NOTE: This thread is a continuation of this thread:
http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forums/hostel-booking-engine-apis-hostelworld-hostelbookers.html --Josh
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You could give your hostel a completely different name to list on Agent sites. Then the Agent can add value by exposing your hostel under a different name. But the name should be location orientated. Munich Train Station Hostel, City Central Hostel Berlin, Main Street Hostel New York, Hyde Park Hostel London, Pimlico Hostel London etc.
Then you will have the freedom to promote your own website for your hostel called the Rising Cock City Central Hostel etc etc.
15 years
You could give your hostel a completely different name to list on Agent sites. Then the Agent can add value by exposing your hostel under a different name.
In my experience, listing a single hostel under multiple names/websites can create negative relationships with competing hostels. It can also confuse travelers.
In my opinion it's better to market a single hostel under only one name.
15 years
If you're confident in your product, I think it's best to build your brand up, and listing under multiple names would confuse this. In a perfect world you offer an experience that people enjoy and tell others about. Then people who hear about it and want to stay there, they search the web and the name of your hostel comes up. This is obviously much harder if your name is for example "New York Backpackers" as you'd have a hard time getting that to the top of the rankings. However if you use a slightly unusual name and create decent content I think you should be able to get a website to the top of the rankings for that search term.
15 years
How would you get along if you would use online advertising like AdWords & via the other plattforms like Yahoo (much cheaper than Google) yourself? If you are using your own reservation system, you save 10% which you could use a bit of for ads & would still save money.
I would just recommend also to use Google Analytics (free) to see if the customers gets on your contact/reservation page.
Do you have any experience of how the prices are in average for keywords like: hostel +(city name)? I would guess that these won't cost more than Eur 1 per click, properly around € 0,50 - 0,80.
But it's also important to know a bit more about AdWords & how to use it best. Otherwise you just spend too much money... But I would say, after a good read in of about 1-3 hours, you should get along. If you do it right, you get higher results with spending less than others.
15 years
You could give your hostel a completely different name to list on Agent sites. Then the Agent can add value by exposing your hostel under a different name. But the name should be location orientated. Munich Train Station Hostel, City Central Hostel Berlin, Main Street Hostel New York, Hyde Park Hostel London, Pimlico Hostel London etc.
Then you will have the freedom to promote your own website for your hostel called the Rising Cock City Central Hostel etc etc.
Can you create a Brand Name for this hostel above ?
- If Yes, the brand name will be different as well?:confused:
Can this hostel be famous after years ?
- If Yes, how you will advertise this Hostel and under what name?:confused:
After 10 years you will have 10 different famous hostels but actually is just one. Do you think will work?:confused:
With respect...I don't think so !:)
From my experience with my websites, SEO is the most important thing in creating a Brand Name, or a well known hostel in all the search engines.
Best solution is to have different context on each portal.
Also, original text for the hostel website.
In this scenario you won't have duplicate context on Google and they will crawl and rank very good, all of them, on all the search engines.
The winner is the Hostel !!!
A famous name on Google ! All your links will have one winner !
I don't want to give SEO advices, but I think the title of this thread is:
''Hostel Booking Engine APIs ( Hostelworld, Hostelbookers, Hostelsclub, etc.)''
So, let go back to the initial subject and lets try to find a win-win solution...:)
15 years
There are reasons to be pro-active to gain more bookings. There are also reasons to be defensive so you don't lose bookings.
So who owns the domain name in your city that is www.citynamehostel/s.com ?
You can see that the agents buy these names.
Do you think customers get confused by this and give negative feedback? I think the very confident answer is that it results in more bookings via the agent sites.
When someone searches for a hostel in a city that they have not been to before they are going to use 'cityname' and the word 'hostel/s'.
So forget add-words when you can include these most common names either on the agent site or in your domain name. No worries to call your hostel something distinctive so word-of-mouth can find your website direct. But lead with the cityname and hostel/s.
Naughty Squirrel Riga Old Town Hostel and Rockabilly London Hostel are examples of distinctive names that include the key words of city name and hostel/s.
Where is it written that a hostel can have only one website?
15 years
So who owns the domain name in your city that is citynamehostel/s.com[/url] ?
You can see that the agents buy these names.
In my opinion, those booking engine sites are crossing over the line into gray hat SEO. I've even seen people in SEO blogs complaining about them. I'll leave it at that though :)
Do you think customers get confused by this and give negative feedback? I think the very confident answer is that it results in more bookings via the agent sites.
Black hat and gray hat SEO work. I would call multiple websites without value-added content a definite shade of gray.
The multiple site approach can even backfire:
When someone searches for a hostel in a city that they have not been to before they are going to use 'cityname' and the word 'hostel/s'.
Many people use those kinds of search terms, but a site doesn't need the hostel's name or the domain name to contain those keywords in order to rank well.
Where is it written that a hostel can have only one website?
It's not written in stone anywhere -- just my personal opinion :)
If it's a hostel chain or a network, I think the company can get away with one main site and then a different site for each hostel.
If a single hostel wants to build multiple sites, I would go for the value-added approach. Don't make duplicate hostel websites; make each one with a distinct purpose (e.g., main site, blog).
Even then, the sites may deal with the dilution of inbound links. One site that ranks for 25,000 or 100,000 keywords is generally better than 5 sites that rank for 3000 keywords each. (Depending on the keywords.)
15 years
Where is it written that a hostel can have only one website?
The problem to me is threefold. Firstly the dilution factor as far as search goes. Then the possibility of confusion of guests as to whether the different sites refer to the same property. Lastly multiple sites can be used at times to attempt to create confusion with other businesses. This has happened to us where a competitor brands himself with our hostel's name on a website although he trades as something completely different. It can backfire as we've had people turn up here when they're booked in with him, and stay with us, as they don't want to drive another 20+ miles.
15 years
Yes I have had a hostel call itself the same name as mine even though I have had the trademark registered. Everyone advised me to litigate. I decided to change the name of my hostel. Now when everyone searches for that hostel many of them find my old website and book in my hostel. So I win from their advertising.
I also purchased more domain names for my old hostel name that was copied and pointed them to my new website. "Don't get mad, Get even".
But I am not saying to give your hostel completely different names. I am saying that you ought to have the location of your hostel as part of the name and mostly as the domain name.
There is no dilution, there is better representation. Each of my websites specialises for different search engines and different search terms. One website can not cover all bases. eg how do you cover plural searches, Country searches, City searches, tour searches?
The answer is to have different websites capturing the variables. If agents occupy 5 results on the first google page then I want to have at least 2 of my sites on the first google page no matter what search term is used.
The booking engine I use for all sites is a Hostel Office booking engine that allows me to include the text I want in it. It is very easy to include clarification information in the booking engine and also in the booking confirmation email.
15 years
Not hard with the ,,Charts'' booking engine !!!
Best booking engine ever !!!:)
Synchronize your beds with at least 10+ booking agents + the highly customizable booking engine !
Is there another PMS providing those features ???
I guess not...
15 years
Oh, and by the way !!!
I think we should thank to ''Hostels'' for his qualified and free SEO ADVICE :)
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