Members’ meeting
The members are the people who work in the Cooperative: 19 in June 2026. The meeting approves the accounts and elects the Board of Directors.
The Cooperative
About us
A worker cooperative born among university students in Palermo, which for twenty years has run places of hospitality on behalf of public bodies and universities: hostels, guest houses, restaurants, event venues.
Where we come from
Ballarò grew out of a student association at the University of Palermo. From 2004 the association organised the San Saverio Jazz Festival in the garden of the San Saverio student residence, an ERSU building arranged around the cloister of the Church of San Francesco Saverio.
On 26 September 2005 the same students founded Società Cooperativa Ballarò. From the summer of 2006, and for ten summers, the Cooperative turned the San Saverio residence into a hostel open to travellers and groups: this was the birth of the Student’s Hostel brand. In 2010 it also ran three historic buildings of the University of Palermo as a hostel.
In 2007 the Cooperative won the Municipality of Ferrara’s tender for the municipal youth hostel, which it has run since 2008: its first long-term management outside Sicily. Then came Palazzo Gowett in the San Silvestro Archaeological Mining Park (2009), the Ostello della Ghiara in Reggio Emilia (2011) with the Al Chiostro della Ghiara restaurant and events venue (2012), the University of Pisa’s Le Benedettine guest house (2014) and the Student’s Hostel L. Ferraris in Parma (2021).
On 26 September 2025 the Cooperative celebrated its twentieth anniversary at the Chiostro della Ghiara with a public meeting, “A story built on work”, with past and present administrators and managers from ERSU Palermo, the Municipalities of Ferrara, Reggio Emilia and Parma and the University of Pisa, together with AITR and Legacoop Emilia Ovest. The evening ended with a re-enactment of the old San Saverio student parties.
What being a cooperative means
Ballarò is listed in the Italian Register of Cooperatives as a worker cooperative with prevailing mutuality: most of the Cooperative’s work is done by its members, who also own it and elect its governing bodies. The Cooperative is a member of Legacoop, the Italian league of cooperatives.
For anyone who entrusts us with a facility, this means dealing with a company in which the people who run the service every day are the same people who answer for it.
How we are organised
Who decides, who manages, who checks. The registered office is in Palermo; the administration works from the Ostello Estense in Ferrara.
Who decides
Board of Directors
Six members, in office until the 2026 accounts are approved. The Chair is the legal representative; the Vice-Chair is managing director and general manager.
Who runs it, answers for it
All facility managers sit on the Board of Directors: the people who run the service every day are the people accountable for it.
Who manages
Finance and administration
Administration, accounting and general management.
Human resources
Staff at all facilities, overseen by the Chair.
Communication, innovation and marketing
Promotion and marketing, social communication, innovation and digital systems.
Facility managers
Each facility has a manager, who looks after day-to-day operations and relations with the granting body, and a team for reception, kitchen, cleaning and breakfasts, maintenance.
Who checks
Sole auditor
The Cooperative’s supervisory body.
Gender equality steering committee
Five members: the Chair, who is responsible for the management system, two facility managers and two reception managers. It oversees the gender equality policy, indicators and reports.
Certification body
Kiwa Cermet Italia audits the gender equality management system every year.
Our motto
Accoglienti per cultura
Welcoming by culture
As early as 2013 the Cooperative described itself as “ospitali per cultura”, hospitable by culture. Today its signature is “Accoglienti per cultura”, which accompanies the Ballarò name and its hostels.
It says two things. That for us hospitality is a craft, learned and cultivated, not just any activity. And that culture is the setting we work in: we started by organising a jazz festival in a student residence, and we run facilities in palaces, convents and cloisters that are historic landmarks.
Milestones
2004
The Ballarò student association organises the first San Saverio Jazz Festival in Palermo
2005
Società Cooperativa Ballarò is founded in Palermo
2006
Student’s Hostel San Saverio, ERSU student residence, Palermo
2008
Ostello Estense, Ferrara (tender won in 2007)
2009
Palazzo Gowett, Campiglia Marittima
2010
Three historic buildings of the University of Palermo
2011
Ostello della Ghiara, Reggio Emilia, and Casa senza frontiere, Ferrara
2012
Al Chiostro della Ghiara opens
2014
Le Benedettine guest house, University of Pisa
2016
Ristorante Santa Barbara, San Silvestro Park
2018
Casa Ballarò, reception of asylum seekers, Ferrara
2021
Student’s Hostel L. Ferraris, Parma
2025
The Cooperative turns twenty and is certified to UNI/PdR 125:2022
2026
Third consecutive concession for the Gowett
Company details
| Company name | Società Cooperativa Ballarò |
|---|---|
| Registered office | Via Niccolò Garzilli 34, 90141 Palermo, Italy |
| Tax code and VAT number | 05450820823 (VAT IT05450820823) |
| REA (economic and administrative index) | PA-255826 |
| Register of Cooperatives | A168431, section for cooperatives with prevailing mutuality, worker cooperatives category |
| Certified email (PEC) | coopballaro@legalmail.it |
| E-invoicing code (SDI) | USAL8PV |
| Main activity | Running youth hostels (ATECO 55.20.10) |
Do you have a facility to entrust to an operator?
Write to us to get to know the Cooperative, discuss a collaboration or ask for our references.
Let’s talk
Or write to amministrazione@ballaro.org or call +39 0522 452323