European Hostel Cooperation Newsletter June/July 2007

Welcome to the June/July edition of the European Hostel Cooperation newsletter. As the sun beats down on us here in Berlin, we have been busy putting together new features for GOMIO.COM, new cooperations, and advance planning for the next European Hostel Meeting. All of this, plus more hostel and travel news, can be found below…so read on!

We are happy to announce that hostels on GOMIO.COM can now be booked in five different languages - English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. We would like to ask all our members to also add information on their hostel in these languages by going into the Managementsystem > Hostel > Microsite, and then click on the relevant flag and fill in the information. If you have any questions about that, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

In addition to the new languages that are now available on GOMIO.COM, over the next few weeks we will be launching different currencies on the website. This will mean you can enter your prices in the currency of your choice, whilst the visitor to the site can also change how they view the prices to their own or any other currency. We will send out more information on this feature once we have launched it on the site.

HostelPower is a revolutionary new system for managing all aspects of your hostel, hotel, guesthouse, B&B, apartments, or any other property for which reservations are taken. It provides front-end functionality for managing guests, reservations, rooms, beds, coupons, deposits, blacklists, and referrals. It also provides comprehensive back-office functionality such as accounting, currencies, reports, inventory & product sales, commissions, schedules, and more. HostelPower provides a plug-in for the GOMIO.COM booking engine. This plug-in allows for reservations to be automatically downloaded and for availability to automatically be updated as new reservations are entered.

GOMIO.COM and HostelPower have partnered up to provide GOMIO.COM Members a limited version of HostelPower.  As a GOMIO.COM member, you can obtain a free license for our GOMIO.COM Edition, and discounts on other HostelPower products. For more information, log into the Management System where you find a link to download a trial version or just get in touch with us.

As part of our sponsorship agreement for the 6th European Hostel Meeting in Interlaken, we bring our second contribution to the EHC Newsletter from Scottish and Newcastle Brewery:

Only 2 months after S&N' successful sponsorship of the 6th European Hostel Meeting, S&N is pleasantly surprised at the extent of positive feedback to our participation. Take for example Berlin; already we have welcomed two fantastic hostels as customers. Newcastle Brown Ale is now available in its trademark bottle at the Generator Hostel Berlin, while  St. Christopher's Inns late-night bar Belushis will tickle the taste buds of its guests by serving FOSTER'S and Strongbow from draught and Bulmers straight from the bottle over ice. Working together, we are bringing our great brands through their great locations to international city-hoppers and local Berliners alike. In doing so they have a distinct competitive edge over other local bars.

S&N remains committed to helping hostel owners build their business and we are available at all times to answer questions and enquiries, be they general to opening a bar to more specific questions about S&N portfolio of international brands. Just call 089 2444 207 77 and we will be able to direct you to the right market and right person for your enquiry.

Furthermore S&N is currently preparing for the launch of a European-wide brand development of FOSTER'S, an exciting change which will be visible in all markets outside of the UK this summer. Keep your eyes peeled and all will be revealed!

As we announced in the April edition of the EHC Newsletter, we are already busy planning for the 7^th European Hostel Meeting which will be taking place somewhat closer to sea-level than Interlaken…in Barcelona. The meeting will take place from the 1^st - 2nd March 2008 and as always, if you have any suggestions or requests for things you would like to see included, then please do not hesitate to get in contact with us here at the Head Office: info@gomio.com.

Which brings us neatly to the Contact Us section of the newsletter. As always, we love to hear your feedback on the newsletter or anything else…so if you want to make contact, you can do so in the following ways:

European Hostel Cooperation
Schwedter Str. 227
10435 Berlin
Germany


Telephone: +49 (0) 30 2462 8500
Email: info@gomio.com.

We were contacted by the good folks at the Alberge Juvenil Madrid, a hostel of 130 beds which opened its doors in a couple of months ago in the Spanish capital. We would like to wish them luck with their new endeavour, and if you are interested in more information you can email the guys at info@ajmadrid.es. Their website is as yet not online.

If you know of a new hostel opening its doors, or are opening one yourself and would like to see it announced in future editions of the EHC Newsletter, please let us know.

It is always nice to see hostels and hostelling in the media (although not always in the cinema), and we found this business we are in mentioned in a couple of different articles over the last few months…

First up, the Wall Street Journal no less, who have a short feature on hostelling and budget travel.
Have a look at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118022126391115893.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Second, we found a guide to green travel, which alongside carbon neutrality and avoiding the airspace, suggests hostels as a green alternative.
More at: http://www.life.ca/nl/115/greenvacation.html

Finally, we can’t ignore it…Hostel II, the second instalment of Eli Roth’s backpacker gore-fest has been released to mixed reviews.
We found an interesting interview with the director in the Times at: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article1894215.ece.

Meanwhile, the production company have put together a backpacking promotion about travel in Europe, perhaps in an attempt to mollify the hostel scene.
You can see the promotion on their website at: http://lionsgate.com/hostel2/promotions/bakpak/

Something that is often of interest to hostel owners and managers are the new routes launched within the world of the budget airlines, especially if it brings a new load of potential guests to their town or city. Here are some of the new routes launched in the last few weeks, which we found on www.flycheapo.com, which seems to be a great resource for anyone wanting to keep tabs on those no frills planes criss-crossing the continent.

From 29th December – Warsaw to Salzburg and Oslo to Zurich on Norwegian (www.norwegian.no)

From 30th October, a new Anglo-Romanian connection when Wizz Air starts flights between Luton and Tirgu Mures. Meanwhile, on the 3rd September Wizz Air start a new route between Glasgow and Katovice (www.wizzair.com)

From 17th October – Centralwings (www.centralwings.com) begin flights between Warsaw and Dublin.

From November – new Ryanair routes from Shannon in Ireland to Birmingham, Leeds, Dublin, Riga and Kaunas (www.ryanair.com)

Check out Flycheapo.com for more new routes.

It seems that the airlines may not have things all their own way, if the high speed rail network in Europe continues to develop as it has done recently with a new route between Paris and Stuttgart that travels at ludicrous speeds and has reduced journey times by a third. The aim is eventually to link Paris and Eastern Europe with these high speed trains, which will be good news for those looking for a quick alternative to planes.

For more information on the developments, there was an interesting article in the Independent newspaper with Guillaume Pepy, Chief Executive of the French railways: http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2638181.ece

In researching this newsletter, we found an interesting looking website that we thought might catch peoples attention. Earth Bound is a group of six travellers who will spend 212 days in 25 countries, all recorded by a documentary crew – the results of which will be posted on the website, along with the travellers own photos and blogs.

The idea, in their own words, is that travel should be “about seeking out those fleeting moments of deep connections that go beyond language barriers and cultural differences. It's about following the offbeat dirt path instead of the well-paved roadway and pushing the boundaries of comfort zones on the inside as well as the outside.” It will be interesting to see how it turns out: www.globalroamer.tv

Some more global travellers now, this time involving East German automobiles, eight wanderers, and a good cause. The Trabant Trek is a journey from Europe to Cambodia by socialist-era transport, in aid of raising awareness and funds for Cambodian street children.

If you want to find out more about the project, join in the discussion on myspace or their message boards, or make a donation, visit their website at: www.trabanttrek.org

And finally...the hotel owners of the world have spoken to Expedia, and they have decided who the worst dressed travellers are...the Americans and the British. We found the results in a Guardian article, which also noted that French and Italian travellers led the way in the satorial stakes.

It would be interesting to know whether hostel owners and managers would agree with the conclusions of their hotel counterparts, but in any case, you can read more on the topic at: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/travelog/2007/05/are_the_british_really_the_wor.html#more

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