Hi guys!
We are constructing our hostel now and going to open it in 1,5 months. We can't take any pictures yet (interior is not ready).
So, please advice, how to start getting bookings before we can show some pictures?
Is there a point in registering at booking engines while we caanot provide any pictures?
What was your experience in marketing your hostel before opening?
Thanks in advance!
12 years
In my experience you can sell many rooms before opening. Just be sure you will be ready at that time. You can sell without pictures too. A special offer at the beginning is usually great to start. I think it is usually better to open when everything is perfect also because first ratings and reviews of your places are very important.
12 years
Pictures of the rooms are not necessarily required before you can register and sell your beds. You can put up photos of the surrounding area (nearby attractions, monuments, landscapes and other things that your guests will want to see in your city) and the front of your building until you have interior photos to post.
12 years
But HW or HOB will not allow to put without pictures. On which booking engine you can put without photos? :)
12 years
Have they refused your photos? As long as you have something to accurately represent what you offer it should be okay. Photos of a construction site do not accurately represent what you sell because everything will be turned into completed rooms before they guests arrive. The entrance to your building and the surrounding area do represent what the guests will find when they stay with you (at least until the construction is finished). Use those pictures for now.
12 years
We always provide software free of charge to hostels whilst they are in the start-up stage. This then enables the hostel to forward sell the rooms and beds.
Initially rooms and beds are blocked off many months ahead of expected opening in case of delays. Then as the opening date becomes more certain then the rooms being blocked reflects reality. The software of course is not only forward selling beds and rooms from your new website but also restricting and then giving allocation to the major agents you want to integrate with to help you sell your beds.
Use photos as per Rucksack Brian's suggestion.
12 years
Hi Antony, congrats on the new opening. This is my first post as well so we are both new at something.
I happened to have worked at a hostel from before the opening till a couple of months (At buenos aires).
What you can do and is a pretty good thing is to ask the construction manager to have One room ready, as the other ones are expected to be so at least you can take picture on one nice room as a sample of the ones to come. Other option is to make a rendering, but you would have to pay to an architect to have this done.
Good luck on this, and try to move ahead so you get a considerable amount of guests for the opening day and throw a good party or a good entertainment so when they post their review they can write something like "its something great to come" instead of "its just opening, its empty".
Insist on the idea of being "the first person to sleep on this bed" as a marketing, be the first.
We even had a picture of each one of the first 150 guests (that we liked) and promise them a wall, to be remembered, or something like that.
Use your imagination, thats the best part of opening, you are not tied by previous expectations.
Good luck.
keep us informed on how you are doing
Hi guys!
We are constructing our hostel now and going to open it in 1,5 months. We can't take any pictures yet (interior is not ready).
So, please advice, how to start getting bookings before we can show some pictures?
Is there a point in registering at booking engines while we caanot provide any pictures?
What was your experience in marketing your hostel before opening?
Thanks in advance!
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