Report

Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates

Internet Marketing

Josh started this discussion 15 years 7 months ago

NOTE: this thread is a continuation of this thread.

It's too bad that a company like hosteltraveler.com, with such a wide range of travel portals, can't redirect their customers that are looking for non-hostel accommodations to one of their many other portals.

I think that could be applied to most (if not all) the major "hostel" sites out there with the exception of Bug.co.uk. Hostelworld even has a property now that has a minimum fee of $8400! ($1200 per night with 7 night minimum stay)

IMAGE(http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forum/attachments/f25/482d1246716283-most-expensive-property-hostelworld-com-expensive-hostelworld.png)

In fact, a youth hostel in Mexico may be defined as something much different than a youth hostel in Slovenia. This is not challenge academic definitions, but is a mere fact.

I disagree. A hostel is a hostel -- meaning it offers dorm beds. I think calling hotels "hostels" is bad for hostels and serves no purpose other than marketing strategy for hotels to ride the popularity of hostels. A longer explanation of why I think this is posted here and here.

I think these are important posts:

Comments

Report

Josh Hostels

15 years

As for the common ideal for Hostel category, they should propose a strict guideline to all the hostels on the booking site saying if have these requirements you will be classified as that and all hostels should agree to that. What that should be is something that has been discussed in this thread.

To me a hostel is a place that has mixed or shared dormitory rooms (bunk bed or single - 6 or more to a room), common room, kitchen (either self service or served) and...

I don't think hostels need a kitchen to still be considered a hostel. My favorite hostel doesn't have a guest kitchen, and it also has no private rooms... :)

The problem with leaving it up to the booking engines is that they have monetary inventive to call hotels hostels. (Higher commissions.)

Hostelworld wants to change the definition of hostel to something that doesn't mention shared accommodation at all:

[INDENT]"Hostel: Budget, fun, sociable accommodation for people of all ages" [Source][/INDENT]

(Sorry to single out Hostelworld, but the $8400 property is an obvious example of the issue.)

Example of a page where there isn't a clear distinction between hotels and hostels:

"Hostels in Grenoble" (not true)
There are no hostels in Grenoble [EDIT: there is a hostel in Grenoble, but it's not listed on HW, only on FUAJ and hihostels.com]
The hotels are supposedly selling beds (not true - they are selling rooms)

There are no hostels in the following example, but sometimes the hotels are mixed in with hostels in the default view and that's when it gets even more confusing for travelers...

IMAGE(http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forum/attachments/f8/568d1251438451-supporting-hostel-focused-booking-engines-affiliates-hostels-grenoble.jpg)

Report

Phillip

15 years

I don't think hostels need a kitchen to still be considered a hostel. My favorite hostel doesn't have a guest kitchen, and it also has no private rooms... :)

Yes, I will agree with you on that, that some don't have kitchens and can still be a hostel. But a a generalization I would say more offer than not. :)

The problem with leaving it up to the booking engines is that they have monetary inventive to call hotels hostels. (Higher commissions.)

Hostelworld wants to change the definition of hostel to something that doesn't mention shared accommodation at all:

Yes I agree with you on this 100%. Even for us in Tokyo I do a search and clearly marked as Hostel is ticked i get a Total of 30 Hostels. Out of that only 11 are actually are Hostels (Dormitory beds / Shared accommodation). The rest are hotels with private rooms or Ryokans (small Japanese style hotels) which only book rooms. It should come back to the booking site to clean up their listings and make a rule on what classifies as a hostel or hotel or other accommodation.

[ATTACH]569[/ATTACH]

Report

Scotch Argus

15 years

I would prefer to see the listings on HW split up between hostels and other types of accommodation. With every type of accommodation of one page by default it just creates confusion. In an ideal world they'd just have hostels, but I guess as they get more successful then more and more other businesses will list on them, and it makes economic sense for HW to allow this. People have mentioned backpackers being confused by hotels pretending to be hostels, which is definitely a problem, but the reverse is true as well. The more other accommodations are listed the more it just comes across as as any other hotel booking site, and will obviously get people looking to book hotels. When these people come to the hostel, they may well be disappointed with the fact that they ahev in fact booked a hostel (if they even know what one is).

The other day we had this with a HW booking - They had booked three nights, but once he'd seen the room after checking in, he came down and said he didn't want to stay because the room had a bunk bed (It is catagorised as a twin, not double, room). To me bunk beds are perfectly normal in hostels. He stayed the first night as he couldn't find anywhere else, and we refunded him for the next two nights, and he went off to a hotel - at nearly triple the price I think. The problem for us is then that he leaves a 70% review on HW saying
"Booked a twin room, turned out to be bunk beds so we cancelled 2 nights. Nice place though, clean, friendly comfortable."
. So he was happy with the place - other than the fact that it had bunk beds. 70% is well below our average rating, so what happens is that your average gets dragged down by people who really aren't comfortable staying in hostels in the first place. This has happened to us before this year - I guess as we upgrade our facilities and provide more samller rooms it will always happen a bit, but I don't believe that HW are helping hostels by turning themselves into a hotel booking site.

Report

AndrewC

15 years

I've only just noticed that it is possible to search for dorm rooms only. The check boxes are really buried though.

Report

Phillip

15 years

I've only just noticed that it is possible to search for dorm rooms only. The check boxes are really buried though.

Careful, as sometimes they classify 6 bed family rooms where you have to book the entire room as dormitories.

Report

hosteltraveler

15 years

I've only just noticed that it is possible to search for dorm rooms only. The check boxes are really buried though.

What does this comment refer to, i.e., what site or webpage?

Report

AndrewC

15 years

HW. Should have specified sorry :)

Report

uktrail

15 years

(This item moved from another thread.)

I have been looking through Hostelworld at hostels in Croatia. More than half the destinations offered places with private rooms only. Most cities have hostels grouped together at the start, so that is easy to use if you are looking for hostels only. There are a few establishments which call themselves hostel but turn out to have only privates. There are one or two which genuinely offer dorms at dorm prices but in an apartment with no sociability. For one city with a lot of hostels, I was pleased to see the following:

NOTE:
Because we have a lot of properties in Split, we are currently only displaying Hostels. To see all property types in Split, click here.

On kitchens: I think that all hostels should have a kitchen. The trouble is, in some countries this is just not recognised, and if you omit places without a serviceable kitchen you will omit 80% of hostels. You'll also lose all the St Christophers. In Scotland, some 95% of hostels have very good kitchens, which is great, but also necessary because restaurant meals are very costly there.

Report

Josh Hostels

15 years

NOTE: everything I wrote below is wrong. It only applies to one page. See my following post for more information.

UPDATE: Hostelworld have make a big hostel-friendly change. Private rooms are now clearly listed as private rooms.

Previously, the results would say "cheap hostels in ..." even if there were no hostels. The private rooms would be listed as "beds".

Old style:

IMAGE(http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forum/attachments/f25/109d1216269081-most-expensive-property-hostelworld-com-hostelworld-hotels.png)

New style -- "results" instead of "cheap hostels", and "privates" instead of "beds":

IMAGE(http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forum/attachments/f8/593d1256451891-supporting-hostel-focused-booking-engines-affiliates-hostelworld-hostels.png)

Report

Josh Hostels

15 years

I spoke too soon. Hostelworld only changed that one page. Other HW pages don't differentiate dorms from private rooms (unless HW are doing A/B split testing and I am seeing two different versions).

Here is another listing that lists a minimum-$8400 property as a "hostel".

(Notice the "beds" from $200)

IMAGE(http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forum/attachments/f8/594d1256454334-supporting-hostel-focused-booking-engines-affiliates-hotels-tassia.png)

Here is the $8400 price when I tried to book one person for one night:

IMAGE(http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forum/attachments/f8/595d1256454334-supporting-hostel-focused-booking-engines-affiliates-hw-tassia-8400.png)

Search form

Report 'Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Report 'Re: Supporting hostel-focused booking engines and affiliates'?

Pages

Join the world's largest community of hostel professionals.

Check Your Email