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Observation - missing out on easy marketing

Promoting the Hostel Movement

footprints started this discussion 14 years 2 months ago

Quite a few weeks ago I posted a note that we are looking for independent hostels to give extra exposure to. You can see the post here

Now I do not know how many Aussie managers and owners come to this forum, maybe there are just a handful and that would explain allot.

What surprised me was we were contacted by what I would consider the larger players in the market. Hostels although independent and what we were looking for, had solid marketing and a degree of market exposure and dominance.

So what does this mean? Is it the smaller operators are just not in this forum? Does it mean the smaller hostel is just not taking advantage of every opportunity that presents itself?

We were also contacted by a couple of international hostels and again were bigger players in the market, we will be pursuing the international market in time but currently it is only NZ and AU we are concentrating on.

I just found it interesting that the hostels that have the biggest impact on the market are the ones taking advantage of every channel they can, this could be another reason the smaller players are staying just that.

Just an observation anyway...

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gordo

14 years

as an employee of one of the 'bigger players' in the industry, I'd wager its because we have dedicated marking people and pressure from the top to push marketing avenues; essentially (and certainly not to disparage you guys at footprints) we're told to follow up any and all options. having a single marketing push for multiple hostels employs a certain economy of scale that smaller operators cant match. lets face it, its not much more effort to get a group of hostels into one form of advertising than it is to get a single hostel in, but the rewards for a chain can be far greater (hope that makes sense...).

there could also be a lot of smaller operators that are doing it more for lifestyle reasons and dont feel the need to 'grow' in any avenue, essentially hostels that dont want to expand or grow because they have a good thing going. that could of course be seen as somewhat short sighted, but that doesnt mean its not how some people feel.

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Scotch Argus

14 years

I agree totally gordo - there are a lot of people running small hostels for a lifestyle reason. They are quite happy to have a busy summer season, quieter shoulder seasons and perhaps a few months off in winter. The idea that they could be full or near full all the time would fill them with dread. The other thing is that you might be running a place as a husband and wife team say, and going along nicely with limited or no extra help. If you get bigger you suddenly have to hire more staff. You have to pay them, which eats into your profits, and you also have the hassle of extra staff. Al lot of small managers didn't get into the industry for hassle.

The other issue with marketing is that as a manager you are saturated with people offering various deals. Emails come in daily about listing in this or that directory. They always claim to be free and will boost your bookings by x%. People these days are very wary - so even if your site is 100% bona fide it is difficult to convince people to put any money or extra effort into it. It's a challenge in these days of web marketing

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boardies

14 years

I've sent you a private message with our contact details. If anyone is heading to Melbourne, Australia I suggest you check out HabitatHQ hostel.

HabitatHQ Backpackers Hostel, St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia
We always love hearing from other hostel owners around the country.

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fat pony

13 years

I have to say, it's not just all about the smaller hostels not responding because 'smaller' is a lifestyle choice. Whilst, that's true for some, it's not so for all. For some it's a time & funding issue- many are already busy running two or three other, more successful businesses & don't have time to market themselves or funds for a dedicated marketing position.
I do agree about having a dedicated marketing plan in place. My experience is that quite a lot of hostel owners/ managers are not aware of Hostel Management's website & therefore, not members & wouldn't see the initial post of this thread. I only found this great resource by accident- was googling another hostel & this site came up on page FIVE of Google's results... The owners whom I work for hadn't heard of it either.... Which proves the point on which we all agree- PROMOTE, PROMOTE and PROMOTE some more! ;0)

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