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New hostel Kansas city MO

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Honeycomb Hostel Bleeker started this discussion 7 years 1 month ago

After months of renovating, Honeycomb Hostel KC is up and running! We bought a 105 year old, historic house and converted into a 30 bed hostel! Very proud of our hard work.

And it seems the hard work is still ahead of us. We have been open for 3 weeks, had peopl from six different countries and we still not on Hostelworld ( seems things take a little bit of time with them)

We have build our bed in place( good that we handy with a welder, seeing that the floors in this old house were more than a bit uneven.

Right now we are busy with building a three level deck ( to create extra hangout space) on the cack of the house.

our website www.honeycombhostel.us or look us up on facebook.

While busy with the renovating, which seems was never gonna end, I havent even thought of the marketing, channel manager, POS system and all those fun stuff. Right now, seeing that we not that busy yet, we manage with a calender... I know, pretty primitive.

Any help, advice would be greatly appreciatted.

Thank you so much, and if you in the area, please stop by.

Elsa Bleeker

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cmloechl

7 years

Wow, looks gorgeous! The first pic I saw immediately reminded me of Travelers House in Portland. Very similar vibes and front of house layout! Though KC is not on the usual backpacker route, I have no doubt you will attract many of the travelers who are going through. (I also grew up in STL and my family is split STL and KC, so happy to see more hostels appearing in the underrated Midwest!)

My first suggestion is to decide on a way to start taking direct *instant* bookings asap. You are going to lose a lot of potential business by not being able to take direct bookings. And in the mind of today's traveler, a 'reservation or inquiry form' is not a reservation, it's a hassle.

A channel manager is going to save your sanity once you are taking bookings from more than one source (as you should be). Most/many people use MyAllocator. It's easy and affordable, though there are others.

RE PMSs: there are as many options as there are colors, but it all comes down to your needs and budget. Hostel Management actually developed HostelSnap for small, independent hostels like yourself, especially those transitioning from paper & pencil to a PMS. You can use it at its simplest to take direct bookings on your website, or as a full on PMS w/ direct bookings. More info and a demo can be found here. For other PMS choices, search the threads on the forum as there are many discussions already on the various options.

In general, answers to all of your questions are on this forum. Spend the time to do the research and it may save you mistakes later. If you want more directed help, now or in the future, you can always consider a hiring a hostel consultant. (Full disclosure, I'm one of them :-) )

Any questions feel free to email me here.

Cheers

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bundathunda

7 years

Congrats Elsa! My partner Erin and I were roadtripping across the United States at the beginning of the summer, trying to hit as many American hostels as possible. When we realized Kansas City didn't have one, we thought what a prime opportunity that would be. I'm glad to see that Honeycomb Hostel can now fill that need for travellers in KC. Best of luck.

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elsableeker

7 years

Thanks for the feed back Courtney. I am interested in hostelsnap. How do I go about it, sign up under $149 deal?

It seems that it surely will make my life much easier, as things are picking up... and I am completely new at this..and it's a wee but overwhelming, more than a wee. From 3% occupancy to 40% like overnight.

Thanks Elsa Bleeker

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elsableeker

7 years

Thanks for the feed back Courtney. I am interested in hostelsnap. How do I go about it, sign up under $149 deal?

Thanks Elsa Bleeker

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cmloechl

7 years

Hey Elsa,

Sounds like you've been in contact with Darren about HostelSnap, so I'll let him take it from here. Congrats on the boom in business! Overwhelming sometimes I'm sure, but it's a great problem to have!

Courtney

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elsableeker

7 years

Thanks for getting back to me Courtney. Trying to get hostelsnap...just got send a questoinaire to fill in, from Darren and that was it. I really would like to use Hostelsnap, but right now am a bit worried about the support. The last contact I had from Darren was on 6 Nov, and that was the questionaire he has send me. A bit concerned, that if I do use it, that I wont be getting the neccerary support, If I need it.

Can you please advice me as how to go about resolving this issue.

Thanks

Elsa Bleeker

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cmloechl

7 years

Hey Elsa,

I spoke to Darren, and I'm sorry to hear about the miscommunication. When he looked into he saw that you indeed filled out that questionnaire but it unfortunately did not notify him at the time so he thought he was waiting on your response rather than the other way around :) I believe you two are back in contact now but feel free to email me directly if you don't hear from him or have any concerns by sending me a message here.

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