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What Booking Engine should I use? Booking.com or Hostelworld.com?

Hostel Reviews, Booking Engines, and Directories

Juan Serantes started this discussion 7 years 9 months ago

Hi everyone, its my first post I am in Nicaragua building the facilities for opening our hostel / camping in July 2017. We are currently looking for a Booking Engine for promoting the place and manage the booking. I heard that hostelworld and booking are the most famous around here.

We are going to offer one week minimum staying of accommodation and I am also worried for commissions.

Any advice or recommendations for booking engine that is famous, can make the one week reservation and the commissions are reasonable?

Any tip would be appreciated

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Gmera

7 years

Hi Juan,

It is important that you differentiate between booking engines and OTAs. The booking engine is usually a software or plugin availble in your own Website so that clients can book directly and get acess to your availability and rates. Many companies can provide this service so that you can incorporate ito your propertie`s Website, some charging a fee per boking, a montlhy fee, a %...

Booking.com, Hostelworld, Expedia and many other player out there in the market are OTAs (online travel agencies) wich make available your property to be booked through their sites. They charge a compensation / commission on each booking.

You dont need to choose one or another, I would personally have my propertie available in the main OTAs so the reach and potential demand is higher.

You may also considering have a look at channel manager which sinchronizes your room inventory and rates with your booking engine and all OTAs or other online channels you work with.

Hope it helps.

Regards,

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diegocircus

7 years

Hola Juan, te conviene no tener un motor de reservas de una OTA, te conviene tener uno propio, en Circus Buenos Aires usamos www.winkshotel.com.ar es un PMS que solo tiene presencia en Latino America por lo que entiende todas las necesidades de Latino America y el Motor de reservas viene incluído sin comisión por un precio fijo .

Yo te recomiendo que para latino america uses ese PMS . Saludos.

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Juan_S

7 years

Thanks Gmera!, that makes a lot of sense. That was a super good point. I apreciate it

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Juan_S

7 years

Thanks a lot to Joeri Van der Linden, Susan Shonk, Amba H'old, Diego Verzini and German that wrote me in the forum. I just realice that there are 1 OTA, 2 Chanel Managers and 3 PMS 4 Booking Engine for my website (my website theme has one http://bellevuetheme.com/)

I think considering that we are going to open 3 months (15-20 people) this summer with basic, clean and pretty much camping Infrastructures as a test, we are going to have friends, family and costumers that want to try (Trough OTA or walking in).. Later we will close and get organized for our second investment in Infrastructures using the knowledge from the test .

According to the stadistics in hostels 50% of reservations come from Booking.com, 25% from Hostelworld/Hostelbookers (same company), 10% from direct website.

So I am not sure how to proceed, maybe the way of starting in a simple way is to do just Booking and see how it goes and grow from there. Apparently I can use booking.com for a booking engine. I have been checking and if I want to use for example bananadesk, I need to pay 20$ (per month for 20 guests), another 30$ approx to myallocator and the commission to any OTA. Do you guys think is worthy to pay 50-70$ fixed plus commissions for my situation? Or would you try any other strategy like just booking? Any help would be appreciated

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Rucksack Brian

7 years

Hi Juan,

As Gmera pointed out, it will probably be better for you to list your hostel on multiple booking websites (OTAs) in order to get the most exposure. Both Hostelworld and Booking are good places to start – they’re popular with travelers and they only charge commissions when reservations are made. I would recommend listing your hostel on both sites.

You might consider either including the commissions in the prices you charge on the OTAs or at least making the prices a bit higher than what you charge for direct bookings so that the commissions don’t sting quite as bad and so that it will be more beneficial for guests to book directly with you. The more you can get your guests to make their reservations directly with you, the less reliant you will be on any of the OTAs, which is very good for your business.

It is also a good idea to be able to take instant confirmed bookings on your own website too. That’s where the booking engine comes in. Some PMS or channel managers may have free/cheap options to provide this for you, as well as other third party services. Getting a booking engine from one of the OTAs will reduce your control over your pricing, your availability, and your entire business. I don’t recommend using booking engines provided by any of the OTAs.

I do think the benefits of using a PMS and channel manager are worth the money you pay each month. They can save you a lot of time and eliminate the frustration of overbookings. They let you collect data, so as you grow you can analyze your business. They give you a quick overview of what is going on in your hostel with check-ins and checkouts, slow and busy periods, reporting, etc. They process your bookings automatically so you don’t have to be constantly checking for new reservations and updating your availability. Instead you can focus on your guests, take time with your friends and family, or even sleep at night without worry. That’s money well spent in my opinion.

Some of the PMS options work with MyAllocator or other channel managers. Some other options connect directly to the OTAs without a channel manager. Depending on which PMS you think would work best for your hostel, you may or may not need to pay for a channel manager as well.

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lerouxjona

7 years

Hello Juan,

Just out of curiosity, what is the name of your future Hostel and where is going to be located?

Have a great day!

Jonathan.

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Juan_S

7 years

Hello Jonathan:

We are on the Pacific coast in an area called Popoyo. Do you know about it? Sorry for the delayed but I didn't get this message on time and I just found it.

Happy days!

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lerouxjona

7 years

Hello Juan:

I know the place! In fact I will be there in October or December 2017. Maybe I would come to your camping. What is the name of it?

Cheers,

Jonathan Leroux

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