Dot To Dot Festival 2014

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Have you all got your tickets to Dot To Dot Festival? No? Well, you can get them / find out more over here. (ps - Macaulay Culkin's Pizza + Velvet Underground band will be playing)

Volunteer Roles and Programmes

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These opportunities are available to nationalities over the age of 18 and are suitable for people who are reliable and able to communicate in English at high intermediate level. You must also be capable of carrying out the different tasks involved.

You will be supporting the Igloo in a variety of tasks including housekeeping, cleaning, welcoming guests as well as some general maintenance including decorating and ground keeping.It is important that you are flexible and open-minded to perform the tasks involved with volunteering within a hostel environment.

You will be a valued member of our hostel team and be given guidance and training to carry out all the duties you will be involved with. We have strong team ethics and will always ensure that you will be given a full introduction to your volunteer role.

Accommodation and food allowances are available while you are volunteering. You will need to provide your own meals at all other times and self-catering facilities are available.

Ideally we are looking for people who can support the hostel for a period of minimum 6- 8 weeks or more 20-24 hours per week. However, please do get in touch if you have any time to give.

For volunteer roles, please email us via reception@igloohostel.co.uk or call us on 0044 (0)115 947 5250.

Cheers!.

The Team @ Igloo Backpackers Hostel & Annexe

What's On In Nottingham - March 2014

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For even more ideas on what to do, you can check out our Discover Notts page (Experience Nottinghamshire and LeftLion are also great resources for ideas).

We Should Probably Get Doors Like This…

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They're probably not very practical, and we can only imagine that it wouldn't take too long before someone thought they were 'push' doors and walk right through them… but there is no denying that they look pretty cool.

Igloo Pods Leftovers!!!

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Today was a good day to be staying in the new Igloo Pods building... check out the sweet leftovers that someone left behind!!

Is it butter? Is it not butter? And is that drink made with real cherries?!

I guess the only way to find out is to book a room in the Pods and see for yourself :)

In Other News… Check Out Our New Building!!!

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We've been so busy around here that we almost forgot to post some pictures from the brand new Igloo Pods building that we opened. Well, let's fix that right now.

It's inspired by lots of travelling, fellow explorers, and a passion for value. Using mainly up-cycled and second-hand furniture (with added touches of top notch comfort features and personality), as well independent Nottingham traders and locally sourced products wherever possible, including murals in the rooms & building spray painted by talented local graffiti artist Smallkid … we are passionate to show how a hostel should truly look and feel these days.

And you can book a room in the new Pods building over on our Booking Button (50p from each booking made directly with us goes to charity)!

The Bad News About A Good News Story…

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We woke up this morning to find that a lovely Nottingham girl's Facebook post about a good deed had gone viral (it has already been shared on Facebook over 3̶0̶0̶0̶ 4̶0̶0̶0̶ 5̶0̶0̶0̶ 6̶0̶0̶0̶ 7̶0̶0̶0̶ 8̶0̶0̶0̶ 11,000 times). In a nutshell, she had given a homeless man named Tom some money to help him pay for his accommodation at our hostel. Apparently, this man had told her that “the hostel charges £19 for two weeks which includes hot meals, washing facilities and a safe place to sleep”.

“Tom’s last meal came from a group of boys who bought him a sandwich two days ago. They had also given him a few pounds to spend towards getting into the hostel which he had placed on a deposit for a room in the Igloo hostel on Mansfield Road. The place could only reserve the room for 48 hours so he needed to get the remaining money tonight or else he would lose that too. All his money had gone into this. The hostel charges £19 for two weeks which includes hot meals, washing facilities and a safe place to sleep.”
— taken from the Facebook post that's been spreading around

Unfortunately, Tom lied to her. And he's been lying to other people too, telling a similar story. We've actually had 2 different people stop by the hostel in the past couple months saying that a ‘Tom’ had mentioned that he stays at our hostel and they wanted to pay for his accommodation, but wanted to check things out / pay for it in-person rather than just give Tom the cash.

Well, Tom doesn't stay at our hostel. We can only imagine that this story has been a pretty successful pitch, so he seems to be using it quite a lot.  And it really troubles us that there is someone out there not only taking advantage of the kindness of others, but also tying our hostel and name to the lie.

After the Facebook post mentioned above spread all over, we've started getting lots of phone calls and emails from people wanting to help pay for Tom. So much so, that we figured we better write a quick blog post about the whole thing to hopefully start spreading the actual story around (of course, it is heartwarming that the original story has been spread so widely… it's just so unfortunate that the story is not quite as "feel good" as everybody thought / hoped).

We do know of Tom, but he is not staying at our hostel. We also do not offer accommodation that is £19 for two weeks. We are a backpackers hostel and provide accommodation for travellers, students, business people, sports groups and families. We are not a homeless shelter. This is not because we are unsympathetic to anyone who has fallen on hard times, it really is just a matter of that not being our field or expertise. There are amazing people doing amazing work in this area (i.e. Framework), which is why we donate to their cause (and have included a big clickable button on the bottom of this post so that you can do the same).

We really hate to be the ones to have to turn a story about “a good hearted person doing the right thing” into a story about “a good hearted person being lied to”. We really do hope that Tom has at least used this money to pay for accommodation somewhere else (or for food or something to help better the tough situation he's in).

Please don't let the reality of this 'good news gone bad' story turn you cynical. It's important to be a kind and generous person, even if that means that every now and again someone misleads you. At the end of the day, this story is still one that involves a very compassionate young person with a big heart. And the world needs more of those.

So if you were one of the 1000's of people who has seen / shared the original post and were feeling inspired to do something similar… please hold on to those feelings of goodwill and click the button below to go visit Framework (an amazing charity doing important work in this area).

As Neil Skinner from Framework said on The Nottingham Post coverage of this story: “This was a lovely and highly commendable gesture and one that I am sure was much appreciated by the young man concerned. I would, however, like to say that the most effective way for people to help somebody in that position is to contact Framework’s Street Outreach Team on 0800 066 5356, or by text on 80800. Team members can then offer professional help and support.”

SuperbOwl

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Everyone's talking about a #superbowl tonight… well there are two Superb Owl's in our new ‘Nest’ room! And you can now book that room and any of our new Igloo Pods rooms exclusively on our Booking Button (and 50p from each booking goes to charity)!

Superb!