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Hostels: Cooperation vs. Competition

Internet Marketing

Josh started this discussion 15 years 11 months ago

I've seen examples of where regional hostels are competing with each other, almost to the point of having minor feuds. I've seen other examples of where hostels in the same city are actively working together.

I'm an advocate of hostels working together, even with "competitors".

The "enemy" isn't the other hostel in the same city -- the "enemy" is no backpackers coming to your city. I think good hostels can work together to "fight" that enemy of "no backpackers" by promoting their city as a destination. All hostels benefit from more backpackers...

I used to try to cultivate good relationships with other hostels, though not all of them were open to it.

Here are some ideas:

working together to promote your city as a backpackers destination
sending guests to each other when a hostel is booked
hostels not bashing each other in unfriendly ways
agreeing not to send shady guests to each other -- phone the other local hostels to warn them when you kick out a bad guest
co-host parties with other hostels -- maybe hold events where all the guests from a couple of hostels get together and have a BBQ or toga party in the park.

Here's an interesting example of hostels working together on the same website:
http://www.dresden-hostels.com/

What do people think? Does anyone work with other hostels in their city?

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Andy08

15 years

I agree cooperation works for hostels in a way it doesnt for hotels. Maybe because hostel owners/managers aren't all out just to make money?

"I used to try to cultivate good relationships with other hostels, though not all of them were open to it. "

Any bad responses?? I imagine some hostel owners might react badly to new competition..

A gd example..A hostel owner in Kiev told me one of his competitors was giving free accom/discounts for guests to write good reviews of his hostel and bad reviews of other hostels on Hostelworld..

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Josh Hostels

15 years

Any bad responses?? I imagine some hostel owners might react badly to new competition...

One thing was kicking out guests and not warning the other hostels. I think that's important.

E.g., when a hostel kicks out someone for stealing or fighting, they should call the other hostels nearby and warn them because 99% of the time that's where the bad guest is headed.

(I'm not sure how that would work in a city with a lot of hostels though.)

One hostel kicked out a guest for fighting. He checked into the hostel where I was working (we had no idea). Long story, but a couple of weeks after we kicked him out, he cornered me on a dark, deserted street and spent 5 minutes shouting in my face about how he was going to beat me into a coma. This guy was a probably about 250++ pounds and looked like a pro body builder. I think it was 'roid rage.

I still called the other hostels when I kicked out particularly bad guests, but wish there was more cooperation...

A gd example..A hostel owner in Kiev told me one of his competitors was giving free accom/discounts for guests to write good reviews of his hostel and bad reviews of other hostels on Hostelworld..

That's terrible...

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Plakian

15 years

One thing was kicking out guests and not warning the other hostels. I think that's important.

E.g., when a hostel kicks out someone for stealing or fighting, they should call the other hostels nearby and warn them because 99% of the time that's where the bad guest is headed.

(I'm not sure how that would work in a city with a lot of hostels though.)

If I think back a few days there was something on Facebook that you were looking at where the Central American hostels have set up their own FB group specifically to warn the other hostels about trouble makers. That sounds a great idea and would work in a city as well.

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santa klaus

15 years

sending guests to each other when a hostel is booked

Good receptionists do this anyway, regardless what their boss tells them.

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Josh Hostels

15 years

If I think back a few days there was something on Facebook that you were looking at where the Central American hostels have set up their own FB group specifically to warn the other hostels about trouble makers. That sounds a great idea and would work in a city as well.

I thought about making a section of the forum here for that, or build another notification system, but in the USA I think it could create grounds for lawsuits. It leaves a record...

If a guest feels they have been thrown out for the wrong reason and then systematically blacklisted from a large number of hostels, they might try to sue for damages or libel(?)...

I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. If someone here is a lawyer it would be good to find out whether it makes hostels or the webmaster liable.

It could be a good system in a country where people don't sue for every little thing.

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aboriginalhostel

15 years

I thought about making a section of the forum here for that, or build another notification system, but in the USA I think it could create grounds for lawsuits. It leaves a record...

If a guest feels they have been thrown out for the wrong reason and then systematically blacklisted from a large number of hostels, they might try to sue for damages or libel(?)...

I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. If someone here is a lawyer it would be good to find out whether it makes hostels or the webmaster liable.

It could be a good system in a country where people don't sue for every little thing.

I guess such things could be avoided by careful environment... If you let's say just only mention that XY has been kicked out from Z hostel because of whatever reasons, that still gives a choice to the other hostel to decide whether they want to accept that guest or not, but it is definitely not discrimination, rather providing information to each other. Of course any personal data should not be stored according to privacy acts, however a name and age could be enough to identify a person and not sharing any private information...

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uktrail

15 years

A hostel owner in Kiev told me one of his competitors was giving free accom/discounts for guests to write good reviews of his hostel and bad reviews of other hostels on Hostelworld..

Is that even possible? Good review of his hostel perhaps, but reviews of other hostels: don't you have to stay there, having booked thro Hostelworld, for your review to be accepted by HWorld?

I'm quite good at spotting false reviews, should I take a look at Kiev hostel reviews on HWorld?

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santa klaus

15 years

Is that even possible? Good review of his hostel perhaps, but reviews of other hostels: don't you have to stay there, having booked thro Hostelworld, for your review to be accepted by HWorld?

It´s possible but expensive. You need to have a booking to submit a review. If you don´t show up, the hostel will charge you the worth of one night´s stay. If the hostel manager is clever, he/she cancels no-show-bookings and these can´t submit a review then.
If you have plausible proof that a review is fake (e.g. because the person who submitted it did not stay in your hostel), you can still ask your buddy at HW to delete the review.

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Andy08

15 years

"Is that even possible? Good review of his hostel perhaps, but reviews of other hostels: don't you have to stay there, having booked thro Hostelworld, for your review to be accepted by HWorld?"

I think u just need to have made a booking. The reason I believed the hostel owner was that he showed me a negative review from one of the nights I stayed there.. There were only about 10 people staying that night and it wasn't one of them..

"I'm quite good at spotting false reviews, should I take a look at Kiev hostel reviews on HWorld?"

That was in September so I'm not sure how long HW keep there reviews..

Its amazing how much emphasis is placed on hostelworld ratings..

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aboriginalhostel

15 years

That was in September so I'm not sure how long HW keep there reviews..

Six months, so you have time till March.

Its amazing how much emphasis is placed on hostelworld ratings..

It is indeed... sometimes even too much emphasis. There are a lot of properties who think it's enough to sign up to HW and the guests will just flood the place. Then when they realize there are 365 days in a year and every day isn't like summer, they think it is either the matter of price or ratings (which could be indeed a reason) but instead of the long run and promoting themselves better or improving on their services, they rather think of an instant result and write couple of fraudulent reviews.

I'm quite good at spotting false reviews, should I take a look at Kiev hostel reviews on HWorld?

Would you be so kind checking Budapest as well if you have time? It would be nice to have an objective opinion...

IMHO it's impossible to fulfill everyone's demands, so there can't be a 100% hostel. Even the very best hostels can't make it better than 95-97%. However, I can still see still some properties in Budapest with 100% ratings, especially springtime or autumn, when reservations become so important for most of us... :rolleyes:

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