Kelowna International Hostel potlucks, complete with their year-round Christmas lights, brought back the fondest memories for founder Crystal Flaman.

Image Credit: Submitted/Crystal Flaman

It was with “incredible optimism and obliviousness” that Crystal Flaman and her former husband bought an aging rooming house 25 years ago and turned it into the Kelowna International Hostel.

“It was actually a run-down crack house when we purchased it,” Flaman told iNFOnews.ca. “We had a dream and an idea and a vision and, before you know it, 25 years have gone by.”

She just found out from her ex-husband that the property, which she sold five years ago, is facing redevelopment into a five-storey apartment building.

READ MORE: After 25 years, Kelowna hostel to be replaced with apartment building

At the time she bought it, she worked as a small business lender for the Business Development Bank of Canada and her husband had a tree planting business.

“Back then I was in my 20s so I thought to myself if I can’t travel the world, why not start a hostel so I can be around world travellers?” Flaman said.

Crystal Flaman

Image Credit: Submitted/Crystal Flaman

The property, at 2343 Pandosy Street, was zoned correctly for a hostel but was a run-down rooming house with an owner who didn’t seem to care much what went on there.

Before closing the deal, they checked with City Hall and the RCMP.

“I said: ‘Hi, my name is Crystal and I have a dream,’” Flaman said. “Both the RCMP and City Hall said: ‘Do not do that. They will eat you alive.’ I said: ‘Ya. But I have a dream.’ That was not really the advice I was looking for so I ignored it.”

Not having a lot of money, they moved into the house and told the people living there they had to pay $11 per day.

By 10 p.m. the next night, when everyone refused to pay, they called the police who got most people to leave.

“With this naïve optimism, we just got busy,” Flaman said. “We would paint room by room and, as we painted, that room became non-smoking so before you know it, every room had been painted. The last room to be painted, the smokers were crammed in this room. I said: ‘OK. Times up. My vision is bigger. I can’t ignore this vision.’”

Within six months the hostel was full with international travellers, sometimes lining up outside the door in the hope that someone would check out so they could get in.

“Language was not a barrier,” Flaman said. “Kindness is a universal language. We built our business on our mission statement which was summarized in three words: clean and safe and friendly.”

She quit her job and, for a year-and-a-half, worked 24/7 in the hostel.

Image Credit: Submitted/Crystal Flaman

“It was quite an extraordinary physical adventure,” Flaman, who has done a dozen ironman competitions, said. “It was just a test of grit and determination but, oh my gosh, I just can’t believe how blessed we were all those years.”

After that first 18 months they were able to buy a house across the street and move out of the hostel to leave space for the staff – who were generally travellers themselves.

“I remember walking across the street at 7 a.m., going to work at the hostel, and I understood what pure joy felt like,” Flaman said. “It was bright. The sun was shining. I was living my dream and I remember turning in circles, like a kid, and I couldn’t believe this was my life and really, that’s what the hostel was for thousands upon thousands of travellers, just simply living their dream and experiencing pure joy on a daily basis.”

Many travellers met their spouses at the hostel and have children of their own now, she said.

She instituted free coffee and pancakes in the morning where travellers would gather and plan their days. There were free pasta dinners on Mondays, potlucks a couple of days a week, line dancing at the OK Corral and theme nights with a dress-up box that she said was bigger than Mr. Dressup’s. Most of those continue today.

Image Credit: Submitted/Crystal Flaman

“One of the greatest memories I have would be the potluck dinners, because everyone loved to contribute,”  Flaman said. “They would make something from their cultural heritage or make whatever. There would be so much food and so much joy and laughter and connection.”

Travellers would come for a day and stay two or three weeks. A few became permanent Kelowna residents but most continued on in their travels.

But, all good things come to an end.

For Flaman, after 20 years of owning the hostel, it was time to make a change. She sold both the hostel business and property. She is now a “social entrepreneur.”

She doesn’t know if the new owner, who has yet to respond to iNFOnews.ca for comment, is going to redevelop the property and relocate the hostel elsewhere or simply close it down.

Flaman recalled the line: ‘If you build it, they will come,’ from the Field of Dreams movie.

“Every day I thought to myself, over and over and over, if I build it they will come,” she said. “And, boy did they come.”

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