018 - Hostel Site Reviews 2007
UPDATE: Hostel Site Reviews 2008. Stay up to date with a free subscription to the Indie Travel Podcast.
Booking hostels online? Craig and Linda give a quick review of several hostel booking websites that google throws up. We mention a couple of specialist places, like Hosteling International’s booking engine and Gomio’s European portal, throw away a couple and finally nominate hostelbookers as our favourite booking engine.
LINKS:
Download transcript (pdf, 254kb)
Favourite sites
Hostelbookers
Hostelworld
Specialist sites
Hosteling International
Gomio
Last option
Hostels.com
Listener recommendations
Hostelz.com
Something to add? Leave a comment below or email us.
UPDATED 18/6/07 from:
We’re about to be kicked out of this internet cafe, but the show is up!
Real show notes, links and a transcript will be up in a few days. In the meantime…
Our favourite hostel booking website is hostelbookers.com! Congrats guys.
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30% off Lonely Planet Guidebooks5 Responses to “018 - Hostel Site Reviews 2007”
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September 13th, 2007 at 5:52 am
Useful advice. It was interesting to hear a comparison of the different sites.
When I’m traveling I often use Hostelz.com. It uses sites like hostelbookers.com to take the actual bookings, but much of their content is original. You can also find direct contact information for hostels on hostelz.com.
October 4th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Hi Craig & Linda!
Love the Podcast - and great to see that your favorite is HostelBookers.com as it is mine too!!
One thing that you didn’t mention was the 24×7 live chat facility available on HostelBookers. I feel that it differentiates their site from all of the others in Hostel booking market space.
The live chat tool is always on, and helps to guide and navigate visitors around the site, using hyperlinks and co-browsing to direct customers to the info that they are looking for.
In addition, it turns a 24-36 hour response time to emails, into a 12 second response time to chats - Now that’s impressive and results in a much happier customer!! - What do you guys think?
Look forward to hearing your next podcast and any further comments - Feel free to get in touch!
Best,
Ali
June 27th, 2008 at 6:31 am
I’ve used http://www.bookmein.com.au for booking Hostels and Accommodation when travelling in Australia. This site has a load of good content for travellers.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
We use http://hostelworld.com which i think is the best one for our hostel in david panama http://www.bambuhostel.com we have gotten loads of bookings from them, well organised and easy to use site i highly recommend.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Update, we just opened a deluxe landscaped in ground pool and mayan style rancho bar making bambu hostel an actual backpackers resort! http://www.bambuhostel.com new in david panama international backpackers always welcome.
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