Should Travellers Use Hostels?

Strange... I'll try again:

I've heard some hostels are using hotel engines to fill up their rooms... with a fine cut of 15-20% commissions. That's not the future I want for hostels.

You can get a list of hostels on hotel sites with a Google "site" query. Here's a sample using expedia.com:
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aexpedia.com+hostel&num=100

Here's one with no availability at the hostel, but you can book a $200 hotel room instead:
(EDIT: this property does allocate beds, but just not at those dates)

Here are some dorm beds on Expedia. I wonder what the commission is.

If the trend is for people to book hostels rather than hotels I think that Hostelworld will be in for some competition from these huge travel sites. Maybe that's where boo.com comes in (it uses non-WRI booking engines too).

How about saying no bugs in hostels? ;)

How about telling a girl "I´m a billionaire and I can get you 10 consecutive orgasms tonight"? :D

IMHO there is a difference between satisfying someone who doesn't belong to hostels or attracting these people.

I think we agree there. With "attracting" I mean nothing else than "not pissing off".

I have a fine bottle of wine reserved for a bet about HW's conference will be about to attract these people (about tapping into new and emerging markets). I'd be happy to lose the bet though...

I fear the worst as well.

I've heard some hostels are using hotel engines to fill up their rooms... with a fine cut of 15-20% commissions. That's not the future I want for hostels.

IMHO because most of these people got used to hotel standards. We are not 4 star hotels. Try to sell some privates on a hotel engine, even a good quality hostel could get 60% ratings on a hotel engine... I'd be curious for your results though...

As we discussed it in another thread, the first thing they will miss is the bell boy...IMHO.

I do NOT want our hostels to appear on sites people use when they look for hotels and I don´t want to call our hostels "hotel/hostel" like some other hostels do.
Everybody who thinks about staying at Wombats should be aware that we are NOT a hotel.

That said, there´s no reason to be worse than a hotel in every respect. I guess the trick is to lower expectations to a point where people are positively surprised when they see what they get.

Do you get booked out during the weekends for the dorms though?
IMHO you can raise the private's prices until 80% of occupancy, but I don't know about your walk-in skills for privates though. Your WordOfMouth powers are very high! ;)

I think EUR 58 for a clean but no-frill and smallish double Vienna is the sort of price I would still be willing to pay, but not more. I don´t want to think too much about what we could theoretically charge and still fill up - I can´t stand it when someone accuses me of ripping him off or being otherwise unfair. Please don´t exploit that weakness when we play Risk! :D

Another advantage for purpose build hostels... we have a bathroom situation going on for months and every time we get it fixed, it goes wrong withing weeks. It might be time for bashing out the bathroom... :( poor fellow, not even two years old!

Small ensuites are the way to go... the times of 30 bed dorms with shared facilities are over! :D

The best thing about purpose-built hostels is planning them. Exciting work. That experience is only topped by the thrill when you first see a 7-million-Euros property which matches exactly the sketches you sent the architects. I will never forget that moment. It really paid off to wait and not go to the site until the thing was finished.

How about telling a girl "I´m a billionaire and I can get you 10 consecutive orgasms tonight"? :D

Indeed, both statements could be inappropriate. ;)

Everybody who thinks about staying at Wombats should be aware that we are NOT a hotel.

Right, as long as hostels can sell beds on the "regular" channels, none of us have to worry about it. But I also remember when regular channels meant guidebooks, flyers and phone bookings...

So when I see this flashpacker fever, I just see different people than we got used to and I'm not sure about how those plenty "novice nomads" with a single hostel experience will be "globetrotters" ever!

Please don´t exploit that weakness when we play Risk! :D

Another deal to negotiate, maybe? :D

The best thing about purpose-built hostels is planning them. Exciting work. That experience is only topped by the thrill when you first see a 7-million-Euros property which matches exactly the sketches you sent the architects.

In Hungary, it equals to the telling a girl "I´m a billionaire and I can get you 10 consecutive orgasms tonight"? phrase.

I just read an article about a Hungarian passage house full of luxury apartments, central location, all apartments are sold previously and the constructors saved as many concrete out of the building as it seems the whole thing gonna collapse in 20 years.