Every hostel knows the moment: a common room full of people who arrived that afternoon, all looking at their phones. The best hostels turn that room into a group within an hour. Not with a speech, but with a game where everyone suddenly has a team to cheer for.
The secret is competition. Strangers bond fastest when they’re on the same side, and nothing gets a quiet room going like a scoreboard where the lead keeps changing. Below are ten event ideas that work in any hostel, from a small guesthouse to a big party hostel, plus how to keep score without a whiteboard full of crossed-out numbers.
1. Country vs country
The classic, and the easiest to set up: every nationality in the hostel forms a team. Big groups (Australians, Germans, Brits) play as they are, and the smaller ones join forces as “Rest of Europe” or “The Americas”. Run any mix of games during the night and let the points add up per country. By the end, people who met that day are singing their anthem together.
2. Beer pong tournament
Beer pong is the hostel staple, but a single table with “winner stays on” gets messy fast. Turn it into a proper bracket: teams of two, a fixed schedule, and points for every win. Count wins, not drinks, and keep water cups as an option at every table. The bracket gives people a reason to stick around for the final.
3. Pub quiz night
Teams of four to six, five rounds, one point per correct answer. Mix travel trivia, music and a round about the city you’re in, which doubles as a tip for guests on what to see tomorrow. A live scoreboard between rounds keeps the tension up.
4. Pub crawl challenges
Give your pub crawl a competitive layer: at every stop, teams can earn points by completing challenges. A group photo with the bartender, learning a phrase in the local language, finding someone from their own country. The scoreboard follows the crawl, and the winning team gets announced at the last bar.
5. Hostel olympics
Got a rooftop, a pool or a garden? Run an afternoon of quick games: relay races, limbo, a water balloon toss, a sandcastle contest at a beach hostel. Short rounds, loud teams, and points for every event. It works just as well without alcohol, which makes it a good daytime event.
6. Family dinner cook-off
Many hostels already run a family dinner. Split the kitchen into teams per dorm, give each the same budget, and let the guests vote for the best dish. Points for taste, presentation and the best story behind the recipe.
7. Karaoke battle
Teams pick songs, the room is the jury. Award points for the performance, bonus points for the whole team on stage. Karaoke is the event where the shyest guests often end up as the stars.
8. Dorm vs dorm, all week long
For guests who stay a few nights, a single evening isn’t the end of the story. Run a week-long league where every event (quiz, beer pong, cook-off, tour attendance) adds points to a dorm’s total. Show the standings at reception and announce the weekly winner at the Sunday event. It’s a reason to join every activity, and a reason to extend the stay.
9. Scavenger hunt in town
Send teams out with a list: a local snack, a photo at a landmark, a street name with a story. Points per item, double points for the hardest ones. Guests explore the city and come back with stories to share at the bar.
10. Big match night
When a big game is on, turn watching it into a team game. Let guests pick a side, give points for correct predictions at half-time, and bonus points for the team that guesses the final score. The bar stays full until the final whistle.
Keeping score without the whiteboard
All of these ideas have the same weak spot: the scoring. A whiteboard gets wiped, a paper list goes missing, and halfway through the night nobody knows who’s ahead. Bar Battle is a free app built for exactly this kind of team competition.
- Set up in minutes. Create an event, add the teams (countries, dorms or team names) and decide what earns points. You set the point value of every item yourself: “beer pong win: 3 points”, “quiz round won: 2 points”, “challenge completed: 1 point”.
- Staff counts, guests watch. For guests who only stay a night, the easiest setup is one staff member counting on one phone. Nobody else needs to create an account.
- The scoreboard on the bar TV. Open the scoreboard on the TV or projector in the common room, or cast it from the app, and the standings update with every point. Here’s how to put the live scoreboard on the big screen.
- Guests follow on their own phone. Make the scoreboard public and share a link or a QR code on the bar. Guests follow the standings live in the free app, read-only and without an account. Here’s how sharing works.
- Post the result in the group chat. Share the final standings as an image in the hostel’s WhatsApp group, so the winners have their proof.
Bar Battle supports unlimited teams and participants, and it’s completely free, with no in-app purchases.
Keep it fun for everyone
The best hostel events are the ones every guest can join, whether they drink or not. Reward wins, answers and challenges rather than the number of drinks, keep water and soft drinks on every table, and make sure your staff can call a round off when it’s time. A good night ends with a winning team and a full breakfast room the next morning.
Running events for a bar rather than a hostel? See Bar Battle for bars and pubs. Questions about the app? Check the frequently asked questions.
Bar Battle is free for Android and iOS:
Ready for your next hostel event? Set up the teams, put the scoreboard on the TV and let the room do the rest.