Booking a hostel
| Trip to Nabari | ||
| 1: Going to Japan | 2: Schedule for Nabari Trip | 3: Not going to Japan after all..? |
| 4: Booking a hostel | 5: Host Family Info | 6: Trip cancelled… |
This post also contains general tips discovered by me on saving money when you book a hostel
I received another mail from Nakamori-san, asking about what time we arrived on July 22. Thing is, because Madhatter and I wanted a cheaper ticked and more time in Japan (4 weeks instead of 3), we would be arriving a week early. And that’s when it dawned on me, we had yet to book a hostel! DUN DUN DUUUUUN!!!! *suspense*
I had spent some time looking around for hostels back in late April or early May, but I hadn’t made any reservations because I couldn’t get a hold on Madhatter and because I was a bit short on moneyz. But I figured that it had to be done before it was to late, so I went hostel searching.
I had spent some time looking around for hostels back in late April or early May, but I hadn’t made any reservations because I couldn’t get a hold on Madhatter and because I was a bit short on moneyz. But I figured that it had to be done before it was to late, so I went hostel searching.
I used the site www.hostelbookers.com to look for hostels, and in my opinion, it was pretty good and easy to use. It’s search function is able to “weed out” the hostels that do not have room for you. Along with its excellent setup which gives you an excellent overview of the various hostels, their features, accommodations and whatnot, each hostel can write a little about themselves. More importantly though, it has a review part, where people who have stayed at the hostel can rate and review their stay. This is an excellent way of finding out whether or the hostel really is everything it says it is.When it comes to actually booking the room, then DO NOT use any third party booking sites if it can be avoided (unless the hostel itself redirects you to one). Only use the sites to search for availability and to gain an overview of the various options you have. When you’ve then decided on a hostel, highlight and copy the name of it, open a new tab or browser, go to google, paste it into the search bar, and search for it. Then go to the hostel’s official website (these are usually in English, since they cater to International customers) and book the room yourself via their site directly or by the site they use themselves (just click “Reserve” or “Book room” or whatever, and let the link take care of the rest). “Why?“, you may ask, “I already found it on the booking site I was using, why go through all the extra trouble?” Here is why; to save a ton of money. However(!!!), not all hostel’s have a website you can book from, in which case, you will have to use the booking site.
Hostels often have extended stay discounts or special offers for specific days, or they might have differently sized rooms. Third party booking websites do not take these things into consideration, and already there, you could have wasted tons of money. Some booking website will also claim that they will need 10% of the total amount as a deposit for the room. The hostels themselves usually don’t require such a deposit, so it’s a “scam”, and an expensive one at that, if you stay for an extended period of time (especially if you later have to cancel your reservation). Here is how much I saved by going to the hostel’s own website and booking the room myself (taxes and whatever included, European decimal-system used, so you may need to switch the commas and dots depending on your country):
| Booking site prices | Hostel’s site prices | Saved moneyz | |
| The room (7 nights) | €310,21 | €313,88 | -€3,67 |
| Booking expense | €0 | €0 | €0 |
| Deposit | €34,47 | €0 | €34,47 |
| Totals | €344,68 | €313,88 | €30,8 |
That is €30,8 (current currency = US$47,6 ~ £24,25 ~ DKK230) saved by simply visiting the hostel’s own site! This is all because I was able to take advantage of their extended stay offer, which the booking site did not mention. You may think that this is no money at all, but you haven’t heard the kicker. The room I ordered via the site preferred by the hostel is about TWICE THE SIZE of the one I would have gotten via the other booking site. Had I gone with the same sized room, I would have saved an additional €20. Lurking moar pays off!
As a final little thing, below you will see images of how the Studios at our hostel look. I believe it is a loop with the images of the 3 types mixed together; Value, Standard, and Grand. Enjoy!
Jul 12th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Very interesting writeup of booking engines.
The 10% deposit is generally deducted from the total cost of the stay, so its actually the hostel that pays it. It’s a 10% loss for the hostel, but that’s the price for the marketing that the booking engines do.
Some of the hostel booking engines tack on extra booking fees, but Hostelbookers is one of the booking sites that doesn’t have a booking fee. Check out tfthostels.com — it searches prices on multiple hostel booking engines at once.
I generally use the same technique that you use and book direct, just because it’s best for the hostels.
Jul 12th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Oh? From what I could see, it was payed by the customer, since, well, it gets subtracted from the customer’s bank account. The room that would have been reserved by using Hostelbookers was 7000 Yen per night, which came to a grand total of just under €300 for seven nights (not including the 7-nights-or-more offer), meaning you’re getting booked at overprice + paying a deposit the hostel itself isn’t asking for. To me, it just looks like they’ve moved the booking fee to a “pretend deposit”, just so that they can advertise with “NO booking fees!!” But then again, I am a little paranoid XD
Thanks for the insight though, I’m sure many people will find it useful and help out the hostels more by booking directly.
Jul 14th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Hi Hecko,
Nice article (and slideshow!) and some interesting points made. As an employee of HostelBookers I thought I might be able to clear up a couple of things.
“Some booking website will also claim that they will need 10% of the total amount as a deposit for the room. The hostels themselves usually don’t require such a deposit, so it’s a scam”
Firstly, we are a business, and endeavour to add value to the hostelling industry in a number of ways (over half a million independent customer reviews, a one stop shop to browse, research, book and review hostels, booking functionality for the 1000’s of hostels that don’t accept online bookings etc.)
Our business model is to earn a 10% commission from the hostel on each booking, in the form of a 10% deposit at the time of booking. The traveller then pays the hostel the remaining 90% on arrival. This is stated quite clearly on our website, and is most certainly not a scam. Most other hostel booking websites charge an arbitrary “booking fee” – usually a couple of dollars – on top of the 10% deposit. As we only charge the commission to the property, this is where the HostelBookers “no booking fee” message comes from.
“… go to the hostel’s official website (these are usually in English, since they cater to International customers) and book the room yourself via their site directly or by the site they use themselves”
We’re not here to put hostels out of business, but to help raise their profile and numbers of bookings. Many hostels don’t actually have websites, and many more don’t offer any booking functionality on their site. As such HostelBookers (or other hostel booking site) can be the only place to book a particular property. And in addition, hostel booking websites offer:
• Instant access to tens of 10,000’s of properties
• A simple, secure booking process
• A dedicated customer service team
• Property ratings and reviews from independent customers
“Hostels often have extended stay discounts or special offers for specific days, or they might have differently sized rooms. Third party booking websites do not take these things into consideration”
Hostels are able to manage and promote their own special offers on the HostelBookers website, and many offer the same special offers through our website as through their own…though of course not all hostels offer all of their special offers with HostelBookers!
Similarly, hostels can put some or all of their rooms on HostelBookers – some but their best rooms on, while some don’t offer their best rooms to any website. Whilst you may have had this experience with the hostel you ended up staying with, this is far from the case across the board.
Hope this answers a few of your points.
Cheers,
Ed
Jul 14th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Hello Ed,
I admit my usage the word “scam” may sound a bit harsh, but it was not meant as the site decieving its customers, but more as a “having to fork up money the hostel itself does not inquire (as a deposit I mean), with no chance of a refund”, i.e. “lost” money.
However, I fully understand that you are trying to run a business, and it’s not at all like I’m saying you are bad people or something for making a living. Though, not all hostel booking sites require a 10% deposit. The third party site I was directed to by the hostel I wanted to stay at did not, for which I am very grateful, since not only did I have to change my reservation, in the end, I had to cancel it. Had I use your site, it would have cost me a pretty penny.
True, not all hostels have their own websites, though the larger and more well-known ones usually do. I will however make notice of this in the post.
In regards to the offer, I would think that the 7-nights-or-more is a pretty standard one for bigger hostels, and I would find it slightly odd that they would include it on your website as well (at least the hostel I booked didn’t seem to).
But in any case, I tried running the prices your site offered and the actual prices of the stay for the room that I booked, and they were horribly out of match. If people book for seven nights or more, the deposit and total cost was much too high (on your site, compared to the hostel’s), meaning the deposit people would have to pay you were overpriced. If they booked for less than 7 nights, rooms to prices the hostel didn’t offer. And in both cases, you were booking rooms that the hostel didn’t even have available.
The only explanation I could find was that somewhere along the line, someone screwed up… badly. As in getting the types of the rooms wrong, the daily rates wrong, and when offers apply wrong. I don’t know who’s responcibility this is, but I suggest someone looks into it.
Regardless, I thank you for the time it took to read through the post and write your comment, and while I still find some things a bit sketchy, it’s always best to hear a story told from both sides, so I’m sure the general public will also appriciate this probably rare input.
With regards,
Hecko
P.S. How come all you hostel peoplez are suddenly finding your way to this blog..?
Aug 13th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Google alerts is a wonderful thing ;)
With regards to price differentials, as I orignally siad – hostels are free to put any prices on any websites, including their own or HostelBookers. As such some hostels do offer cheaper rates on their own sites, while some don’t.
On the HostelBookers site we actually ask hostels to tick a box if they offer the same price to all of their booking engines. This then appears on the HB site on the hostels’ profile saying “You cannot find this hostel cheaper anywhere else online”.
Best of luck with the blog…and happy travels!
Sep 7th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
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