and where we are going, the time spent together makes the trip an experience that allows people to know themselves better and explore new sides of their personality," says Pablo. Among the tales he can tell, he recalls that the priest never made a blessing or prayed with the group while on the trip. "For him, the bus was a space that allowed people to open themselves up to new things, new people and even new previously unexplored emotions."

Another tale that surprised him was that of Katrien, a chef and mother, who left her children with her husband in Belgium and decided to know Chile above the bus. At the end of the trip in one of Celso´s spontaneous get-togethers, Karien told the others emotionally that she had originally questioned the idea of "paying to suffer" (cooking on a campfire, going on arduous walks, washing up and sleeping in a place, which though not uncomfortable, was not a hotel). However she had finally understood why she had come and grown as a person and advanced in her quest to understand herself.

The Rolling Hostel philosophy

"Chile is just starting to position itself as a leading country for practising eco-tourism which we are going to do by undertaking projects within a common strategy," says Pablo Egaña while noting that the sector still lacks "lots of infrastructure, lots of ideas and lots of entrepreneurs."

"Our philosophy was to create a mobile project with minimal impact on the environment. We believe that hotels also impinge on the landscape," he says.

Competitive advantages

While some foreign firms offer similar trips in specially equipped trucks, these require passengers to sleep in tents, arming and disarming the tents each night. Rolling Hostel offers more comfortable facilities allowing to reach segments of the market which demand greater comfort on their holidays but still with a generous helping of adventure.

Inside the buses, guests have access to the internet - where coverage exists - and electricity.

Providing transport, food and lodging for fifteen passengers, the Rolling Hostel allows passengers to visit remote locations without relying on tourism infrastructure, giving the company a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The future of Rolling Hostel

Rolling Hostel's partners are today applying for a second line of seed capital from CORFO with the aim of "learning more about the business, improving and perfecting the equipment." They will use the knowledge gained in the design of a second bus, "that can offer even more services and improve upon some aspects of the first vehicle."

The second line of seed capital, of up to forty million pesos, is targeted at protecting intellectual property, strengthening market research, updating business plans as well as specialised technical assistance.