UPDATE: There is now an entire forum section called Hostel Videos. Check it out!
I'm interested in listing examples of hostels that are using online video to promote themselves. Anyone using video to promote their hostel(s) online?
The best example I've seen is from Wombats Hostels (but the videos appear to be temporarily offline).
Here is an example of a hostel chain (Equity Point) using YouTube to showcase their properties:
15 years
Wasn't sure if I should have opened a new thread for this feature but it seems this might be a new trend of videos: Interactive websites.
I've seen other websites which using interactive videos but this was the first one I've seen from a hostel.
These guys contacted us for a link exchange so I checked out their website... and been surprised by this video that I had to watch it 3 times in a row! :D
15 years
That is impressive...I think we may be seeing a lot more of that on the web soon, but I wonder if it will work without the bikini..
15 years
Personally I found that pretty annoying, but maybe I'm just showing my age there. Plus, we have a broadband connection (admittedly slow, only 512k/s) and the page was on the borderline of being too slow for me. I think whilst all these features are fancy, there is a risk of excluding a huge segment of the market on slow connections who can't wait for your page to load.
We got their link exchange email too. Are they harvesting the addresses from this forum?
15 years
Interesting idea...I don't have sound here so wasn't able to watch it with sound yet.
I think it could be a problem with people who open up more than one browser tab at the same time because when you have 20 tabs open and something auto-plays it can be hard to find which tab the sound is coming from. I would at least make it so that it doesn't play unless clicked on.
We got their link exchange email too. Are they harvesting the addresses from this forum?
They can only get your email address from the forum if you've posted it in a public area.
(Email addresses and personal information are kept strictly private.)
15 years
Interesting idea...I don't have sound here so wasn't able to watch it with sound yet.
I think it could be a problem with people who open up more than one browser tab at the same time because when you have 20 tabs open and something auto-plays it can be hard to find which tab the sound is coming from. I would at least make it so that it doesn't play unless clicked on.
I agree totally with this I personally hate websites with sound that auto-plays. You're just browsing away and then some Ozzie Sheila pipes up. There are now ads on The Age (Australian newspaper) site, and it's nearly enough to make me stop reading it, although not quite - you can click them off of course. Just and invasion of my aural space.
They can only get your email address from the forum if you've posted it in a public area.
(Email addresses and personal information are kept strictly private.)
Thanks for that - I guess harvesting addresses was the wrong term - maybe just looking at lists of websites. Probably not though - it's not as if it's not easy to find out web addresses of hostels.
15 years
I can't disagree with the idea that sound on websites can be extremely annoying...I've closed many a site's tab just for annoying me in this way. Maybe firefox will eventually have a sound mute option on any tabs playing sound.
15 years
Maybe firefox will eventually have a sound mute option on any tabs playing sound.
That's a good idea -- "block autoplay". YouTube and MySpace are two sites that frequently autoplay.
I watched the video with sound. I think it might work for that site. It would be good for A/B split testing. Run the video for 50% of the users and without for 50% of the users. Use analytics software to track bounce rates and booking rates...
15 years
If anyone is interested, this is the company that provides the video presenters:
http://bellmedia.com/
(click on bellhd)
15 years
HostelTraveler.com is now also inviting hostels to post their videos at their website.
http://www.hosteltraveler.com/blog_ht/category/hostel-videos/
You don't need to have a listing on the HostelTraveler.com service in order to post your videos. All you need is a YouTube video, which gets inserted into your post. See the link above for more information and instructions.
Bottom line, more exposure = more bookings. Why not add your videos for free today.
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