About us
The four hostels have no managers sent in from outside. Ballarò is a workers' cooperative: the members are the people who work there, and whoever runs each hostel sits on the board. Decisions are taken among people who stand behind a front desk.
The four hostels
They are not branch managers: they are members of the cooperative they run together. If something goes wrong, the person who decides is the same one who welcomed you.
Reggio Emilia · Chair and head of personnel
Runs the largest hostel in the network together with Barbara Francia, and chairs the board. He looks after the people who work there — hiring, shifts, training — and he is the one you ask when a decision affects all four hostels at once.
Campiglia Marittima · Communication and innovation
Runs the Tuscan hostel, where practically every guest eats in, and looks after communication and innovation across the network. He is the reason this site exists, and the first to notice when a tool stops being useful.
Ferrara
Runs the hostel inside the Renaissance quarter: rooms, groups, suppliers, relations with the city. In Ferrara almost everything gets solved by knowing the right people, and he knows them.
Parma
Runs the hostel on via San Leonardo. Parma lives by calendars — opera season, academic year, festivals — and much of his job is fitting groups into them without surprises.
Administration
Quotes for large groups, invoicing to schools and public bodies, enquiries covering several hostels. Alongside the board there is a steering committee that puts hostel managers and front-desk staff at the same table.
Vice-chair and managing director
Administration and general management. Quotes, contracts, invoicing to the public administration: when a school asks for the office code or a tender reference, the answer comes from here.
Board member · Head of reception, Reggio Emilia
She sits on the board, on the steering committee, and behind a front desk. She co-runs the Reggio Emilia hostel with the chair. She is the reason decisions in this cooperative rarely drift far from what actually happens when a group arrives.
Front desk, kitchen, dining room
They are the ones who open the door at eleven at night when the train is late, and who remember that someone in the group cannot eat gluten.
The cooperative employs 39 people. These are the ones you meet on arrival: the others keep everything else standing.
Why whoever runs a hostel also sits on the board, and what that means.
