Help us finish our sustainable mountain hostel in Pakistan
Donation protected
Hey! We’re Alex and Sana. We’re building a hostel in in the mountains of Pakistan… but we need your help to finish it.
See, we’re not trying to build on the cheap—we’re trying to do things right.
We’re building primarily with natural local materials and traditional methods: stone walls, mud plaster, local and repurposed wood. No cement unless there's no alternative!
We’ve hired 100% local people to get the job done—and our staff are 100% local, too. The land is leased from locals, not purchased. We've also hired women for our staff (not easy in patriarchal Pakistan) and we’re paying staff proper wages year-round, unlike most seasonal hotels in the country.
We’re buying local as much as possible. We want local small businesses to benefit, not wholesale providers on the other side of the country.
We’re building with the environment, not against it. We’re relocating trees rather than cutting, using mountain streams to water the soil, and doing plantation to reinforce the land against climate change-related floods and heat waves.
This love and attention to detail comes with a price tag, of course. We’ve already spent more than $20,000 on this project, and there’s still more to go before our launch in Summer 2025. There's also time pressure - our lease for the property is only 12 years long. After that, it all goes back to the community.
We’re funding this from our own pockets, using money we earn from running tours and a hostel in Islamabad… but it’s off-season now. We’ll hardly earn anything until next spring! We decided to go the crowdfunding route, rather than bring on investors; they’re more interested in quick turnaround and big profits rather than doing things sustainably and supporting the community.
That’s why we’re here to ask: can you help us out?
Why should I care?
Tourism in the mountains of Pakistan is on the rise, but developing in a completely unsustainable way. Concrete hotels are being built left and right in already-congested areas, and staff are brought from faraway places to manage properties. Local communities are receiving limited benefits and a lot of strain; the local environment is being destroyed by people’s carelessness and greed.
We’re trying to set an example and show that it doesn’t have to be this way. We’re building a hostel that blends with the environment, rather than destroy it. Our staff are all from the local community; we can see some of their houses from our property! And we’re not building a concrete mess; we’re building rooms and renovating traditional homes in the local style. Culture should be cherished, not erased.
Where will your money go?
- Construction: The vast majority of your donations will go toward paying our local craftsmen, the tractors that bring stones and sand, buying local wood for construction, etc. This is by far our biggest expense!
- Furniture: We’re hiring local carpenters to make much of our furniture, rather than bringing it pre-made from the cities.
- Washrooms: Toilets and sinks aren’t cheap, and we need a lot of them! All of the washrooms on the property were in bad condition at the start, and everybody knows a good bathroom = good life.
- Tree saplings: We want to do a plantation drive along a stream near the property. Flash floods are an increasing risk with climate change, and trees will help to reinforce the roadside and protect all the homes in the area.
- Road repair: We’re hoping to smooth out the road leading to the property. It doesn’t just benefit us; there are several schools and a hospital on the same road!
Who we are
Sana - Pakistan - AKA Being Marwat, Coyote Trail
We’ve both worked in Pakistan’s tourism scene for years. Alex has run women-only tours in Pakistan since 2019, and Sana has run private adventure and cultural tours as Coyote Trail since 2019. We partnered up in 2021 to run motorcycle tours through the country, and in the end of 2023, we opened our first hostel in Islamabad: Coyote Den. It’s safe to say that travelers love it - we have 5-star ratings on Google and TripAdvisor both!
Where are we building the hostel?
We’re constructing our hostel in a quiet, remote valley called Ishkoman. The actual name of the town where we’re located is Chatorkhand - check it on Google Maps!
Why there? We chose Ishkoman because the valley is incredible, not commercial at all, and the welcome and care we’ve received from the local community there is unrivaled.
The area doesn’t see many tourists—yet—but local people do want more tourists to come. Very important when deciding where to build.
What are we actually constructing?
We have 2 plots of land right next to each other. On one, we’re renovating a brick house from the 1950s, and building 5 new private rooms plus one dormitory. On the other, we’re renovating a 102-year-old traditional mud house. We also have to make rooms for staff, a kitchen and dining, and a room for drivers.
But wait, there’s more! We already constructed a new house for the family who works the land in the area to maintain their privacy when the guesthouse is operational.
Organizer
Alex Reynolds
Organizer
Bertem, VLG