Report

Hostel Rocket

Hostel Reviews, Booking Engines, and Directories

John Moriarty started this discussion 9 years 10 months ago

Many of you have likely received the email from HostelRocket in regards their changes.

They started over a year ago and since then they have been using Hostelsclub for their inventory.

It seems now it is time for them to go it alone and they have an interesting commission system which is below

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/vKnebXF.png)

What are peoples thoughts on this.

The quick look I have had of the back office I must say it is very easy to navigate and input the hostels details.

For me I will likely go with the 10% commission option but I guess if you start seeing a number of bookings through them you would likely change.

Comments

Report

bbjgm

9 years

Its a tough call.
Do you really want another portal (Hostel Rocket) vying for google search results with your Business Name on their pages aka "microsite" of your hostel?
And at 10% commission is it really any better than the other hostel portals that are setup?

Or are all hostel owners going to be chasing the 'popular' portal site of the year (whichever site has the newest technology or web facelift).
Facebook is finally losing the young peoples eyeballs to other social media sites, instagram, snapchat, and others this old guy hasn't even heard of.

I see two strategies for hostels:

1) Be on every booking site possible through MyAllocator and bump up the rate to those sites by ~10% over a hostel's own website. Try to educate all customers that booking direct is always cheaper.
PROS: Often better guest experience when they book with polished booking engines on OTA's. Only need to maintain a user account and wallet on OTA. Independent Ratings and Reviews
CONS: Hostels pay 10% "advertising" commission to OTAs. Hostels don't control the message to the guest directly. Many websites vying for the keywords "Your Hostel Name"

2) Limit distribution to OTA portal sites so their website brand "Hostel Rocket" or "Hostel World" or "Booking.com" isn't competing with your brand "Your Hostel Name" on search results. Then spend some money on google adwords and drive guests directly to your website.
PROS: no commissions, direct contact with guests
CONS: users WANT to compare hostel prices and ratings on an OTA. (I think this is the best reason we are stuck with option 1)
Many guests will book through OTA and if you aren't on there, you will miss bookings.

Report

hostelrocket

9 years

I have to start with this: I am the co-founder of Hostel Rocket so I am biased in my response.

Thank you for posting about Hostel Rocket. As an avid consumer and a supporter of hostelmanagement.com (unpaid I just come on here a lot and always refer people here) I was happy to see this post today!

A few comments and I won't go into detail to spare me the comments that I am just responding to market us (when in truth I'd like the opportunity to explain who we are):

One of Hostel Rockets biggest components (advantages) is that we list your website link and social media accounts. This offers up huge opportunity for hostels: direct bookings for zero commissions and engagement with a huge, worldwide targeted audience through displaying your social media feeds on your details page. Plus, we offer a review system unlike any other: it's fair to both travelers and hostels. You can read more about that on our site.

Sure you have to pay for this service. You have to pay for any marketing service. It's just business. Hostels have to (most of the time) use channels to fill up some if not most of their beds because travelers want the OTA experience. They want to see everything at once and make a decision without filtering through loads of content or poorly designed websites. We do that for them and we provide hostels a resource to market their property while receiving more social media engagement and direct bookings.

I'm a hostel owner. I've experienced OTA's and their monopolies. Sure, did we build Hostel Rocket as a business of coarse. But, we understand the problems our industry faces as we have experienced them ourselves: high competition with hotels on OTA's that drive up commissions, OTA's greed to out bid you on your own hostel name, and the list goes on and on. Hostel Rocket has a different approach and we DO NOT BID on your hostel, ever. We use viral and social marketing efforts to promote hostelling as a community and as a way of travel. We engage with our travelers. Our hostel owners. And we work together as one.

I look forward to reading your comments and we look forward to serving our trending and flourishing hostel industry.

Cheers to change.

Report

bluealmondhostel

9 years

Are you going to be on myallocator anytime soon?

Report

hostelrocket

9 years

Sure will!

Report

John Moriarty

9 years

At the start you will likely get more people taking the 10% commission rate as we do not have any stats on how many bookings we might get from Hostelrocket.

The more bookings I get through you the more likely I would pay the per bed rate.

If you have less than 20 beds is it less than 20 dollars or is this the minimum?

Is their a specific market you are currently focusing on? European/American/Asian

Will you ever list accommodation other than hostels?

Report

hostelrocket

9 years

Hi John, great questions. Let me address each, but before I do I want to give anyone following this thread an update:

Hostel Rocket links directly to your website reservation page for the traveler to Book Direct and we have decided not to take commissions or monthly plans yet. We also integrate your social media feeds to help you ramp up your social marketing via our travelers. Until we have more analytics surrounding where we can take a book direct OTA and make money that best suits our travelers, hostels, and us our whole service is completely free! So sign up your hostels! We launch this new site on the 16th! Get on for our massive launch marketing campaign- don't miss out on the exposure.

What we believe to be true:

Change needs to happen in the online hostel marketplace. That change isn't another OTA with a better user experience. That change is booking direct with little reliance on expensive OTA's (pull your money (hostels) out from these guys and they will stop bidding digital campaigns on your hostels-let us be your OTA).

So how can we come together and drive a worldwide movement towards booking direct? Hostel Rocket. Because we provide the traveler with the OTA experience. Because we support and educate booking direct. Because we send the traveler directly to your site commission free. Because we can spread the word way faster then one hostel at a time due to our many touch-points. Because we encourage travelers to engage with the hostels via social media. Because posters just don't work.

Change will take time and we need hostels to step in support us and let us support them. We are committed to the time, effort, and expense it will take to help facilitate change worldwide: keep prices down, get more hostels booking direct, more travelers booking direct, and deepen the hostel experience from online to offline. Will you join us?

How to make the most from Hostel Rocket- get a channel manager like MyAllocator and get a booking widget up on your website, on your Facebook, in your hostel. MyAllocator cost $16USD per month. That's one direct booking per month for most hostels. Let Hostel Rocket then act as your OTA and drive traffic to your site for commission free direct bookings.

List Your Hostel: operators.hostelrocket.com. Let me know if you have any questions.

John- you asked if we are focusing on a certain market. No. We are focused on the entire world! The hostel industry is large, but not that large. We also believe we have to have coverage worldwide to facilitate our travelers needs. We are also translating the entire site/app into 24 different languages by the end of 2015-early 2016.

John- you asked if we are just hostels. We are and our mission has always been 'Just Hostels'. There are plenty of websites travelers know about if they want to sort through other property types. Our focus are hostels. We believe this sends a strong message to hostel travels that we are focused on what we know and to come to us when you need a hostel (and don't waste time sorting through a bunch of other property types).

Search form

Report 'Hostel Rocket'?

Report 'Re: Hostel Rocket'?

Report 'Re: Hostel Rocket'?

Report 'Re: Hostel Rocket'?

Report 'Re: Hostel Rocket'?

Report 'Re: Hostel Rocket'?

Report 'Re: Hostel Rocket'?

Join the world's largest community of hostel professionals.

Check Your Email