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Four dormitories for up to 30 guests, plus five private rooms suitable for couples and families.
Projects / Sugar Hostel Weligama
FOUNDER STORY · WELIGAMA, SRI LANKA
The birth
The birth
of Sugar.
How a four-storey guesthouse became a coliving dream—and how a circle of family, friends and volunteers helped bring it to life.
“Sugar was not built by one person. It was built by people who believed in the dream.”
READ THE STORY ↓
PLACEWeligama
STAY4 dorms · 30 guests
PRIVATE5 rooms for couples & families
SHARED LIFECoworking · Café · Garden · Rooftop
01BEFORE SUGAR
A search for the sweetness of life
Before there was a company, there was a need to create.
I was looking for an opportunity to build something new—something that belonged to Sri Lanka and reflected the way I believed people should live and work.
This was my first business after leaving my brother’s hotel management company. I had little capital, limited renovation experience and no architectural training. What I did have was a big dream: to create a pioneering Sri Lankan-owned coliving space and learn how to build an organisation that could operate with freedom, responsibility and a healthy work culture.
“For me, Sugar meant finding the sweetness of life again.”
02FINDING THE PLACE
One building. Many possibilities.
A four-storey guesthouse became the canvas.
In Weligama, we found a property with the bones of the idea already inside it: large hostel rooms, private rooms, a generous lobby and enough shared space to build a real community.
03 / BUILT BY BELIEFWe did not have everything.
We did not have everything.
We had each other.
Friends, family and volunteers joined the work. People painted furniture, made art, cleaned rooms, shaped the rooftop, supported pre-opening and helped build the first operations.
Later, international volunteers worked with us across food and beverage, front office, operations and social media. Sugar became more than my project—it became a place where people contributed, learned and belonged.
THE COLOUR OF THE BEGINNING
Black held the difficult chapter.
At the time, I did not fully know why I chose black. Looking back, perhaps it carried the uncertainty, fear and failures I was moving through.
THE COLOUR OF RETURN
Yellow brought the sweetness back.
Yellow gave Sugar its energy—warm, brave and impossible to ignore. Together, black and yellow became the visual story of moving from a dark season into a brighter one.
04THE COLIVING MODEL
Designed for work, freedom and connection
A hostel stay with a life around it.
Sugar combined affordable accommodation with the places people need to work, eat, meet and feel at home. The goal was not simply to fill beds. It was to create a rhythm that helped guests stay longer and connect more deeply.
Work
A ground-floor coworking space and café where digital nomads could focus, meet and build a routine.
Gather
A garden lounge and large rooftop for shared meals, social nights and easy conversations between strangers.
05 / WHEN THE DOORS OPENED
The building filled with life.
In the first season, the coworking space found its rhythm. Digital nomads met, worked and gathered. Guests stayed, volunteers joined the operation and the rooftop became a place for food, friendship and ideas.
For three years, Sugar Hostel welcomed people to one of Sri Lanka’s best-known surf destinations. The most valuable result was not a room count. It was the community that formed inside the building.
“The guests did not just stay at Sugar. They helped define what Sugar could become.”
06THE PEOPLE BEHIND SUGAR
A thank-you written into the story
Every name is part of the foundation.
Sugar only became real because people trusted the vision before it was easy to see.
Helped find the property and build the pre-opening team. His early support helped Sugar reach the starting line.
A childhood friend who believed in the vision and invested to help build the first Sugar coliving space.
Praveen’s brother, who created the original art that gave Sugar its character and visual soul.
Part of the circle of people who stood with the project and helped the dream move forward.
Praveen’s wife, whose belief and support were part of Sugar’s journey from the beginning.
Provided the money to begin when there was no capital—trusting their son before the business had proof.
The property owner who placed his trust in the vision and gave the building a chance to become Sugar.
The people who painted, built, served, shared skills and brought the place to life every day.
A first business became an education.
Culture is an operating system
Freedom works when people also have clarity, responsibility and the confidence to make decisions.
Hospitality is built together
A founder can begin the story, but teams, partners, volunteers and guests make a place feel alive.
Constraints can create identity
Limited money forced us to use imagination, hands-on work and a visual language people remembered.
A property needs a reason to exist
Beds alone do not make a concept. Sugar had a clear promise: stay, work, connect and feel part of something.
PAUSE · REFLECT · RETURNThis chapter pauses in 2026.
This chapter pauses in 2026.
A new concept is planned for 2027.
After three meaningful years, we are taking a break from this version of Sugar Hostel. It is not the end of the idea. The plan is to bring Sugar back with a new concept in 2027, carrying everything this first home taught us.
Sugar helped move my life from dark to bright. The next chapter will carry that light forward.Every property begins
with an unfinished story.
Sugar now brings the lessons of its first hospitality business into complete, owner-friendly hotel solutions—from concept, design and setup to technology, operations and profitability.
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