Introduction
Welcome to the March edition of the European Hostel Cooperation newsletter.
Hopefully there will be something that catches your interest, and please remember,
if you have anything that you would like us to include in future editions of the newsletter,
please send them to paul.scraton@gomio.com.
Hostel Research Results
Introduction
In preparation for the Hostel Meeting in Krakow, a number of EHC member
hostels agreed to undertake a questionnaire with their guests in order that
they could find out some more about the people staying in hostels around Europe.
Some of the results were interesting, and we thought we would share them with you in this months EHC newsletter.
Some of the answers might be useful for hostels in ideas for how to approach their guests,
and what is important to them in choosing a hostel and their booking habits. If any other
hostels have carried out similar surveys of their guests and are interested in sharing their
results with other hostels in Europe, then let us know and we can include it in the upcoming editions of the EHC newsletter.
The total number of respondents was 130, and the questionnaire was carried out in ten European hostels.
Personal Information
1. Age of Respondents
| Age | % |
|---|
| 14 – 18 years old | 1% |
| 18 – 24 years old | 63.8% |
| 25 – 29 years old | 26.2% |
| 30+ years old | 7.8% |
2. Gender of Respondents
| Gender | % |
|---|
| Male | 43.8% |
| Female | 56.2% |
3. Education of Respondents
| Education Level | % |
|---|
| No answer | 8.4% |
| High School Attendence | 8.4% |
| High School Diploma | 28.5% |
| University Degree | 40% |
| Post-Graduate Degree | 14.6% |
4. Origin of Respondents
(by continent)
| Continent | % |
|---|
| Europe | 38.5% |
| North America | 30% |
| Australia/New Zealand | 15.4% |
| South America | 8.4% |
| Asia | 6.2% |
| Africa | 1.5% |
Booking Habits
5. How the Respondent made their most recent hostel booking
| How | % |
|---|
| Walk In | 24.6% |
| Direct with Hostel | 20.8% |
| Online | 53.8% |
6. How far in advance was the booking made
| Advance | % |
|---|
| No answer | 8.5% |
| No advance (walk in) | 24.6% |
| 1 – 3 Days | 15.4% |
| 3 – 6 Days | 2.2% |
| 7 – 13 Days | 13.9% |
| 14 – 30 Days | 16.9% |
| 1 – 2 Months | 10% |
| 2 Months + | 4.6% |
7. How the respondent’s research hostels
(favourite)
| How | % |
|---|
| No answer | 6.2% |
| Advertising (includes flyers) | 5.4% |
| Online | 48.5% |
| Word of Mouth | 20.8% |
| Lonely Planet | 13.1% |
| Other Guide Books | 4.6% |
Choosing Hostels
8. Main Motivations for Choosing Hostel in which they are interviewed
(respondents can list more than one)
| Motivation | % |
|---|
| No answer | 8.4% |
| Price | 69.2% |
| Atmosphere | 27.7% |
| Location | 9.2% |
| Reviews and Ratings | 6.2% |
9. Main Factor in Choosing a Hostel in General
(Respondents choose only one factor)
| Factor | % |
|---|
| Amenities | 3.8% |
| Cleanliness | 1% |
| Location | 24.6% |
| Price | 45.4% |
| Atmosphere | 1% |
| Recommendation of Others | 17.8% |
| Size-Popularity | 1% |
10. Top Three Factors in Choosing a Hostel in General
(Respondents list their most important aspects of a hostel when making their choice)
| Factor | % |
|---|
| Amenities | 30.8% |
| Cleanliness | 3.8% |
| Location | 80% |
| Price | 83.4% |
| Atmosphere | 1.5% |
| Recommendation of Others | 43.8% |
| Size-Popularity | 20% |
11. Do respondents compare hostels before making a booking
| Compare? | % |
|---|
| Yes | 45.4% |
| No | 40% |
| No answer | 14.6% |
12. For those that answered ‘Yes’, how they compare
| How? | % |
|---|
| Online | 61% |
| Guidebooks | 6.8% |
| Other | 32.2% |
Hostelling and Tourism News
New Hostels Opening
Since the last newsletter, at the beginning of February, a number of new hostels have
contacted us to let us know that they have opened – or are opening – their doors, and to
ask us to include their new houses in the EHC newsletter.
In Dresden, the LaLeLu Mini-Hostel (www.lalelu-hostel.de)
will open its doors on the Louisenstrasse on the 1st April. On the 10th March in Budapest the Amigos Hostel and Guesthouse
opened on the Liszt Ferenc Square, and was joined by another new hostel in the Hungarian capital,
the Enter Hostel (enterhostel.uw.hu) on Raday Street.
In Valencia, the Nest Hostel (www.nestyh.com)
will be opening their second house in the centre of the city in April.
In Prague, the Czech Inn (www.czech-inn.cz)
has opened its doors to visitors to the Czech capital.
Sunsplash Request
Sunsplash Tours (www.sunsplashtours.com),
an American company organising spring break vacations –
and with whom the EHC has cooperated before – are looking for hostels in Europe to become partners with,
and to add to their list of tour destinations for Spring Break trips.
The hostels should be of a certain standard and anyone who is interested in more information can
contact Michael from Sunsplash directly at michael@limefestival.com.
Tourism helps boost European integration
The Travel Daily News website had a feature on the 13th March, that might be of interest to
those hostels in the new member states of the European Union. The article discusses some of
the points raised at the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) meeting that took place in Vilnius,
Lithuania, on the 1st and 2nd March.
One of the conclusions of the meeting centred on the theme of the impact of European integration on
tourism development, including the increase in visitors to the new member states since 2004, with the
easier entry requirements within the European Union itself, plus the need for centrally coordinated
tourism policy across the enlarged Union.
You can read the whole article online at:
www.traveldailynews.com
Rise of Set-Jetting
Also on the Travel Daily News website was another article that made for interesting reading,
especially for hostels that see their hometown immortalised on the silver screen. According to
the article, entitled ‘Rise of Set Jetting’, one of the major tourist trends of recent years has
centred on people visiting those places featured in successful movies.
One example has been New Zealand, following the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy,
whilst closer to home, Britain has received a flood of visitors interested in seeing for themselves
the real-life locations of the Harry Potter films. In the article, travel consultant Martin Evans
states that a popular movie can increase visitors to a destination by around 50% over a five year period.
The next Set-Jetting boom is to be the Da Vinci Code, which is filmed in London, Edinburgh and Paris,
and the impact on tourism in those three cities is expected to be profound.
You can read the whole article online at:
www.traveldailynews.com
Who uses Budget Airlines?
For those interested in the rise of the no-frills airlines, and the impact they have had on
the low budget travel industry, Cheap Flights.co.uk has the results of a study exploring trends in
the usage of such airlines, and divides the results along national lines.
Apparently the British are the most likely group to use budget airlines, with 41% of those
asked having flown at least one trip on one of the budget carriers. The Italians are the second
most likely to use budget airlines, whilst the Germans, French and Spanish were much less likely to
trade the ‘frills’ of a journey in the air for cheaper prices. In all three nations, only 13% of
those questioned had ever used one of the no-frills airlines.
You can read the whole article online at:
news.cheapflights.co.uk
New Routes for Budget Airlines
The impact of the budget airlines on tourism in general and the hostel industry in
particular has been noticeable over the last five years, and it is always interesting to
see which destinations are being earmarked for new routes.
The following information was found online at www.flycheapo.com.
Vueling – new routes from Barcelona to Santiago de Compostela, beginning in April.
Norwegian – announced new routes from Oslo to Vilnius (Lithuania), St Petersburg (Russia),
and Tallinn (Estonia), which are starting in May.
Windjet – will introduce new routes from the end of March, which will create new links from
Italy to Bucharest and Moscow (from Bologna), as well as Madrid and Barcelona (from Palermo).
WizzAir – will begin flights from Gothenburg to Warsaw in June.
Easyjet – have announced a whole pile of new routes, including London (Gatwick) to
Split (Croatia), as well as Bristol to Rijeka (Croatia), Krakow (Poland), and Toulouse (France).
European Hostel Cooperation News
European Hostel Meeting in Krakow
There are more details for the 5th European Hostel Meeting
(Hostel Meeting Page)
which will be held at the beginning of April here on the European Hostel Cooperation page, including the up-to-date
schedule with information on the presentation and workshop leaders, plus a list of participants who have already
registered and will be joining us in Krakow for what promises to be a fun and interesting weekend.
If you are still planning to come to Krakow, and haven’t yet registered then you are cutting it fine,
but there is still time! You can find the reservation form for the 5th European Hostel Meeting on the
Registration Page.
If you have booked flights and accommodation for Krakow, but not yet registered, then please do so!
We need the information for the venue so that we can organise the catering, flyer exchange and seating etc.
Thanks!
Bakpak and GOMIO.COM
The Bakpak Travelers Guide is holding a travel writing competition, and the EHC and
GOMIO.COM will be sponsoring the accommodation for the winner’s trip to Europe.
Once the winner has been announced, we will be contacting hostels in the destinations he/she wishes to visit.
You can find out more about the Bakpak Travelers Guide, and the travel writing competition,
at the Bakpak homepage: www.bakpakguide.com
GOMIO.COM Affiliates
In the last month or so a number of different website have agreed to take the GOMIO.COM affiliate system,
which will increase the number of places in which member hostels of the EHC have their GOMIO.COM bed available.
The affiliate partners of GOMIO.COM include:
BackPackerNetwork
HalconJoven
Hostel in Europe
Hostelling Latvia
Hostelz.com
Infohostel
Kabul
Berlin.de
Small-Hostels.com
Sunrock Resort
Swiss Backpacker News
Swiss Backpackers
Travel World Travel Agency
Smart Access for Hostel Internet
Just a reminder for those hostels that might be looking for a solution for controlling the guests’
internet access in their hostel receptions. The European Hostel Cooperation has teamed up with
www.ton-tauben.de to offer a free software that can be used to set up secure internet access on
your guest computers, control access and let the guests pay for the internet time, all of which
can be controlled from your reception staff computer.
The fees for installing the software are covered by the EHC, and in exchange the default website
on the terminals is GOMIO.COM, and you will be able to download the software from the GOMIO.COM
management system. So if you are looking for a system to control internet access for your guests in
your hostel then this might be a good solution for you.
Members of GOMIO.COM can download the programme within the GOMIO.COM Management System –
look for the title ‘Software’ in the left hand menu. If you have any problems, or questions
about the software, then do not hesitate to contact us at info@gomio.com.
Contact Us
As always we would love to hear from you…good or bad! You can contact us in the EHC Office in Berlin as follows:
European Hostel Cooperation Head Office
Johannisstrasse 2
10117 Berlin
Germany
Telephone: +49 (0) 30 2462 8500
Fax: +49 (0) 30 2462 8501
Email: info@gomio.com