Carolin Paarmann appointed general manager at A&o’s first London hostel

Carolin Paarmann has been appointed general manager of A&o London Docklands Riverside, the group’s third UK hostel and first in the capital.

She has been based in London since 2015 and joins from YHA (England and Wales), where she was most recently hostel manager.

Paarmann first trained as a chef in Hanover and held roles in both the United Kingdom and Australia before completing further training between 2009 and 2011 to qualify as a state-certified business manager for hotels and catering.

She later completed a management trainee programme with A&o hostels, during which she worked across Hamburg, Amsterdam and Berlin.

At A&o London Docklands Riverside, she aims to achieve 65% occupancy rate in the first half of 2026.

Berlin-based A&o Hostels, Europe’s largest independently-owned hostel chain, announced plans to relaunch the former DoubleTree by Hilton, Docklands Riverside in London as a 500-room hotel late last year.

The 17th century dockland building in Canary Wharf is currently undergoing a £21m refurbishment and remains operational.

Paarmann said: “Entering the London hotel market is a significant challenge, but we have an outstanding team that has created an open, lively and welcoming atmosphere from day one.”

Oliver Winter, chief executive of A&o, added: “London is another major milestone in the history of A&o. The city is a unique location, economically, culturally and geopolitically. With Carolin Paarmann and the entire team on site, we are well positioned to seize this opportunity and successfully establish A&o in the London market.”

The property also features an A&o river taxi to enable guests to move between the hotel’s private pier and Canary Wharf pier.

A&o was founded in Berlin in 2000 by Winter and currently operates 46 locations across 10 European countries. Its UK business consists of hostels in Brighton, Edinburgh and London.