14 years
Related:
Hostelbookers are actively promoting that they are cheaper than Hostelworld:
http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostelworld-price-comparison/
Price differences on booking engines
Hostel Trends and News
I saw the following item on another forum:
For every hostel I was looking at for my upcoming trip, Hostelbookers was always cheaper, at least by a few dollars. I ended up booking Astor Museum hostel for a pretty significantly cheaper price on HB than HW ($18/night vs $24/night). Castle Rock hostel was slightly cheaper also (around $18 vs $20-21 per night).
Assuming this was not a statistical chance, how can it happen? I thought the prices of beds were decided by the hostels and not by the booking engines. A hostel can, of course, choose to offer different prices on different engines, or might make a special deal and publicise it only on one engine. But the above quote suggests something more systematic.
Do any hostels vary their prices systematically between booking engines?
- Comments
14 years
Hmm. That comparison is not quite to the point. It appears to compare the average price of properties available at a given date on HW with those on HB. But the specific properties may not be the same. It could simply mean for example that HW has 2 or 3 additional properties on their list, at the higher end of the market.
So if that article is to be the start of a price war, booking engines could react more effectively by rejecting some of their higher-price properties, than by persuading hostels to reduce their prices by a euro or 2.
But that would still be a worthwhile reaction.
14 years
Hmm. That comparison is not quite to the point. It appears to compare the average price of properties available at a given date on HW with those on HB. But the specific properties may not be the same. It could simply mean for example that HW has 2 or 3 additional properties on their list, at the higher end of the market.
It would be interesting if someone would repeat the study using the exact same hostels. Should be easy to do here:
http://www.tfthostels.com/
(Edit: TFThostels doesn't seem to be fully functional at the moment.)
14 years
If I understand the inquiry correctly the OP was asking why is it cheaper to book on HB than HW.
When I started here I also wondered why, as my rate is the same (currently 400 baht) On HB is one price in US$ and HW US$ is always more costly.
Taking away the service fee that non-gold card members have to pay still did not even out, I can only assume that the difference is in the currency exchange charge. HW charges more to convert.
@Hostels it does seem to me that booking on HB as opposed to HW is about 8.7% cheaper. If they had no grounds to say that I think HW would be right on the case.
14 years
Ah yes! The hidden charge for conversion! Banks sometimes boast that they make exchanges with NO COMMISSION! If you say to them "Ah, but there is a commission built in to the exchange rate" they look blank and treat you as if you're daft.
Here are some figures for 1 guest for 1 night on Aug 18.
Bangkok, SOI1:
HW: $13.04, €10.36, £8.68
HB: $12.36, € 9.82, £8.23
Ratio: 1.055, 1.055, 1.055
Hvar, Green Lizard:
HW: $36.70, €29.17, £24.45
HB: $34.90, €27.72, £23.23
Ratio: 1.051, 1.052, 1.052
Vienna, Wombats Base:
HW: $23.78, €18.00, £15.84
HB: $22.66, €18.00, £15.08
Ratio: 1.049, 1.0, 1.050
Manchester, Hatters:
HW: $23.66, €18,80, £15.00
HB: $22.53, €17.90, £15.00
Ratio: 1.050, 1.050, 1.0
Therefore: HW is more expensive than HB by 5% for currencies other than the one used by the hostel!
I did look at 3 others which did not fit the pattern. Vienna--Ruthensteiner showed a much bigger difference HW/HB. Canterbury--Kipps was much more on HB than HW, even in £. Probably different rooms were represented or the hostel had submitted different rates.
These are the prices that guests see when they are choosing where to book. They are very important for that reason, but they are not the whole answer. Suppose I book at Wombats. My credit card will be charged in £. Will that be at the £ rate used by HW/HB? Or will they charge me in whatever currency they use, and the credit card company will do another conversion to £ for further loss? Does it matter which currency I was displaying at the time of booking?:rolleyes:
Moreover, that is just the 10% deposit! When I get to Wombats, Klaus will charge me €18.00 minus 10%, that is, I will pay the rest of the bill in Euros, and the difference between HW and HB will not be relevant. :eek:
14 years
Therefore: HW is more expensive than HB by 5% for currencies other than the one used by the hostel!
Interesting -- thanks for looking that up :)
Moreover, that is just the 10% deposit! When I get to Wombats, Klaus will charge me €18.00 minus 10%, that is, I will pay the rest of the bill in Euros, and the difference between HW and HB will not be relevant. :eek:
Could the study be looking at the total listed prices, forgetting that only 10% is paid to the booking engines and that the balance should ignore the exchange rate?
14 years
Yes thanks for doing the math UK Trail, (I am to lazy).
5% for conversion- I'll refer to that in the future.
Add the charge for non-gold card bookings and thats close enough to 8.7%
"I will pay the rest of the bill in Euros, and the difference between HW and HB will not be relevant." - Excluding the service charge.
14 years
I checked prices that were equal on both booking engines. £10 becomes $15.29 USD on Hostelbookers and $16.14 on Hostelworld.
It looks like it's a difference of 85 cents, but it's actually a difference of just 8 cents.
Total deposit/commission due to the booking engines:
Hostelbookers: $1.53
Hostelworld: $1.61
The total due on arrival is £9 with both booking engines -- not in US dollars.
The difference is just 8 cents, not including Hostelworld's $2 service charge. If there were no booking fee from Hostelworld, and everything else is equal, Hostelbookers is slightly cheaper and only when paying in foreign currency. Other hidden international transaction fees might apply also.
Is it accurate to say that the only way to accurately compare prices on booking engines is to search in the hostel's local currency?
14 years
Your post makes me curious..
July 17.
soi1guesthouse
HB-12.42 US$
HW -13.09 US$
diff of .67 cent in total cost shown
HB com 10% 1.24
HW com 10% 1.39
diff of 15 cent. in commision
with ya to here
HW then 13.09 - 10% = (11.79 USD or 379.638 THB) but we just collect 360 baht in cash.
the 19.638 diff in baht converts to .61 cent US and they don't realize that they won't be paying this.
So am I correct to think that what your saying is the .61 cents in diff is just imaginary and serves no purpose but to just makes us look that bit more expencive on the HW site?
14 years
HW then 13.09 - 10% = (11.79 USD or 379.638 THB) but we just collect 360 baht in cash.
the 19.638 diff in baht converts to .61 cent US and they don't realize that they won't be paying this.
It's not $13.09 - 10%. I think it's 10% of 400 baht (40 baht) converted to dollars ($1.31 instead of XE.com's $1.24), with 360 baht due on arrival. 360 baht is $11.18 according to xe.com, not $11.78. So that 60 cents difference isn't a real price difference -- just Hostelworld's lower currency exchange rate that never gets paid by the traveler...
So am I correct to think that what your saying is the .61 cents in diff is just imaginary and serves no purpose but to just makes us look that bit more expencive on the HW site?
I think that's what it looks like. You can't get accurate prices on a booking engine unless searching in the hostel's own currency, and the price difference is only on the 10% commission, not the balance due when checking out in the booking engine shopping cart...
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