If you have other front desk software you can usually get an addon to integrate the front desk software with your Web site. I think it's often about $1500 per year per hostel depending on the front desk software. For a large hostel I think it's generally cheaper to have a flat yearly-rate booking engine on the Web site than to use one that takes commissions... though I could be wrong.

Hostelworld does not take any commissions for bookings which come through your own website - they do charge every booker those 10% "deposit", but then wire the money to our bank account once per month.
I sometimes wonder if it´s a good idea in the first place to import bookings automatically. Some bookings are weird, so it´s good to have a "human interface".

If a hostel agrees to exclusively use only a certain booking engine on their Web site, it makes switching very difficult in the future because to change their Web site they also have to change their front desk software. There is a risk of vendor lock-in. For example, you find another Web site booking system that is a lot cheaper or better for your business in some way -- you can't change your Web site because your entire front desk is locked into a certain front desk program.

Obviously. Why else would Hostelworld invest in software development and then give it away for free?

I was thinking more of the lack of control over your own data. It's something I would have to think hard about, because it gives up some control.

I haven't seen the Online version of Backpack; I just find myself wondering whether that kind of arrangement is good for hostels.

We are thinking hard about it.

If they call it something like "SQL Server" or "SQL" it's generally Microsoft's version. Can get expensive...

I just asked our techie - it is MS SQL. The SQL licence comes with the software licence, but as they have to pay MS it obviously makes their product more expensive.

Oh... interesting... I wonder if it depends on the size of the hostel. Many pay significant commission on bookings that go through their own Web sites. Only part of the 10% gets refunded. Unless they have changed things across the board for all hostels...

The deal actually is: You get 75% of the deposits from bookings which came through your own website. Except for the first booking every day - for that one you get nil. We get so many bookings through our own website that we can almost ignore those 30 every month.

If you use Backpack Online, you get absolutely everything back. 100% of ALL bookings through your website. Which is fair enough IMHO.

Sorry, I didn't mean you specifically -- I mean literally me... (If/when I open my hostel that is one of the things that I would be worried about.)

I didn´t understand it that way. I meant "you are right, that´s a point everybody should think very hard about".

OK, that changes a lot. It sounds much more reasonable now. At another hostel I worked at the hostel was paying a percentage on those bookings that came through their own Web site.

Hostelworld is reasonable. If you use it wisely, it can do wonders (otherwise we wouldn´t throw so many beds at them). You can sell lots of beds through them when you most need it - if either your rates or your ratings are highly competitive. I know of a large hostel in London which entirely relied on Hostelworld when they opened - no other marketing efforts whatsoever, and it worked.

OK, so they take 10%, but they certainly deliver something in return.

Sorry about that... I didn't mean to imply anything. I was just talking about what I would be thinking about for my hypothetical future hostel... I work with computers so prefer to have my data on my own hard drives. I run software on my own servers for most of my work in general, rather than use outside services (like Google Office, Basecamp, or whatever) even though the outside services sometimes have attractive features. Battling with that issue all the time...

No offense taken. ;)

I guess that business intelligence what you can use Hostelworld for is a double bladed weapon, Klaus... Let's say if you could have used it for marketing reports before planning to open your Berlin Hostel, that would be a cool thing to do... Then some other companies could use some marketing reports on Vienna, for example, how would you handle it? :rolleyes:

I don´t quite understand what you mean - please explain again.

I think there was a lot of advantages while Wombats could have owned the 50% of the hostel beds for over 10 years, but do you think it would be as easy to fill up your third Vienna hostel which only opens in 2009? If I'm correct, there is 5 large hostels in Vienna now (two is yours, that 40% now), two another will be open soon (then 28% is yours), and 2009 is still a year away...

Yes, I think so. All the other hostels coming to Vienna right now are very strong in the group business, but have weak reputations among the backpacker scene. With their houses full of school children, backpackers won´t find them very cool and stay away - hence they will focus on groups even more. We don´t. We do it the other way round, so they are not really getting into our way.

Winter price wars will increase though, and they will snatch a part of our market share - there´s no way to avoid that but we have the recources to keep the damage in check. Our war chest is well filled and we will make it clear we´re willing to fight back if need be, so there´s nothing to win for either side.

In addition to that, our new house will be the only big hostel in Vienna within easy walking distance of the old town, and in a very hip student getto, too. I think that way we can attract much more guests than we can now.