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From Edinburgh Fringe Festival container hostels and Burmese beach hotels to treasure hunts and puzzle games.

Introducing The Great Game team - Bryn Powell & Nick Cakebread.

Both from Bedfordshire, we've been friends since meeting each other in year 4 of Bedford Modern School in 1997.

After finishing our education, we knew the traditional 9 - 5 wasn't for us, so we set about creating our own path. There were some failures and successes along the way.

Inspired by a round-the-world trip and a desire to create something for backpackers, our original plan was to set up permanently in London. After two years of searching for a suitable site, and the loss of a team member along the way, we were close to giving up. Instead, we decided to have a last try with Edinburgh and the Fringe festival which we'd heard of but never been. Almost immediately, we found a plot willing to take a chance on us, which was a huge surprise after our experiences in London.

Starting on a very tight budget and a very basic set up, we grew the business from 48 beds in 2014 with poor reviews to 130 beds across 21 shipping containers by 2019 and often people telling us it was the best hostel experience they'd had.

It was an incredible experience and great fun. We paused during COVID-19 when the Fringe was cancelled, waited for it to return in full, but life moved on, and in the end, we never returned.