What is a hostel really? Would you consider a place offering rooms for a quite expensive price a hostel even if they define themselves so? What is the line between an expensive hostel and a cheap hotel? And are hostels catering for Flashpackers hostels at all? We ask Josh Cohen, who is an expert indeed, having helped Hostels marketing themselves and improve their quality since 2004 with his Hostelmanagement.com.
The Tux in Backpack: First of all Josh, can you tell us more about yourself and Hostelmanagement.com?
HostelManagement.com (Josh): I starting working in hostels in 2001. I noticed that the quality of some hostels was lower than it could be, and that the solutions to the problems were often very simple. In 2004 I decided to create a website where hostels could exchange tips on how to make hostels better. The main goals of HostelManagement.com are to increase the quality of existing hostels and to help develop new hostels, especially in places where there aren’t many hostels. HostelManagement.com focuses on the hostel industry from the perspective of the hostels themselves.
At first, people in the hostel industry told me that they liked the idea of HostelManagement.com, but that it wouldn’t succeed because hostels didn’t want to share their secrets. It has taken years to build up an online community, but now people from all areas of the hostel business are participating in the site, from small rural hostels to the largest hostel chains in the world, as well as all the major booking engines. As of April, 2009 we have over 2000 subscribers from around the world, and over 7000 posts in our hostel forum, with new hostels signing up daily.
HostelManagement.com is basically not-for-profit and doesn’t bring in any direct income. I make a living doing hostel marketing and management consulting through HostelMarketing.com. Outside of hostel work, my background is in SEO and Internet marketing.
The Tux in Backpack: How can Hostelmanagement.com help hostel owners?
HostelManagement.com (Josh): HostelManagement.com provides hundreds of pages of free information for hostels as well as an online community where people in the hostel industry can network. In addition to the forum there is a “best practices” Wiki with guides on everything from how to improve online reviews, to how to use Facebook, to how to start a hostel. The are hostels for sale, hostel jobs listings, a hostel directory, an email newsletter, a free ebook on hostel marketing, and much more.
The site has grown so large we now have a 6-page PDF guide to how to use the website!
Everything on HostelManagement.com is free.
The Tux in Backpack: What is your definition of hostel?
HostelManagement.com (Josh): We define the word “hostel” as “budget-oriented dormitory accommodation that accepts individual travelers for short-term stays, and that provides common areas and communal facilities.”
Hostels can also sell private rooms, but if they don’t also sell dorm beds we don’t consider them to be hostels.
Dorm beds, one of hostels' main features
That definition is the result of a 6-page forum discussion between people in the hostel industry, including hostel managers and people who have been involved with hostels for many years.
The reason we limit the definition of hostel to properties that sell individual dorm beds to solo travelers is because there has to be a line drawn somewhere or the word “hostel” becomes meaningless. If a hotel has a common kitchen does it suddenly become a “hostel” even though the cheapest rooms cost 100 euro per night? Is a private room for rent on a monthly basis in an apartment that has a shared kitchen a hostel? I’ve seen a long-term room-rental property calling itself a hostel.
Solo backpackers who are looking for hostels are typically looking for dorm beds. The student groups who are looking for hostels are looking for dorm beds. Dorms are an original core element of the hostelling movement and should remain at the core of the definition of the word hostel.
The Tux in Backpack: Are hostels offering single rooms (like Flashpackers hostels) not real hostel in your view?
HostelManagement.com (Josh): As far as I know almost all of the properties that call themselves “flashpackers” sell dorm bed accommodation (e.g., Nomads Industry), and are hostels. The few that don’t are hotels that are trying to ride the popularity of hostels.
Often, news articles will include hotels in their articles about “boutique hostels” or “flashpackers”, but I believe this is because the reporters often don’t do careful research. They see the hotel on Hostelworld.com or Hostels.com and think it’s a hostel because it’s listed on a website with the word “hostel” in the name.
For example, I just searched Google for “Las Vegas hostels” and Hostelworld.com was the #1 result. I clicked on one of the listed properties — Las Vegas Platinum Suites — and tried to find the cheapest accommodation for myself, a solo traveler. Hostelworld claims the property is selling “beds” for $52.25 per night, but when I tried to book the bed, the $52.25 rate is “per bed” when you book a 4-bed hotel room. At “$52.25 per bed” the price for a solo traveler is $209 per night. Or the solo traveler can get a 1-person private room for $189.
Journalists who don’t understand how the hostel booking engines work may think they’ve found a hostel when they see a property like Las Vegas Platinum Suites selling “beds”, but it’s just a hotel where the price is displayed to look like the hotel is selling beds instead of rooms. I believe this is why many news articles accidentally include hotels in their lists of “boutique hostels” and “flashpackers”.
- Would you consider this a hostel room?
Booking engines also sometimes include hotels in their lists of “boutique hostels” and “flashpackers” possibly because they make a higher commission on private rooms than on dorm beds. If booking engines can get people to their sites who are looking for hostels and then upsell hotels, the booking engines make a lot more money from the commissions.
For example, a typical hostel booking engine makes $41.80 commission on a $418 hotel room, but only a $2 commission on a $20 dorm bed. That provides motivation to sell hotel beds to people who are looking for hostels.
If a property doesn’t offer dorm beds, I don’t consider it to be a hostel. Words like “backpackers hotel” or “flashpacker hotel” might be more descriptive.
For the moment we thank Josh for sharing his thoughts. In the next post the interview continues and we’ll ask Josh:
- his opinion on hostels booking engines offering proper hotels in their results,
- if hostels are for backpackers only, or for other kind of travellers too;
- if the majority of travellers sleep in dorm just because of budget reasons
- his your opinion on Flashpackers and if they can be targeted by hostels offering dorm accommodations
Don’t miss Part II of the interview then in 2 days, and to make sure you won’t, consider Subscribing to The Tux in Backpack RSS feeds, to receive automatically (and for free of course) anything new happening here.
Popularity: 67% [?]
