But among these, there is only one winner.

Traveling it is, of course!

Just kidding. (Not really!)

Well, I didn’t know that traveling was winning in such a dramatic way till I recently talked with two of my colleagues, Shreeya and Harshajit.

They were exploring these beautiful accommodations on the internet and told me how they wanted to visit all these places to experience amazing stays there.

Now, I am an amateur when it comes to traveling (thanks to my parents), so I stayed quiet.

But I noticed one thing that was the highlight of their conversation – “Hostels are better than other accommodations! They provide real, raw, and a comfortable experience with the added magic of crazy fun.”

And I decided to dig into this remark a bit more. 

So here in this blog, along with discussing how hostels are providing exhilarating experiences to guests, we will widely look into the future of hostels and what new they are bringing in.

Why Are Hostels Popular Among Travelers?

Hostels are ideal accommodations for solo travelers, backpackers, hitchhikers, and young tourists. Of all the people staying in hostels, 72% are solo travelers. Now this proves that the experience of a hostel is genuinely something else. It must have been homelike, comfy, and adventurous to build a strong niche among solo travelers.

With all the hostellers living together, sharing rooms, sleeping on bunks, socializing on rooftops, and participating in fun activities, people find hostels the most welcoming accommodation.

All these things help hostels leave an ever-lasting impression on travelers.

It should also be noted that the new hostel chains and their creative ideas have added magic to this industry. From choosing the perfect locations to building amiable infrastructures, they have successfully managed to create a wholesome experience for travelers.

Also, hostels may have young people as their mainstream niche but other age groups are also keen in exploring them. Because when people are traveling they love to fetch the experience of youthfulness. And hostels seem to be an ideal place to get it from.

On top of all, the affordability of hostels just adds up to the delights of travelers.

Hostels and Their Future Potential

Hostels are no longer limited to just bunker beds and community halls. That’s long gone!

Then, what is the future of hostels? What does it look like? Will they be successful?

Well, the new hostel chains like a&o Hostels, Zostels, Backpackers, Nomads World, Mad Monkey, GoSTOPS, Madpackers, and many more have already proved their unparalleled capability in the travel industry and there’s a lot more in their bucket. The future of hostels is going to madden their fanbase for sure.

Also, there is no doubt that with the tremendous rise of the traveling buzz, the new and creative strategies of the hostel industry are going to be a big hit.

To back this up, let’s have a quick look at how hostels are adding value to their property and welcoming a prosperous future ahead.

Hostels and Their Add-ons

Though many hostel chains are surging ahead with new trends and setting the benchmark for the industry, there are still those which need to improve their pace. For helping them out, I am listing the ideas modern hostels can opt to add more flavors to their traveler’s experiences. Here it goes:   

1. Budget hotels

With time, hostels have upgraded themselves. Most hostels now offer private rooms and the rest are eventually following the trend to broaden their guest spectrum. This way hostels are also functioning as budget hotels.

Let’s understand this with a scenario:

A few years ago, Samay had traveled to Kasol for his college trip and stayed at Serene Hostel which had a beautiful river-facing view. Now, Samay is taking his family there and wants to experience the same scenic beauty. But staying in a dorm with his family doesn’t appeal to him. 

Although when he searched on this hostel’s website, he found that this hostel is now offering private rooms as well. So, he could still go to this amazing location without worrying about his family’s privacy.

And in my opinion, most of the hostels are situated in exotic places and hence seem to attract a wide range of travelers. Therefore, filling in as budget hotels is coming naturally in the hostel market. And in this way, they are optimizing their reservations.

2. Thrilling themes

Going to a party is fun but going to a Halloween party is what excites people!

Simply put, themes add extra flare everywhere. And this is what hostels are harnessing successfully.

Let’s look at a real scenario where you and your gang of cousins are bored of visiting the same old places of Poona. And one of your cousins suggests a staycation at a haunted place (I am this cousin!). Then you come across ‘The Hidden Hour’ – A horror-themed hostel that gives you a safe but horror experience altogether.

But this isn’t it!

While I was researching, I found the quirkiest themes that hostels are offering. There’s a lookup-themed Prison hostel in Goa! In Udaipur “Hostelcrawl” is giving a real-time Hogwarts experience to all the Potterheads. Fascinating enough?

These amusing and funky themes are what make hostels stand out and spice up the user experience.

3. Innovative infra

One of the prime aspects of hostels is to facilitate the dorms with flexible infrastructure. The way hostels furnish a small room with all basic requirements and still manage to craft a spacious look fascinates travelers a lot.

My colleague Harshajit mentioned that the interiors and exteriors in modern hostels are so creatively designed that they are enough to grab anyone’s interest. And travelers do look out willingly to design their personal rooms at home like the ones in hostels.

This is true! I mean check out the hostels on the internet, they are literally a treat to your eyes. You will get stunned by the vibrant colors, makeshift furniture,  eccentric decor, and eye-catchy graffiti.

Apart from these, hostels are now taking extra care of the hostellers by prioritizing their work commitments. 

For instance, Moustache cowork hostels in Goa provide everything a digital nomad requires. Besides 24/7 wifi, they have dedicated coworking spaces, laptops, stationery, and other types of equipment to support the hostellers with the new workation trends.

4. Savor experience

According to a source, 40% of backpackers travel just to experience new cultures. 

One of the ways hostels can lure these backpackers is by giving a local touch to their services, maybe by arranging a free tour for them of the localities and the culture around – including clothing, historic places, food, dance, music, etc. 

Hence, the secret sauce to hostels’ successful future will always be, the experience.

Though they are still handling it very well with the evening rooftop sessions, singing and dancing beside the bonfire experience and funny socializing games, etc., there is more.

Let’s start to dig it with Zostels’ amazing “Meet your fellow travelers” policy. 

So, Zostels purposely shuffle the travelers visiting together and allot them dorms with strangers to spice up their socializing experience.

Likewise, Gostops has designed a whole new section named “goEXPERIENCES” for this purpose which offers planned and guided trips and treks to the hostellers thus adding a package of outdoor experiences to their indoor ones.

5. Technology

In this digitally driven world, we can’t go ahead without discussing a solid take on technology. The way it is molding every business, no wonder hostels must leverage it for performing at their best.

Also, over 70% of the hostellers are millennials and I have already discussed in one of my previous blogs that millennials are tech-savvy. Therefore, to keep a strong hold on this audience, you need to shake hands with technology.

In fact, a few things that you can never overlook to secure a prosperous future are: Listing your hostel on effective OTAs, moving forward with mobile technology, and most importantly opting for an ideal Hostel Management Software.

All these technological advancements are a must if you want to conquer the future challenges of the hostel industry.

The post The Hostel Industry Is Up for Huge Success! [Here’s Why and How] appeared first on eZee Absolute.

How? 

Let’s find out…

What is the difference between a hotel and hostel?

Hostels differ from hotels in several aspects like operations, room type, and USPs. I have listed 7 such major factors here which will help you understand the difference between hotel and hostel. 

1. Experience

One of the prime aspects that demarcates hostels from hotels is ‘Experience’.

In fact, the kind of aesthetic experience hostels provide is the reason for their exponential growth. You know the excitement of meeting strangers, learning about their culture and life stories, engaging in adrenaline pumping activities, sharing rooms with new friends; such experiences attract solo travelers at the hostel.

On the other hand, hotels have always been known for providing guests with comfortable and hassle-free stay. Moreover, guests opting for them look for the best services and luxury facilities (swimming pool, room service, recreational activities).

2. USPs

It’s true that USPs (unique selling points) do help in capturing the guests’ attention. Basically, they help you carve out a niche amongst your target audience. 

Some of the commonly found USPs in the hotels are:

• Food quality
• Comfortable rooms
• Recreational activities (bar, spa, gaming lounge and others)
• Room service
• Multi-cuisine restaurant

Meanwhile, hostels have an entirely different set of USPs which are:

• Ravishing locations
• Community gathering activities (bonfire, adventure sports, barbeque nights)
• Quirky ambience
• Pocket-friendly rates
• Exquisite experience
• Location

Checkout this post from one of my favorite hostels – Zostel. See, how beautifully have have promoted their location with this Instagram post.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zostel (@zostel)

3. Target audience

The hospitality industry caters to various guest segments such as corporates, solo travelers, GITs (Group Inclusive Tours). Since hotels are omnifarious, all kinds of travelers can book them.  

Hostels on other hand are opted for a lively experience and meeting new people. That’s why they are majorly preferred by millennials and GenZ. In fact,many international travelers book their stay in hostels rather than hotels.

The target audience of hostels are:

1. Solo travelers (Nomads, explorers, wanderers, hippies)
2. Backpacking enthusiasts
3. Students
4. Group of young people attending any events or fests
5. Foreigners

4. Room type

Another major difference between hotel and hostel is the type of rooms they offer. 

In hostels, dormitories are the primary room category. These dorms have four to ten bunk beds in one room, which serves the core purpose of hostel living.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zostel (@zostel)

However, the concept of shared stay affects the privacy of guests, making them opt for hotels.

Talking about hotels, they have varied room categories, ranging from budget to luxury. Depending on their budget, purpose, and required facilities they can book suitable room types.

5. Tariff structure

The tariffs offered to guests are on a per bed basis, unlike hotels where the rates are charged for the entire room even if it is a solo traveler. 

Hotel room tariffs are calculated on the basis of room types, star categories, and services.  For example, a budget hotel would offer a tariff of ₹1500 for its base room category, while a luxury one would have a rack rate of ₹8000. 

6. Operational structure

The tariff difference between hotel and hostel, is a reflection of the services guests avail at both properties. As compared to hostels, hotels need to invest more in streamlining and managing their operations. 

Why?

Because, guests book hotels for their services. Be it in-room dining, housekeeping, or maintenance; one phone call is all it takes to avail any services.

Due to low staff count, hostels provide limited services. But this does not stop them from giving an option of self service. 

Guests have to do their own tasks, such as carrying luggage to their respective dorms, cooking meals, and cleaning the kitchen after the same.

7. Marketing strategies

It’s no secret that your content drives SEO. A cocktail of right keywords and engaging content delivered to the correct audience is necessary.

As hotels and hostels have different guest segments, their marketing strategies also differ. The former’s focus is on promoting the facilities, while the latter one markets aesthetic experiences. 

The difference between hotel and hostel can be seen even in their offline marketing. Travel agents are the best source of offline bookings for hotels.

Talking about hostels, they partner with local vendors to facilitate bookings. Those are activity providers, local transport facilitators (cab or bus), restaurants, and many more. Apart from that, event planners do help hostels in fetching more guests.

The post 7 Clear and Logical Differences Between Hotels and Hostels appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Opening a hostel is not as easy as it seems to be. And, most of them are often stuck on one question – How to start a backpackers hostel? 

So, if you are on the same page, here’s a step-by-step guide for you to start a backpackers hostel.

How did the concept of hostels originate?

This concept came into existence in 1912 when a German teacher Richard Schirrmann established the first hostel in Altena (Germany) in a school building.

The idea was to provide young explorers a place to stay. With an influx of travellers the hostel was soon relocated to the Castle of Altena.

Later in 1932, the International Youth Hostel Federation came into existence appointing Richard Schirrmann as its first president which was then renamed as Hostelling International (HI) in 2006. 

Since then, HI is welcoming guests from across the world to stay at their hostels. Their core mission is to serve every traveller looking for accommodation, without discriminating against them on the grounds of their nationality, caste, gender, or ethnicity. 

These days, hostels focus on providing guests with an excellent experience. They offer an appealing decor, gaming zone, better stay quality, and much more, which makes guests revisit the property. 

So, let’s begin with how to start a backpacker hostel?

How to start a backpackers hostel?

With thousands of things to consider, you might feel perplexed. So, I have divided them into four different phases for easy understanding.

Phase 1 – Research and analysis

It’s important to do thorough research on backpackers hostels and understand its working. Let’s take a look at the aspects you need to consider in research.

a. Learn about hostel operations

Hostels operate on the model of self-service. This gives them an edge over hotels in terms of managing the staff.

In any hostel, the front office and housekeeping are two major operational areas. The front office staff focuses on managing the guests, their complaints, requests, bookings, and feedback. While the housekeeping staff is responsible to provide guests with a hygienic and organized stay. 

Most of the hostels have a kitchenette facility instead of a restaurant where guests can cook their meals, and clean the equipment they used.  

This helps hostels to focus more on engaging the guests and saves them excess operational costs. You must understand the SOPs (Standard operating procedures) and procedures of all the operations involved in running a backpackers hostel.

b. Research on geography and competitors

Before you invest in any business, it’s always recommended to learn about your location and competitors. This strategy is applicable to hostels as well. 

Learning about geography will give you an insight into which areas guests prefer to stay in. Most of the hostels are located near the top tourist spots of the city. 

It’s better to find a location that has emergency facilities within walking distance. Your hostel should not be in a crowded area, and neither on the outskirts of the city. 

You may have more than one competitor in your vicinity. It’s necessary to have regular updates about your compset performance.

You need to constantly monitor their rates, offers, and reviews. Remember, the location of the property and your competitors are two key factors in calculating your hostel’s tariff.

c. Determine your target audience

Every accommodation provider caters to a specific guest segment. Well, backpackers hostels are no different. Their target audiences are Millennials and GenZ who prefer experience over luxury. 

One of the prime reasons these solo travelers are attracted to hostels is because they are budget-friendly.

Once you determine your target audience, check for the potential revenue that could be generated.

d. Decide your USPs 

USPs (Unique selling points) play a vital role in attracting guests to your property. They are the highlights of your hostel, which garners your guests attention.

For the hostels, location and activities on the premises form the key component of USP. It can be a view from the room, bonfire, local cultural events, adrenaline-rushing activities, barbeque nights and much more. 

There are no such limitations in listing USPs. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by goSTOPS (@gostops)

e. List the types of rooms you can offer

Hostel rooms are not limited to dormitories. Many properties now offer private rooms as well. Let me share one of my experiences with you.

A couple of years ago, I went on a solo trip to Jodhpur, a beautiful heritage city in India. I booked a backpackers hostel as I was travelling solo and expected a bed in the dormitory.

However, upon reaching there, they offered me a beautifully decorated private room having all the necessary amenities.

This made me realise that hostels have broken the stereotypical concept of bunker beds like military and boarding schools. 

So I would suggest you avoid operating your hostel with old conventional dormitories. Instead, have different variations in every room. 

For instance, you can classify them as per bed allocation, such as a six-bedded dorm, four-bed dormitory with AC, private room and so on.

As a matter of fact, these days considering women safety in mind, many hostels started offering a separate set of dormitories for them. 

f. Consider all the amenities and equipment you need 

Before purchasing any amenities or equipment for your hostel, check if they serve these two purposes:

1. Make your work easier
2. Cater to your audience

If it doesn’t serve any of them, do not consider purchasing it. Do not overfill your list with unwanted amenities, as it will impact your initial investments. Focus on basic and necessary ones.

While listing down equipment start with the basic ones, such as bunker beds, linen, room amenities, smart TV, lighting for decor, and so on.

g. Calculate your overall financial aspects

Now that our research is complete, we should head towards calculating our hostel’s startup cost. Although, this would be a tentative figure and the actual costs may vary. 

It could increase or decrease as per the ongoing scenarios. I would recommend you to calculate expenses by considering the higher costs of any investment you make.

It will give you the lowest amount that you will incur initially while starting a backpackers hostel.

h. Work on your tariff

Once you have your tentative investment and tariffs of the compset, you need to calculate your hostel’s minimum and maximum room rates. Depending upon the type of rooms, you can keep various tariff structures.

For instance, a six-bed dormitory and an eight-bed dormitory will have two different tariffs. The former will be at a lower price, while the latter one would have higher rates.

However, ensure that the tariffs are in the range as that of your compset. But, they should not be extremely low or else you will end up incurring a loss.

Phase 2 – Building your ideal hostel

After gathering all the data, it’s time for moving to Phase 2. At this stage, we will be focusing on setting up the architecture of your hostel. 

Let’s understand the steps involved to set up your backpackers’ hostel.

a. Find and create a perfect place for your hostel

Now, this is a tricky part. How would you select the perfect place for the hostel?

Well, that depends on multiple factors like:

1. Investment amount
2. Type of property (Old or new)
3. Space availability 
4. Types of rooms
5. The capacity of guests you can accommodate

After listing down the criteria, it’s time to find the perfect location for your hostel. There are two ways to do it:

1. You can either lease out a small property on a prime location and transform it into a hostel
2. Or you can build new premises from scratch.  

In any case, it’s your choice. However, ensure that you do not invest a huge chunk of your money in finalising the hostel building.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Moustache Hostel (@moustachehostel)

b. Safety comes first

Safety is one of the biggest concerns among solo travellers. Since you cater to this segment, you need to address their concerns.

After the pandemic, guests are sceptical about travelling and sharing rooms with strangers. Keeping that in mind, you need to make the necessary arrangements.

Smartly manage the space, so that it would adhere to the social distancing norms without affecting your ROI (Return on investment).

It is highly recommended that you should invest in fire safety equipment. Also, considering the rising concerns about women safety, you should install CCTV cameras at your hostel, to avoid any mishaps. 

c. Get all the license and permits

For managing any hospitality business, license, registrations and permits are a must. Although the list of documents varies from place to place, here’s the basic ones mandatory to run a hostel.

1. Registration certificate 
2. Rent agreement/lease of the premises
3. Fire safety certificate 
4. Local authority approval
5. Police verification certificate

Instead of running haphazardly, I would suggest hiring a lawyer (at a nominal cost) and get all the certifications done in a single go.

As far as the fire safety certification is concerned, you can obtain them from your local fire department, after they inspect your property. 

d. Shopping, shopping and shopping 

Finally, it is time to go on a shopping spree. You should start off with purchasing all the necessary amenities and commodities you have listed during the first phase. 

There is a slight possibility that you might drift off to buy fancy items for giving your hostel a unique look. But, I would recommend sticking to the budget and purchasing products of prime importance. 

The modifications in decor can be done later on. In this step, you should focus on buying only those things that are relevant to your list.

Phase 3 – Indulge in pre-opening activities

Now that your hostel is ready, you need to initiate pre-opening activities. Basically, this phase is to work on the steps that would make your guests’ stay flawless and memorable.

a. Bring in technology to your assistance

Honestly, without technology, managing any hospitality business is quite hectic. In this digital era, every task is managed online on a cloud-based platform. 

If you think of this, it would be difficult to handle bookings from all sources without any technological assistance. And it is not limited to managing bookings.

Various other tasks such as inventory management and rate distribution, reputation management, loyalty programs, and more are dependent on technology. To make your hostel operations hassle-free I would recommend you to invest in modern technologies.

You can start by investing in hostel management software. Once you begin to cater a decent amount of guests, you can vouch with other products, such as reputation management software, revenue management system and many more.

b. Outsource services from vendors

Outsourcing services save you time and money. You can’t have all the facilities available at your hostel.

Many hostels don’t have an in-house restaurant. In such cases, they partner with a local food outlet or any restaurant in the nearby vicinity.

It is beneficial because they would recommend their customers to book your hostel if they are looking for a property to stay.

I would advise you to partner with local transport operators like private bus or cabs, and activity providers located around your hostel. 

c. Staff that trains better performs better

The best part of hostels is that they are manageable even with bare minimum staff. That means, you don’t have to invest a heavy amount in hiring staff for your property.

The employees you recruit should be aware of hostels SOPs (Standard operating procedures). Also, they should be trained to work according to the rules and protocols of your hostel.

This would help you to provide your guests a hassle-free and memorable stay. It will also help in keeping a check on maintaining the service quality.

d. Host a pre-opening ceremony

A pre-opening ceremony is a MUST for every property. It’s an easy task and doesn’t require a lot of guests. 

For auditing, some experienced hotel employees stay at the new property to experience each and every service. The activity lasts for 2-7 days during which the team notes down every issue they face. 

It could be about anything either the services, room amenities, property’s ambience or something else. 

Once the ceremony ends, the team holds a meeting to rectify all errors before opening the property for the guests. 

You can use this approach to analyse the flaws of your hostel and eradicate them easily.

e. Influencers at your rescue

To get a fair review about your hostel, you can collaborate with social media influencers. Approach bloggers, travel photographers, hotel critics or any other influencers having a wide reach among the audience. 

You can invite them to stay at your property and share their experience on various platforms. This will help you reach out to a good number of audience.

However, don’t forget to check for the followers of the influencer you are inviting. Aim for a blogger or influencer with a minimum reach of 10K+ active subscribers and followers.

f. Generate a buzz with an online presence

So now that your hostel is ready to welcome guests, you should start by creating an online presence. How to do that?

Simple, create your hostels brand website, and list your property on Google and relevant OTAs.

Since the target audience is the younger generation, I would recommend promoting your hostel on social media as well. Use high-quality pictures of your property’s facade, room categories, nearby location and services guests can avail during their stay. 

Moreover, YouTube videos are really useful these days. You can create a video focusing on the insights of the hostel. You can also use Google 360 degree, to capture a mesmerising video of your location. 

Here, take a look at this beautiful creation by the Zostel team.

You can also promote the reviews and articles that influencers or guests share about your property post their stay. 

Phase 4 – It’s time to welcome guests

Now that our hostel is ready and it’s time to welcome guests to the property.

Honestly, this is the point where you will receive suggestions from guests, which you can implement in your hostel. But, before that, it is mandatory to look into some small yet crucial steps.

a. Events and tour planners are your best partners

Strategic partnerships with travel agents are always beneficial in the hospitality industry. Talking about the hostels, they need to establish a strong relationship with event and tour planners to bring in maximum guests. 

These planners are constantly in search of properties providing a comfortable stay at minimum prices. Most of the event planners have the young audience as their guests. 

Moreover, events are the best opportunities to generate maximum bookings. You can also promote your hostel by being a sponsor for any of these events.

b. Attract guests with the best offers

Let’s agree to the fact that nothing attracts guests better than a discounted price or an exciting offer. I know the tariffs of hostels are quite low.

However, to garner guests attention, it’s better to offer guests lucrative discounts or deals. You can run these promotional offers during the initial days. 

You can also create loyalty programs for your regular visitors. It’s a great way to earn more revenue. All you need to do is introduce loyalty-based offers to your guests.

However, the offer should be captivating, or else guests won’t register for the loyalty programs. It could be either one night’s free stay, discount on off-season bookings, last bird offer and so on. 

These offers give you profit by direct bookings, and on the other hand guests are happy with the discounts. You can say it’s a win-win situation.

c. Create the magic with community gatherings

Community gatherings are the soul of hostel operations. The excitement of meeting new people from different parts of the world, sharing experiences with them, enjoying the night over a barbecue or bonfire is something guests look forward to while booking a hostel. 

These activities are one of the core USPs in hostels. Moreover, promoting pictures and videos of these activities will fetch you more guests.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zostel (@zostel)

d. Learn and grow with feedback

Feedback is an important part of any business. Talking about the hospitality industry, reviews play an essential role in breaking or making a property. 

Positive feedback is sure to give your ranking a boost on various platforms. While negative reviews can result in a bad online reputation.

However, every feedback is new learning for hoteliers. This concept applies equally to the hostels.

For every review that you receive, it is important to acknowledge it and note down the points mentioned by guests. 

Once you start working on feedback you will notice a drop in your complaints and negative reviews. Gradually, it will improve your hostel’s online reputation.

What are the hurdles in running a backpackers hostel?

Every task comes with certain challenges. It is upon you to either face it or shrink away from the same. 

Managing and operating a hostel is not an easy task. I am sharing with you some of the common issues faced by hostel owners.

1. Investment problems:  Trust me, every business has an investment issue at some point of time. Even hostels are not an exception. Many property owners have to fall back and hand over their hostel to aggregators for managing. In fact, many of them pursue franchise models, to avoid the hassles of financial issues.
2. Competitive Environment: With the dawn of the internet era, the hospitality industry saw a rise in competition. As guests have thousands of properties available to book at discounted prices, many hostels are suffering losses.
3. Unforeseen Circumstances:  There are certain situations which cannot be controlled. Considering the recent pandemic, it was a downfall for almost all types of businesses. Even the travel and hospitality industry hit their lowest. Such circumstances create a barrier in business, especially in hostels where rooms are occupied on a sharing basis.

Zostel’s case study

Zostel is one of the well-known hostel chains in India. Started in 2013 with one property, currently they are present across 37 cities and manage more than 1000 beds. 

So, what made them popular among guests? How did they become a brand?

Well, they promoted their properties and hostels culture on social media. Moreover, with a brand website, they managed to create their identity among the guests.

Zostel introduced the culture of backpackers’ hostels in India. With their out-of-box approach and quality of services, Zostel became travellers’ choice for the stay. 

In 2017, they introduced the concept of local activity in their hostels as a part of community gathering. This was like a cherry on the cake.

The services and experience offered by Zostel at exquisite locations are unparalleled. And this makes them a recognised hostel brand in India among backpackers. 

FAQs

The post How to Start a Backpackers Hostel: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on eZee Absolute.

You should understand that a hostel business varies considerably from hotels. While you can say that the hotel business is pretty much straightforward (providing accommodation with maybe a few services), a hostel on the other hand cannot survive by just offering accommodation. 

Of course, the hostel target market is altogether different than a hotel, and hence additional requirements and tactics for hostel marketing as well. 

Here are the 9 best hostel promotion ideas to make your business thrive

Your hostel is a product and a brand in itself. Running a hostel is like running a media agency where your online presence or your brand is equally important as your product, i.e your hostel. 

These tips and techniques will not only increase your hostel’s visibility but will also make you a preferable choice of travelers coming to your city. 

Go through them, implement those, analyze the results and decide whether you want to scale the strategy or kill it. 

1. Register on relevant OTAs

The first thing to do if you have a hostel is to get listed on relevant online travel agents (OTAs). And when I say relevant, I mean those sites from where you can acquire guests you want to welcome. For hostels especially, it is advisable to register on niche OTAs that cater to hostel bookings.

Most of the hostels don’t consider this as a factor in hostel marketing. But believe me, your presence on these booking sites will give you amazing credibility.

Sites like HostelWorld, Dorms.com, Bedbooker, Hostelbookers.com, etc are the most popular ones in the hostel industry. These sites will give your hostel an outreach to millions of unique viewers, and eventually get you more bookings from travelers and backpackers alike. 

Moreover, the more OTA connections you have for your hostel, the better. You’ll have greater visibility to the maximum of your audience which will land you more bookings.

2. Get a professional hostel website with SEO

The quicker you understand the importance of a website in your hostel business, the better your hostel will perform. 

You see, technically, your website is the first and the only marketing tool that you own. 

So it can be used the way you want. All other platforms that you are present on; social media, OTAs, or anything else, are constantly changing. Therefore, your website must be the flagship of all your online marketing efforts. Treat your website accordingly – always! It can be the most effective hostel marketing strategy if executed well. 

Now when you design your hostel website, don’t stick to the old ways of content marketing. Perform good SEO and add appropriate keywords so that your efforts in designing a website provide you with good returns.

SEO will make your website visible and rank on the search engines. Further, local SEO plays an important role in boosting your hostel bookings. We have a blog post for tips on SEO for hotels, which works effectively for hostel websites as well. Here are some of the best ways to do hostel website SEO. 

In the end, don’t miss getting listed as a Google My Business. This will make your hostel visible when people search for hostels in your region. Viewers will be able to find your website with proper contact information about your business.

If you’re a hostel chain, then list each of your locations as a Google My Business, similar to what goStops has done.

3. Run Ads on Google and Facebook

If you have some budget, then running ads on Google and Facebook is said to be one of the most effective ways to promote your hostel. Your website can be the base of these ads because you’d want searchers to land on your website after clicking on the ads. 

However, we recommend integrating your website with a booking engine, which will let your visitors book with you directly from the website. 

Google Ads – Apart from regular search and display ads, Google offers a great way for accommodation providers to increase their direct bookings. That is – Google Hotel Ads. These ads will be a part of your Google Business Listing once you enroll with them, and help the searchers book with you directly. Though, keep in mind that you can enroll for Google Hotel Ads only with Google’s authorized integration partners.  

Facebook Ads – Using Facebook Ads, you can easily promote your Facebook page, posts, and even your hostel website to the relevant audience. 

Apart from all this, you also have the option to run REMARKETING ADS, which is a beneficial technique to promote your hostel. These ads follow your website visitors after they leave your website without performing any action. This way, you will be in their mind frequently, and they’ll come and book with you through the attractive discounts or deals you offer in the ads.

4. Give importance to social media

Social media is the need of the hour. Any hostel marketing plan (or any business marketing for that matter) is incomplete without engaging on social media. With the incredible advantages that it has, it is an indispensable part of hostel promotion. 

Social media is now 95% of the internet! 

For beginners; you can start by creating an account and a page on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Gradually, identify and reach your target audience, build your brand there, tell your story, and develop a connection with your audience.

Social media is a great way to interact with guests and give them the personal touch that they look for. The best part here is that there are no third-party fees involved. Social media for this segment of the industry is somewhat similar to that of social media marketing for hotels.

People often take pictures while traveling. Use these as a marketing strategy.

For example, set up a nice picture-taking spot (selfie spot?) in your hostel lobby with your name and the city you are located in. Then, run a contest offering a free night stay to the most creative photo with your hostel tagged! Done! You reach a lot of people this way.

Beyond all this, don’t forget videos. Visuals have received more engagement and interaction since always. Shoot videos of the happenings at your hostel, the events you organize, and everything that may show the experience you’re providing.

Check out how Zostel, India’s largest backpacker hostel chain, and eZee’s happy customers since the beginning is killing it on social media.

We have a blog post on the best hotel Instagram ideas, which work amazingly well for hostels too.

It is like a dream to generate traffic through social media. Know your audience, talk to them in your own way and focus on the channel that works for you!

5. Organize events to develop community and guest interaction

There has been an outburst in travelers going around solo and more importantly meeting like-minded people. This can be a great advantage in promoting your hostel.

Cross promotional tactics

They are a good way to attract local businesses and be of mutual benefit to each other’s business. Hostellers coming to you want to explore the city, eat authentic food, have community-oriented, local, and cultural experiences, buy local stuff, etc. So keeping flyers or visiting cards of people who are willing to cross-promote your hostel to their customers is a good idea to market your hostel.

Showing a local presence and effective community interaction builds a good reputation. People will note this and will recommend your hostel to fellow mates. So, local connections and the word of mouth publicity become an important tool for your marketing.

Organize events

Using such tie-ups, you can organize events like cycling expeditions, tree plantations, food-tasting tours, slum tours, and city tours to attract guests and give them a flavor of the local city.

Hostels like Zostel and The Hosteller regularly host such events as cycling tours, treks, and out-of-city tours to provide a unique experience to their guests. Check it out:

Give details of such events on your social pages. This is very important to let your brand make its name in the minds of travelers. Besides this, you can also keep some things on your premises to let your guests engage with each other. 

For example, keep a canvas for them to paint and offer it as a takeaway at a nominal price. Keep small pots with plants for travelers to take back home. Or keep a guitar in the lobby for music lovers and some pets for pet lovers. Keep a game zone or a recreational room where guests can play a few games. A bookshelf is also a great idea for solo travelers.

6. Associate with industry influencers

For those of you who do not know the power of influencer marketing and blogging, let me tell you that blogging is a revolution in the hospitality industry. As we talk about hostel marketing strategies, blogging should be used in the best possible way.

So how does this work? Simple. Offer these bloggers (influencers) a free stay at your hostel. Trust me, the returns are immense.

They are travelers and writers with a good number of followers or are building up the same; they can promote your hostel after a stay. They’ll give you a review on various platforms like their own website or blog and social platforms so that your hostel reaches to maximum audience.

It is not about quantity, it is about quality. Keep that in mind! Invite bloggers and even accept their requests for free stays. Have a clear guidelines to work with bloggers and influencers so that both parties are mutually benefited.

Zostel recently did a video with Shivya Nath (The Shooting Star), a famous travel blogger from India who has been on the road for almost a decade. They also shot an episode with Savi Sharma, an Indian novelist.

If you don’t have a budget to tie up with influencers, then set up your own blog on your hostel website. I’d say, do it even if you have a budget for influencer marketing. It will help you big time in your website’s SEO and even engage travelers with new information.

Zostel’s blogs are a delight to read, filled with advice and instructions on how to travel and the best places to visit near their locations.

7. Offer extra services

These days, “Hostelling” is not just limited to offering a stay in a dormitory. It is much, much more than that. The leading hostels in India at least have kept extra services as a part of their package. 

Apart from your regular services and offerings, consider offering a secondary service as a part of your hostel marketing. For example, offer a bike rental service, travel services, city tours, or trekking trips.

This will increase your word-of-mouth publicity and keep your hostel flag up even in the offseason. Make customized packages for city tours, local food tours, and such likes, and sell them on your website.

A few hostels like goStops also let travelers book experiences from their websites. 

8. Make the most of reviews

Reviews majorly pose as a decision-maker for your guests. Besides affecting your online reputation, they even affect your bookings. The industry is gradually realizing the importance of online reviews. And the sooner you do so too, the better it will be for your business. 

Focusing on hotel reviews and reputation management should be on your task list henceforth.

Collect as many reviews for your hostel as you can, and respond to them. Once your guests check out, ask them to give you feedback on Facebook, booking sites, and even Google. In turn, you can offer them some discounts the next time they visit. 

Besides, you can collect more reviews on TripAdvisor for free through the TripAdvisor Review Express Program. You can explore more about it here.

9. Expand into a hostel chain

If you’re an independent hostel, one of the most recommended hostel marketing strategies for you is to expand into a hostel chain. 

Once you’re all set in a city with one hostel, plan out properly how you can set up your brand in a different city. Treat yourself as a brand.

Start with finalizing a location for your next hostel. Decide on the basis of the type of experience you provide, the guests you welcome and the travelers a city gets. If you implement this one in the right way, it will work in the best way possible. 

Don’t take this job lightly. Take baby steps. One at a time. Ensure that you maintain the consistency in experiences you provide at all the locations. Perform the same promotion tips for all your hostels. This way, you will gradually emerge as a brand in the industry and among the millennials. 

Implemented well, we are sure these hostel marketing plans and tips will help you bring your hostel to great heights in terms of service and high conversion rates. If you want to see your hostel house full this season, you better get your head on straight to these strategies.

Along with your hostel promotion, we’d also like to give you the right hostel management tips. Our recommendation is to adopt an integrated hostel management system to manage every operation at your hostel. 

eZee’s end-to-end hostel software is already adopted by India’s leading hostels as well as many of hostels worldwide. With the best marketing tips in your hand, the only thing that remains is streamlining your operations.

Let us know in the comment section below what you think about these tips and how did they turn out for you!

The post 9 Effective Hostel Marketing Tips To Get More Bookings appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Here’s a sneak peak of the event:

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During the event, HostelWorld presented some great insights to attendees. Out of which, one data showcased the top 5 hostels in India receiving maximum bookings from the travel site. Those 5 hostels were:

• Zostel
• goStops
• Joey’s Hostel
• The Madpackers Hostels
• The Hostel Crowd

Now let me mention an important finding here.

4 out of these 5 top performing hostels are using eZee’s hostel software.

Wonders never cease! Right? It was definitely a proud moment for us, which lead me to a thought on what made these hostels choose our hostel software.

And one more fact dawned upon me gradually.

With more than 70 hostels onboard, we are the preferred choice of majority of hostels in India.

Why do hostels need technology?

Now if you see, hostels have evolved with the latest trends of travelling and backpacking.

Hostels these days are not limited to just offering dormitories, but rather a unique experience with a wholesome stay to the guests within budget. They’ve embraced versatility by providing shared and private rooms besides dorms with amenities like free WiFi and breakfast. Besides, they even organize activities like city tours, treks, musical nights and more.

More than 70% of hostellers are millenials.

Consequently, with the evolving trend of backpacking, the significance of hostels has increased to a great extent in India as well.

The exponentially increasing number of hostellers has transformed the mission of hostels from providing only accommodation to imparting an unforgettable experience to the guests.

Certainly this would need them to seek for a technology to manage their expanding operations, which could even help them grow in their business, which is where eZee fits in.

What made these top hostels and others choose eZee’s hostel software?

So, after meeting and talking with many of our hostel customers in the conference, I figured two major reasons behind eZee as hostels’ choice of technology.

1. We provide technology which they exactly need

Ever since we determined hostels’ need of technology some years ago, we started constantly researching on their requirements, on how they operate, and their mindsets.

And we developed a technology, a completely integrated hostel management system which would help all the types and sizes of hostels, as well as hostel chains in managing their operations. This technology is periodically updated to ensure optimum performance and efficiency.

Here are some special features of our hostel software which sets us apart from others:

1. Dorms or private rooms: Hostels can set up dorms as well as private and shared rooms in the system and sell them accordingly.
2. Connection with the right OTAs: They can manage their availability on the right channels directly from the system and acquire more guests
3. Booking engine for direct bookings: Hostels are able to get more bookings from their website through our integrated booking engine
4. Dynamic pricing for hostels: Hostels can set up and manage slab-wise pricing depending on the occupancy and seasons.
5. Handling promotions and packages: As I mentioned previously, hostels these days offer a myriad of services along with accommodation. Hostels are able to manage the sale of these activities and packages and even run promotions along with their regular operations
6. Managing Pay@hostel bookings: Hostels can easily accept booking deposits for pay@hostel bookings by sending an online payment link from the system.

In addition, hostels are even able to manage their online reviews and reduce their last minute no-shows and cancellations using our technology.

You can explore our completely integrated hostel software from here.

Here’s what Deep Banka, the Online Sales Manager @ Zostel had to say about our technology at the conference, and why they have chosen eZee:

Headquartered at Gurugram, Zostel is the biggest backpacker hostel chain in India. Started with 5 hostels in India, they now have hostels at 36 locations across India and Nepal; that aim to provide safe, hygienic, relaxed and affordable accommodation to travelers.

2. Unparalleled, round-the-clock customer service

Well, customer service is an important aspect of any business. Even more, when you’re in an industry which revolves around guest experience.

We have always been on our toes to provide not just the best technology, but equally excellent customer services, which include:

1. 24x7x365 live support
2. Dedicated account manager
3. Unlimited free product training
4. 100% product implementation and onboarding

Similar to what it is for all our users, we have been able to offer the hostels an unforgettable customer experience, helping them wherever required and enabling them to look after guest experience by automating day-to-day operations.

This is what Pankaj Parwanda, the Co-founder of goStops shared on why he swears by eZee:

goStops is known as India’s most trusted experiential and social hostel chain. They have hostels at 12 locations across India; in which they offer great amenities, along with carefully curated activities to ignite the passion to travel.

About the 1st Annual Hostel Conference

The Backpacker Hostel Association of India (BHAI) organized the Annual Hostel Conference from 18-21 April for the first time in India. The conference witnessed hostel owners across India getting together with travel giants like HostelWorld, Goibibo and Tripoto, companies like Veepay, RedBus and Arbor Bewing, and other industry professionals along with eZee as the hostel technology providers to discuss on the latest industry trends, challenges and solutions.

Niral Ramani, the Regional Manager of eZee Goa and I represented eZee in the event to showcase our special offerings to the hostel industry. It was a memorable experience for both of us, where we were able to meet our various long-term customers and even converse with several interesting industry professionals.

Our cutting-edge technology is all set to facilitate the evolving hostel industry in all possible ways. Just as these 4 leading hostels, many hostels worldwide are simplifying their hostel operations with our hostel software. And we’re welcoming more such hostels and hostel chains onboard everyday.

But we are not ceasing here! We’ve already fueled our hostel management system with nascent technology such as a booking engine chatbot, digital assistant, data analysis tool; and we promise to continue to augment our technology which transforms the way the hospitality industry conducts business.

The post [Case Study] What made ⅘ leading hostels in India choose eZee’s hostel software appeared first on eZee Absolute.