9 years
Hi Mark,
If you advertise a bed on hostelworld for 10 euro then at time of booking the customer will pay 1.20 euro deposit.
When the customer arrives to you they will pay 8.80 euro to you.
Hostelworld charges
Front Desk Operations
Hi everyone.
Ive read some of the forums on here but I still dont understand exactly how the hostelworld commission works. I believe it is along the lines of the following:
1) They take 12% from the guest when making the booking online
2) Hostelworld charge the hostel a fee for their referral of 12%
My question is, is the commission fee the same 12% that they deduct on booking? In other words if I sell a room for $10, what will my post commission income be?
Thanks,
Mark
- Comments
9 years
Hi Jim, thanks for the response! That all seems very straightforward. On other forums people have spoken about payback from Hostelworld where there are additional charges other than the 12% they take on reservation. Can anyone advise on if this is the case?
Thanks,
Mark
9 years
There are a number of programs Hostelworld have for further marketing.
There is the elevate program where you can alter the commission from 12% up to a possible 17% but again this just increases the deposit they take from the customer.
There is the featured listing where you can be listed along the top whereby you pay hostelworld a monthly fee for more exposure.
9 years
Hi John, thanks again for the reply. What are the advantages of increasing the commission?
Do you know roughly what the charges for the featured listings are?
Thanks again
Mark
9 years
Increasing the commission increases your ranking.
You can see in the backend your current position and where you would be if you increase your commission.
The prices for the featured listing varies depending on what city you are in.
I would not recommend either.
Also I would recommend to add on the price of commission to your listing so that you always take in the same amount whether someone books direct or from an OTA.
9 years
I’ve read some of the forums on here but I still dont understand exactly how the hostelworld commission works. I believe it is along the lines of the following:
1) They take 12% from the guest when making the booking online
2) Hostelworld charge the hostel a fee for their referral of 12%
My question is, is the commission fee the same 12% that they deduct on booking?
The confusion comes from the way that HW describes the transaction in their contract. There are several different descriptions and definitions about who pays whom and how the money is applied. All of it is legal mumbo jumbo designed to remove any liability for refunding guests, paying certain taxes, and to justify their use of the misleading word “deposit.”
In practice this is all much more straightforward: You set your price that is listed on HW. When a guest books a bed they will pay a “deposit” to confirm the reservation, and HW will keep that money. When the guest arrives they pay you the remaining balance.
As I understand it, any new hostel signing up with HW will be charged a 15% commission instead of 12%.
In your example with a $10 bed, if HW takes 15% you will receive $8.50 from the guest. As John mentioned, you can include the commission in that price so that you will list on HW for $11.76, and after the guest pays their 15% deposit, the remaining balance they pay to you will still be the original $10.
I would recommend including the commissions for all the bookings sites and selling your beds on your own website for $10 in order to save your guests unnecessary commissions, to increase your number of direct bookings, and to minimize your dependence on HW or any other booking site.
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