Minihostels just launched a maps feature on their new site:
http://www.minihostels.com/
All booking engines should have map features.
The way hostel booking engines organize destinations makes it difficult to plan trips. Here's an example from one booking engine:
The average traveler isn't going to know where most of those locations are. Interactive maps would make it easier to plan routes. Hostels.com has always had a map, but it only works up to a certain point. You can't view individual hostels on the map. Minihostels has taken a step in the right direction. I hope they develop it even further.
Minihostels' new site is well done...
14 years
I read allot of why don't they do this or that would be better and they could do that - functionality takes hundreds and hundreds of hours and thousands and thousands of dollars...
I would guess a minimum of several hundred thousand dollars in programming, marketing, and account management costs over the first year or two to build a major worldwide competitor to Hostelworld or Hostelbookers. :)
I forgot how much Boo.com cost to develop, but the number I read was surprisingly high.
14 years
This is true, and you really have to align your soul to one of them to make the trip possible because of bed allotment, something that is going to be very hard to change on an international level.
14 years
HostelTraveler.com has introduced some of the latest mapping features. Every hostel listed on the service gets a personalized map on each of 15 individual pages just for their hostel! The 15 pages equates to multi-lingual content for the hostel, translated automatically for them. All this is for free.
The map features point-and-click functionality. So, for example, users can click on the map, and instantly see the location of all nearby hostels. The user can also zoom out, pan to a different location/city/country, and click the map to see more locations (literally anywhere in the world) in seconds.
Also included are clickable searches of nearby points of interest, tourist attractions, transportation hubs, etc.
Check out a sample at:
http://www.hosteltraveler.com/Italy-hostels/Emerald-Palace-Hostel_Florence.htm
To list a hostel for free in just seconds:
Add Hostel
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