Nina Hotel Tsuen Wan West to provide 200 youth hostel spaces as second project approved
A hundred rooms in Nina Hotel Tsuen Wan West can provide up to 200 hostel places as the second project of turning hotels and guesthouses into youth hostels was on Wednesday approved by the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau.
Each room under project Home2 Youth Hostel can house two people, with the rent at HK$4,680 or HK$4,980 per hostel space.
The rent covers water and power supply, as well as internet service. The rooms, with a floor area of about 400 square feet on average, are coupled with the equipment of a five-star hotel. There are also communal facilities for cooking.
The Y.Elites Association has also partnered with Nina Hotel to allow young tenants to use some hotel facilities at affordable prices.
The rooms also allow youngsters to enjoy either a spectacular sea view of the Rambler Channel or a vibrant image of the town center of Tsuen Wan during their stay.
One of the project's features is to provide young tenants with opportunities to further their studies outside workplaces to enhance their skill sets and scale up their employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, the government said.
It also aims to deepen young people’s understanding of the country’s history, culture, and arts through the Y.Elites Association’s membership network.
Citizens applying for the hostel spaces must be aged between 18 and 30. The applicant must have a full-time or part-time job or has to be a self-employed person.
The income level of an applicant is restricted to HK$25,000, and the net assets are limited to HK$380,000. The limits will be doubled for two-person applications.
The applicant must not own any residential property in Hong Kong. If the applicant is a public housing tenant, their move into the hostel must not lead to any public housing and transitional housing unit being left vacant.
Citizens will be barred from filing applications if they have lived in youth hostels for three years under other government-run youth hostel programs.
“The Y.Elites Association’s youth hostel project is centrally located in the New Territories West and close to the railway station and large-scale malls. It is accessible and well connected with community facilities in the district, which will not only facilitate the travel of young tenants but also help them participate in social outreach activities,” a spokesperson for the bureau said.