Report

Hostelbookers not making arrival time compulsory field

Hostel Trends and News

Hostel Revolution started this discussion 11 years 10 months ago

We are a small hostel and do not have 24hr reception, we can organise late check-ins but need prior notification. Hostelbookers does not give a compulsory field for guests to state an arrival time - it is optional. 99% of the time guests will not put their arrival time even though we write to them and ask after the booking and it is stated in important information.
I have asked hostelbookers why they cannot change arrival time to being a compulsory field and they say it is for "commercial reasons" wtf?

If anyone else think it would be beneficial to their hostel to have arrival time being a compulsory field please write to Hostelbookers requesting it, if enough of us request it they should put it back. It would be something really simple for them to do and would make things much easier, at least for a hostel like ours.

Comments

Report

ACBBPatrick

11 years

I can't believe that a booker would abandon a booking just because of an arrival time field and then go to a different site to book? Why not ask hostels about this? I am sure every hostel would agree that an arrival time is useful and the statistics from above are reasonably accurate. Why do the booking engines refuse to take into the account the needs of the hostels they are selling. We work our asses off to provide premium services and facilities only to see the OTA's sign up every property in the world and leverage the reputation of service and quality that today's hostels aspire to. Using the HW ranking system in your API will rank low priced motels, low rated hostels ahead of hostels.

Report

ACBBPatrick

11 years

Hi again Chris, Josh everyone
Why don't we open another topic if you think this is off topic, so we can discuss the merits of your plans with all hostel stakeholders that are on this forum? Not in the members chat area either. We are at the mercy of the OTA's and they are not listening to hostels.

Report

ChrisWeHostels

11 years

Hi Patrick,

Some bookers might get to the arrival time, not know what it is, then decide to book later or at another time and the booking doesn't get completed. From the OTA's perspective, if someone gets that far in the process, it means that the booker is serious, and they don't want any unnecessary friction (for the OTA) between the choosing of the bed and the payment.

I agree with you that the arrival time is useful for the hostels and we didn't take it out totally, we just redesigned our payment flow and were under a time constraint and didn't get a chance to add the new "arriving late" button back in (which we will). We have built our app with the feedback we have been getting from hostels we have spoke to. We welcome any and all feedback on what we are doing. The more feedback we get, the better product we can make. Another one of our advantages over the HW or HB mobile solutions is that we can take risks and try crazy things. We are a small team, we can make changes quickly and we have the opportunity to put all of our weight behind solving the mobile riddle (which is why we got rid of our website). We agree, the best way to do that is in conjunction with what both the hostels and the travelers need.

As for our search results, we return them like this:
1st - Hostels sorted by HW ranking
2nd - Hotels and bnb's sorted by HW rankings.

Basically, the top rated hotel or bnb, will never be displayed above the lowest rated hostel.

Report

ChrisWeHostels

11 years

Hi Patrick,

Sorry, i was writing my response and didn't see yours. Yes, let's start a new topic where we can discuss our plans with everyone. As I said, the more feedback we can get from people in the industry (who have been at it a lot longer then we have) the better product we can deliver.

-Chris

Report

ChrisWeHostels

11 years

I started a new thread here http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forums/hostels-otas.html. Looking forward to discussing this with you all.

Search form

Report 'Hostelbookers not making arrival time compulsory field'?

Report 'Re: Hostelbookers not making arrival time compulsory field'?

Report 'Re: Hostelbookers not making arrival time compulsory field'?

Report 'Re: Hostelbookers not making arrival time compulsory field'?

Report 'Re: Hostelbookers not making arrival time compulsory field'?

Report 'Re: Hostelbookers not making arrival time compulsory field'?

Pages

Join the world's largest community of hostel professionals.

Check Your Email