12 years
I really don't think that discussing with them will change anything...
I don't think that hostels should discuss it with Hostelworld, but I have some other ideas that I will post soon. :)
Hostelworld Is Sorting Hotels and B&Bs Above Hostels
Hostel Trends and News
I've noticed that Hostelworld.com is not only listing non-hostels in the default views, but it is sorting non-hostels above hostels.
The screenshot below is from London, where Hostelworld lists 94 hostels. Despite that large number of hostels in London, Hostelworld also lists 56 hotels, 18 B&Bs, and 20 apartments in the default view.
When I sort by rating, the #1 property is not a hostel.
#2, #3, and #4 are hostels.
#5 and #6 are hotels.
Etc.
Another example is in Dublin where HW lists 32 hostels at the moment. Instead of just listing those 32 hostels, they also list 58 B&Bs, 23 hotels, and 6 apartments. That means that a hostel isn't just competing with 31 other hostels, but with 118 other accommodation providers, most of which are not hostels. And this is on what is seen by many travelers as "the hostel booking site".
Hostels do a service to hostel booking sites by allocating beds, and the hostels made Hostelworld what it is today. Why should hostels now be competing at a disadvantage with non-hostels in their own niche? In my opinion, listing non-hostels above hostels should not be accepted by hostels. I think that hostels should always be vigilant that they are not being used by hostel booking sites as a tool primarily to upsell hotels.
Have you noticed this, and what do you think?
- Comments
12 years
I get what everyone is saying about how if the site is called HOSTELWORLD then hostels should have first preference, but the reality is the venture capital company wants it's profit...that's all a given, but what's not been addressed here is that you're not giving the potential guests any credit.
They don't just blindly pick a hostel or a hotel...they have their own criteria that i don't think has changed at all over the years.. most are looking at location, price and ratings. And, at least from our own guest research, price isn't even the top factor. They are really looking at location and more importantly ratings...and for a high rating they are willing to pay more $$.
We can gripe all we want about the unfairness of it all, but isn't it more useful to find out what YOUR guests are looking for when they book and then try to provide them with a hostel that provides what they want?
on the issue of ratings, i'd like to see more policing to make sure people cannot post fake ratings. In our markets every once in awhile a hostel with middling ratings suddenly is showing the highest ratings.....and that is always suspicious and with ratings driving bookings, i think integrity in this area is more important than how many crappy hotels they want to shove onto the listings.
12 years
the reality is the venture capital company wants it's profit...that's all a given...
It's true to some extent that business is about money and that Hostelworld's interest is in maximizing profits, but the hostels are also businesses, and their interests are in protecting themselves. I see the situation as: a very large company wants to exploit a set of their customers (the hostels) for the detriment of those customers, and those customers are also businesses that can either work to pressure a change, warn their guests about the problems, or just take their business (allocations) elsewhere.
what's not been addressed here is that you're not giving the potential guests any credit.
I think that most potential guests don't know what a hostel is. I was just chatting with someone on another site who is a very experienced traveler, and they were staying at a resort that they were calling a hostel because it was listed on a hostel booking site. :)
I see a problem when guests are searching in Google for "hostels in [city]" and Hostelworld is one of the top results. They go to Hostelworld.com, maybe not even knowing much about what a hostel is, and the actual hostels are being buried under non-hostels. Even though the hotels are more expensive, the hotels are sometimes being listed as being cheaper than the hostels, because the true price is not mentioned. You can't buy 1/2 or 1/3 of a hotel room, but that is how the prices are listed... :)
12 years
I recently brought this issue to the attention of Alannah at Hostelworld. I always find her to be very honest and here was her her response as it relates to Hotels and B&B's:
"Hostels are always our first priority, as you say it’s in our name and it’s our brand identity. Our TV advertising campaigns, marketing schemes, customer emails, deals on the site, top placements, hostelworld recommends programme etc are all for hostels. Our twitter and Facebook campaigns only ever talk about hostels, we do everything we can to promote hostels, we have conferences and meetings for hostels only, we attend tradeshows and global youth conferences to promote hostels. Unfortunately for us however, there aren’t enough hostels out there to meet the demand and there is a market for private accommodation. We need to tap into this market to ensure that our business continues to grow, especially in destinations where we don’t have or there just aren’t a lot of hostels. If the business stops growing then we can’t proceed with any of the projects and marketing schemes I mentioned above, so we have to include these property types on our site. Granted some of the individual properties aren’t great, but where there is a demand we have to try and meet it and after that there is a rating system for customers to make their own choice. If somewhere is really dismal and ratings are terrible then we take them off line, and believe me, I do take properties off line if they don’t meet a minimum criteria. "
I think it's perfectly acceptable to sell other properties, however in the Chicago market the majority of the hotels listed are outside of Chicago and nearer to the airport. This could create a situation of unhappy guests because of distance to the city and public transportation difficulty. I think Hostelworld should do site visits prior to listing properties to know what they're listing,and know they can stand by all listed properties. The major booking engines do not blindly list hotels without going on site first.
12 years
While it's remotely possible HostelWorld is not receiving enough allocations from hostels to meet the demand of their website visitors, still they are not currently making the process of managing allocation easy for hostels. At the moment HostelWorld and hostels seem to be in a stalemate. HostelWorld wants more allocations from each hostel and hostels want retain the right to sell beds in-house and keep some available for walk-ins (a long standing tradition in hostels). In my opinion, the solution to this is for HostelWorld to publish a standardized API that would allow hostels to interface their front desk systems with their allocations on HostelWorld. I believe HostelWorld would immediately see an increase in allocations because hostels know they could still sell beds in-house when guests call them on the phone. Currently hostels hold back most their inventory because it's difficult and cumbersome for the front desk person to log in an reduce allocations on HostelWorld each time a new in-house reservation is received. During my conversations with HostelWorld they have stated that their BAKPAK Online product is the solution to this. But it's not a solution in the eyes of the hostel since the hostel does not want HostelWorld to have access to their proprietary sales and occupancy information and the hostel still wants to be able to sell beds through other channels.
12 years
Many years ago I received a similar reply from Grainne at HW to that reply Alannah gave mmeadows. Since then I had noticed that Hotels were removed from city listings as more hostels were listed with Hostelworld.
sfhostel does not need to search too hard to find software providers like us that have the best possible integration with HW to enable you to give them as much allocation as you want. The Hostelworld awarded Best Hostel USA 2009 and 2011 uses our software.
There are also many traditional hotel agents that you can gain bookings from and as a result introduce more people to the hostel world. This is particularly relevant in places like the USA where hostels are not as well known as in europe. Here is a film from us that mentions this 4 minutes 20 seconds in to the film.
12 years
you need a channel manager...then allocations are easy to do. Charts is an advertiser on this website. That is who we use and we really like them.
12 years
I want to add that some budget hotels classify themselves as "hostels", but they don't have shared dorm beds, but just compute 2 people in one bedroom as "2 beds" etc. and list themselves under the guise of "hostels" in hostelworld.com
Do you also have these cases in your cities?
regards
12 years
We have the same problem in our three cities. I've complained to Hostelworld about this and have encouraged them to have criteria for what constitutes a hostel listing. I've said over and over 4 beds in a room doesn't make a hostel...what i've heard back from them - and this was years ago - is that they say it has to have common space and a guest 'kitchen'...but some of these 'hostels' idea of a guest kitchen is just a microwave and a tea kettle. in NYC before they shut all the hostels down that was common in some of the tenaments they tried to call hostels.
this is really frustrating to me as it gives real hostels a bad name. i don't care if a hostel has a kitchen but it should be a real hostel with majority of beds being dorms and an atmosphere that promotes socializing either by in-house stuff or group activities or the amenities offered.
by allowing anyone to call themselves a hostel they dilute what we are and dont help build our reputation - this is especially importan in the USA where hostels as a whole have a bad rap. but hostelworld doesn't care to be a leader in this area. I've also pitched this to HB with no response either.
12 years
Thanks Ria for your interesting and informative post.
There's even a hotel chain owner here in Manila who used the word "hostel" for two of their properties, which are actually budget hotels and with no dorm rooms or real common areas or guest kitchens too. But, they haven't listed in hostelworld though.
Hope the identity of real hostels isn't diluted, misused...
By the way, where are you based?
Warmest best regards from Asia!
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