New Hostelworld Contract - July 2015

Hostelworld have issued an updated version of their contract to hostel properties.

To pacify any concerns from the start, in the new contract that I received the commissions did not go up again, and the rate parity requirement is still gone.

Below are all of the differences that I found between this new contract and my previous version. They include small changes in definitions, terms for using the HW booking engine on a hostel’s own website, and terms for BPO users.

Under the Definitions section, definitions for “HW Websites” and “Licensee Websites” were added to distinguish between them, and the simple term “Websites” now refers to both of the above. Those minor semantic changes were used throughout the rest of the contract.

HW Websites shall mean any websites operated by HW (including, without limitation, Hostelworld.com and Hostels.com) and any other websites or technology platforms in respect of which a licensing agreement exists to utilise HWs technology for the purposes of processing online reservations, save for the Licensee Websites

This means that all of HW’s sites and other sites using HW’s technology are covered under the terms of this contract. It is unclear if this includes Hostelbookers, as it was not specifically mentioned. As I understand, Hostelbookers is owned by parent company WRI rather than HW itself, and it still operates with its own technology at this time.

Licensee Websites shall mean any website operated by the Licensee that incorporates the HW Booking Engine

Websites shall mean HW Websites and the Licensee Websites.

For reference, here is the text from the previous version of the contract that has been replaced:

Websites shall mean Hostelworld.com and any other websites or technology platforms in respect of which a licensing agreement exists to utilise HWs technology for the purposes of processing online reservations.

In Section 11.4, related to the HW booking engine, there were changes to the “Payback (rebate) % amount of the Standard Service Fee.”

In my case, the payback amount went up from 75% to 80%, meaning that the hostel would now receive 80% of the commission for each booking made on their own website using HW’s booking engine.

It is possible that other hostels may receive different amounts for bookings on their own sites.

Section 12 BackpackOnline Terms and Conditions was added to the contract.

12. BACKPACKONLINE TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This clause only relates to and is only binding on those Licensees that use the HW online property management system known as backpackonline (the BPO Service).

12.1 Use of the BPO Service is subject to the additional terms and conditions available here [link removed] (the BPO Terms and Conditions).

I do not use BPO, so I cannot compare the terms and conditions in the contract that is linked in section 12.1 to any other version. If someone else would like to compare this version to previous terms and outline the changes, that would be great!