Got a general question for hostel owners/managers - how far in advance do you open your hostel's availability for OTA booking?
Currently, we take bookings no more than 3-4 months in advance. It seems like the bookings we get further out than that translate to a high percentage of cancellations, no-shows, changes, and other issues. Also, our primary target is backpackers that usually don't book more than a week out, so I like to avoid "dead" reservations that can clog up space for the late bookings and walk-ins that I want to attract (would estimate that of my 50 best guests in the past year, at least 50% were walk-ins).
So far, it seems to have worked out ok, but I'm asking because I've been told twice in the past week that I'm doing it wrong. Once was from booking.com, so I take it with a grain of salt, but the other came from someone I respect. Both said that I should have AT LEAST 6 months of open availability.
Any thoughts?
8 years
I use Hostel Systems, which automatically allocates bookings to our available beds AND removes bookings that have been canceled. We just started at the end of our last busy season and it has SAVED us this year. We book a year out on four different booking sites with no problems.
8 years
Hi EliMidland,
I agree with you. The best guests are the ones who book closer to their date of stay. I personally think this can have a huge effect on the atmosphere in your hostel. I also agree that guests who book far in advance tend to be "higher maintenance" than the more spontaneous guests. For this reason, we set our PMS system to accept and push allocations to 3rd party OTAs no more than 60 days in advance. I then keep an eye on our Website Look/Book report which tells us how far in advance guests from each marketing source tend to book. I rarely see bookings more than 30 days in advance so for me (because atmosphere is so important) this seems okay.
8 years
Thanks for the answers. I guess I'm not so wrong after all.
Darren - Does your PMS have settings to make availability updating automatic or do you have to manually set it on a regular basis? I'm using Loventis and don't see any way to automate it.
8 years
Hi Eli,
I just looked at your profile and realized who you are. You probably already knew this because my Profile Name is so obvious. Nice meeting you in Bucharest last year.
At the moment, there are 2 settings effecting availability. The traditional allocations calendar that you can set availability for individual dates as far off into the future as you want. You can set availability in bulk by date range or individually for each date. The other setting is maximum days in advance that reservations can be made. The effect of these two settings is you can set all your availability as many days or years in advance, but availability will only be made available (on the website or via OTA channels) according to the maximum days in advance that reservations can be made. This enables you to set it and forget it. Is this the setting you were looking for?
BTW, the PMS is called HostelSnap (by HostelManagement) and if has not been officially announced yet. However, you will see a lot more about it in the near future.
8 years
Hey Darren,
Yeah, those are exactly the settings I'm looking for. Unfortunately, it would appear that neither Loventis or MyAllocator have a way of making it happen. Guess I'll just have to wait until HostelSnap goes live. :)
Nice meeting you as well in Bucharest. Cheers
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