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Chinese backpackers in hostels

Hostel Trends and News

Josh started this discussion 15 years 8 months ago

This year we've seen a higher proportion of domestic travellers staying in our hostel - that's not to say that international travellers aren't important, just that now the balance has shifted and more Chinese people seem to be travelling independently.

I'm curious about this because Hostelworld/WRI has been talking about Chinese backpackers a lot.

Do people from China that you see usually stay in dorms or in private rooms?
Are they traveling for business/school, or just for vacation?
Do they travel alone or in groups?

Has anyone talked with Chinese backpackers to get an idea of there is going to be a huge wave of Chinese backpackers in the future?

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Saskia

13 years

I have been seeing Chinese guests for the first time this year and I kind of have to admit that they do seem to be high maintenance. My WIFI signal was not 'strong enough" for their liking for example, so they were quite in my face about it, shoving their laptop into my hands to solve it with the words "bad wifi, solve". Well, that could be right: they connected to the network of the fire department down the street! Maybe pick the network that is named the same as the hostel? The due date of the orange juice I offered for breakfast was today (same day), which was not to their liking either. Furthermore, the bathroom was not "clean enough" since other guests has used it. Now I clean my bathrooms 2 to 3 times a day, but I cannot guarantee that no other guests have used the SHARED bathroom. And then they tried to completely take over the kitchen while cooking, telling other guests that wanted to cook "no place, full". The kitchen is not huge, but definitely fits more than 2 people.... Now I won't say all are like that, but so far my experiences have been far from pleasant.

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Josh Hostels

11 years

Reviving an old thread here... :)

Has anything changed for people in 2012 and 2013?
What are your percentages of backpackers from mainland China? Is it just a few, or is there a trend?
Are they traveling directly from China or are they traveling while living abroad?
Do they stay in dorms or private rooms?
Backpacks or wheeled suitcases?

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santa klaus

11 years

No idea about room categories, or if they´re residents in Europe or travelling from at home.
Numbers haven´t changed much at Wombats Hostels in recent years:

2008: 2.7%
2009: 2.4%
2010: 2.6%
2011: 3.2%
2012: 3.7%

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Rucksack Brian

11 years

We have seen a few more lately than I remember from previous years, but not a significant increase. The ones I meet in the hostel are usually studying somewhere in Europe and traveling during vacations, just like any Erasmus student. They always book our cheapest dorms, also like any Erasmus student :) Their ratings are consistently lower than any other nationality, but their comments are usually positive enough and don't reflect their low marks.

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Josh Hostels

11 years

Thanks for the replies. Someone was asking about it and I thought it would be interesting to see if the trend ever materialized. I've seen quite a few people speaking Chinese at hostels, but I didn't know if they were backpacking all the way from China, were studying abroad, or were from some other place like Singapore or Taiwan. :)

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Nacho

11 years

Do you have any contact of travel agencies in Chine, which sells products for young chinese people?

Thanks.

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Nacho

11 years

Or also any specialized website, like it is GRINGO for israelis travellers...

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Ria

11 years

thanks for posting this. very interesting information. We've seen an uptick in Chinese travelers and I had our website translated to Chinese 2 years ago (along with Korean and Japanese). We also translated our in-house information into Chinese and other languages a few years ago as we found it was difficult for our staff to communicate and this helped put everyone at ease.

I take a different stance than some of what I see here. Sure, perhaps they are not easy-going partying Australians, but let's take stock of what the original intent of hostels were. They were a place to bring people from around the world together to learn about each other and other cultures and see that people are not really all that different from one another.

So, this traveler may be more difficult, expect more, think things should be cleaner..oh wait, that's the 1950's American Express Bermuda shorts wearing American traveler...guess we're used to this because I look at the Chinese traveler as a challenge.

We took a hit one month last year when we had a big uptick in one of the hostels on the cleanliness score - they definitely didn't 'get' the part about shared bathrooms, but I believe, with time, with more travel and with more interaction, this perception will change. yeah, it sucks to know you have a great hostel and someone who isn't familiar with the concept dings you in the ratings, but aren't we supposed to be in this business because we want to bring travelers together?

I for one am happy to open the doors to our hostels to anyone willing to take the scary first step to try a type of accommodation they are not used to, in a country that is very foreign to them and try to speak a language that makes no sense at all. Chinese guests are the ultimate challenge.

How about discuss how we can make help them to be more relaxed during their stay and help welcome them to hostelling?

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Rucksack Brian

11 years

Lub d Hostels in Thailand are seeing an increase in Chinese and other Asian guests.

Asian flashpackers emerge as a force to reckon with

Speaking at No Vacancy Southeast Asia 2013 in Bangkok, [Lub d Hostels’ marketing and sales strategies manager, Nalin Kalayanamitr] said: “Since the second half of last year, we’ve noticed a significant increase in Asians, especially the Chinese. The UK used to be among the top source markets for our Siam Square property, but have now been replaced by South Korea and China, while Singapore is within the top five.

“Indonesia and the Philippines are also emerging markets for us, especially Indonesia, which is now among our top 10 source markets,” she added.
…
On the differences between the Asian and Western clients, she said: “Asian guests like shopping more than the Europeans and are generally less outgoing, but our yaa dong (Thai fermented whiskey) parties held every Wednesday nights are also well-received among our Asians. Asians tend to come in groups of four to five people and the social media plays a big part for them – they love to tag themselves.”

In the last month we have seen a sudden spike in Chinese guests, (and Asian guests in general) but I'm not sure what prompted the change. There doesn't seem to be a pattern - some are studying abroad, some are attending festivals, and some are just backpacking around Europe.

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zomac

11 years

Hostelworld in China targets Chinese hostel owners rather than customers. Some promotions have been made for booking through the Chinese Hostelworld. It doesn't work because the website does only accept a credit card and most Chinese use Alipay, a giant payment method.

It's a dilemma. If HostelWorld accepts Alipay as a payment method, expect an huge surge of the ratings on all hostels in China. Fake ratings will be overwhelming and bring a collapse to Hostelworld's relatively reliable rating.

My hostel has a 96% rating. I'd prefer to play a fair game. If hostelworld accepts Alipay, it's the beginning of endgame.

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