Hostelworld increase rate FEE to 12%

From 10 points to 12 points, Hostelworld is actually trying to overwhelmingly increase their commission by one fifth. The way Hostelworld increases their profit is a warning sign for us and makes us feel cautious on our relation.

Now my hostel gets around 70~80% of all city bookings and it makes up around 15% of our sales. More customers are probably brought by Hostelworld but they extend their booking in house, or just walk in so it doesn't directly count.

For long time we rely Hostelworld on attracting our customers. Ratings are around 95%. It's one of two booking sources because I am still new to the industry and don't bother to extend our presence to more booking sites.

Then when HW increases their commission in this non-optional way, I feel the position of my hostel is vulnerable. They take advantage of their market position but as the hostel management, there is not much we can do.

I worry that It's just the beginning. A few months ago, they just launched an Elevator Program. The more you pay, the better ranking you have. This is edging on cheating and manipulating the customer trust on them, because in another word, they try to mislead a customer to choose someone who pays more, instead the one who is better.

Instead of expanding customer base or introducing more marketing tools (perhaps a more enriched microsite that managers can choose to join or not) , HW is trying to earn more by using customers' trust or directly grab money from the hands of hostel. Yes we are all a profit making business, but I think they're a company of fading dignity.

Now we've changed the price slightly to cover up the loss, limit the number of beds on HW, looking for expanding the presence on booking.com, agoda.com, tripadvisor.com.

We also make our own website. While prices are the same there, we offer extremely flexible booking and hope it attracts customers.

What we realize after this change is that HW is too big to be your trusted partner. Be cautious of this bully.

http://www.onlyhostels.com/why-join-oh.php

anyone heard about this? I signed up after the toronto hostel told me about it. It would be nice if all the hostels were on it, in essence telling hostelworld to fuck off.

I have a feeling a hostel owner from Toronto is behind this website. Anyone know about this?

The idea is of course very welcome but the main thing is will customers book with them.

I am already listed with the likes of Gomio ,Hostelsclub and Hosteltimes which are majority hostels with some other properties but I am still to receive a booking from them.

Any OTA can start up but if they cant get the numbers to book with them then what happens next.

Also at the end there is a promise if you pre-register before May 1st there will be only 8 % commission but what is the commission if you register later.

Again the larger competition is great amongst OTAs but it needs to be proper competition and get people to book through them.

Once they connect to myallocator I will definitely sign up.

I've used Maxbooking which I really like developed by the owner of Sir Toby's in Prague. No commission to owner, user pays 2bucks. I just wish he would develop a portal. For no commission I see everyone migrating to it.