156 Spring Street
The Main House
Dorms and hand-painted private rooms around a shared kitchen and that famous porch. This is where the community lives.
Charleston, South Carolina · Est. 2007
A hostel with
a whole soul.
Two hand-painted houses in Elliotborough. Fifty beds, a porch made for strangers-turned-friends, and eighteen years of doing hospitality the human way.
As seen inThe New York TimesUSA TodayTravel ChannelTime Out New York
The NotSo Empire
One operator. Six ventures. Finally, one home.
The hostel is the heart, but it’s not the whole story. A published book. A community radio station. A real-estate practice. A conference. All built by the same person, all scattered across half a dozen half-finished websites.
This is a concept for pulling them together — one brand, one voice, one place that actually works.
See the whole Empire →6
ventures, one operator
18 yrs
running NotSo Hostel
8.9
Hostelworld rating
700+
guest reviews
Two houses, one welcome
A social main house, and a calmer annex two blocks over.
33 Cannon Street
The Annex
A beautifully restored Charleston single, all private rooms, for travelers who want the warmth with a little more quiet.
Rooms & beds
Book a single bed in seconds. No workarounds.
Dorm bedMain House
Mixed Dorm
A bunk of your own in the heart of the house. Book a single bed, not the whole room — the way it should always have worked.
from $42/night
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Dorm bedMain House
Women-Only Dorm
A quieter, women-only room for solo travelers who want a little more calm without losing the community.
from $44/night
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PrivateMain House
The Brazil Room
One of the hand-painted private rooms the hostel is loved for. Your own door, the whole social house still yours to enjoy.
from $119/night
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PrivateThe Annex
Annex Private
A calmer, grown-up stay two blocks away at 33 Cannon Street — private rooms in a beautifully restored Charleston single.
from $129/night
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Run by a human, on purpose
“A hostel works best around fifty people. Past that, you stop being able to actually talk to anyone.”
Vikki Matsis has run NotSo since 2007 and literally wrote the book on it — Inside an American Hostel. She caps the house on purpose, shares equity with a team that stays for years, and treats sustainability as a default, not a slogan.
Meet the operator →8.9
Fabulous
700+ guest reviews · location 9.8/10
“
Unbeatable location, walkable to everything, and the cleanest hostel I stayed in on the whole coast.
“
The house has soul. Hand-painted rooms, a porch you actually want to sit on, and people you end up traveling with.
“
Staff clearly love it here. It feels run by someone who cares, not a chain.
Rating and review count are real (Hostelworld). Quote text paraphrases recurring themes in that feedback for this concept.
Come stay on the porch.
Pick your dates, pick your bed, and you’re in.