OTA Representatives Panel Discussion

The panel discussion "Meet Your Alternative Hostel OTAs" was streamed live Tues. Feb. 11th @ 18:00 GMT. The discussion included representatives from a few OTAs, fielding questions about their businesses and relations with the hostel industry. This discussion is an opportunity for hostels owners and managers to get to know some of the alternative hostel OTAs out there.

Panelists included:
Paola Bolgan: HostelsClub
Jacob McCown: HostelTimes
Michael Tumminia: GoMio

A full recording of the discussion is posted below. Timestamped questions are linked below that. These include both questions given to the panelists ahead of time, as well as questions live tweeted in from viewers.

Panel Discussion Questions for OTA Representatives:

1. Please introduce yourself. Then tell us a little about your booking site, how it started and how it's going now.

2. How does the revenue model work for your booking engine? Is there a fee for hostels to sign up? What are the per booking costs and fees for hostel guests and hostel?

3. Which channel managers you site is integrated with?

4. On the default search, are other forms of accommodation listed alongside hostels on your booking engine (i.e. hotels)? Do you offer any preferential placement for hostels? Would you ever consider a site that only lists hostels?

5. What are you rules regarding things like rate parity, availability parity and use of the hostel owned trademarks?

6. It's estimated that after the merger of Hostelworld and Hostelbookers, this entity now owns 90% of the hostel booking market. What are the challenges your company has faced in trying to acquire a greater market share of the hostel booking market?

7. Twitter Question: Do you see any way smaller OTAs could work together?

8. Do you find that a lot of hostels are taking advantage of this opportunity [channel managers] to get their beds out there on all sites?

9. What could hostels do to help you gain exposure to guests?

10. What services or features does your site offer (besides the industry standards) to be more appealing to hostels?

11. What services or features does your site offer (besides the industry standards) to be more appealing to travelers?

12. Twitter Question: What do you think of the percentage deposit model vs. the booking.com model of the guest paying the entire amount at the hostel?

13. Twitter Question: There have been rumors that it may become illegal to share credit card numbers between an OTA and a hostel. Have you heard anything about this?

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