I have a love/hate relationship with companies that reinvent themselves. I don’t mean like when a Marriott-branded hotel is sold and suddenly becomes a Hilton-branded one. I mean when they’re the same place, the same company, the same everything, but they sort of reinvent themselves to be the same thing they’ve always been, but with a different name. Scott’s Cheap Flights turned into Going. Ebates decided to be Rakuten. And let’s not even get into all the airports that have changed names over the years.
But there’s one hotel – well, more of a hostel; their name is the Hans Brinker Budget Hostel – that seemed to pride itself on being the worst in the world. We wrote about them back in 2021. At the time, their advertising included “What you see is what you get (just don’t look too closely)” and, well, I don’t know if it was actually pride or not, but they claimed they got “pretty O.K. ratings on the web.”
Here, take a look.
To their credit, by January 2024, the Hans Brinker Hostel has changed their tune and their advertising now reflected more of a “You’ll want to stay here because of all the stories you’ll tell” kind of tone. Still not exactly “We’re a 5-star hostel,” but still a step up from “What you see is what you get” and “We’re pretty OK.”
Here’s their advertising from 2024.
And now it’s 2025
So we’re over halfway through 2025; is it REALLY that difficult to believe that the Hans Brinker has changed their tune AGAIN? It’s not “We suck” or even “stay for the stories you’ll tell,” but a new campaign:
And this:
They now seem to be focusing on, “We’re mediocre and we know it. But you might have a good time.”
Oh, and if anything reflects the youth of their intended clientele, it’s their house rules:
I suppose this campaign is still better than what they were using back in 2014:
But it also goes to show you that the Hans Brinker Hostel makes it a habit to reinvent itself every once in a while.
I’m looking forward to seeing what 2026 will hold…
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