Each week, we give you a run down of the latest hostel industry insights and offer our take (we can also provide a variety of GIFs for your entertainment, too!).
1. HILTON’S NEW HOSTEL INSPIRED CONCEPT
“But in a world where hotels want to look like Airbnb, and Airbnb is increasingly acting like a hotel, it’s easy to see why Hilton would want to try something new. For its latest hotel concept, announced today, the quintessentially American brand is looking for inspiration from somewhere unexpected: hostels.” – Source
In a bid to stay relevant with millennials, compete with Airbnb and take a slice of the new ‘luxurious’ hostel market, Hilton have launched their new ‘Motto’ hotel concept.
Motto describe themselves as “micro hotels, with an urban vibe, in prime global locations.”. While the properties won’t have dorm rooms for guests, they will have four different types of rooms that can be ‘linked’ together for group bookings, and a ‘flex room’ with a stowable bed designed to maximise space.
They are attempting to emulate the hostel experience by providing social spaces for both tourist and locals and putting a significant emphasis on local and ‘Instagrammable’ food and beverage vendors.
“Hostels are often the most affordable product on the market,” said Tripp McLaughlin, the global head of Hilton’s new concept, “The baseline we’re building off from is that these types of guests often have a trade off between value, experience and location. So how can we develop a product that can deliver on all three?”.
Motto will begin opening in cities including New York, Boston, San Diego, London, Dublin and Lima next year and they are certainly a chain for hostels to take note of as we head into the new year…
2. INSTAGRAM CONTINUES TO BOOM AMONG MODERN TRAVELLERS
Posting the perfect Instagram picture while travelling is more important to young adults than ‘drunken debauchery’, reveals research released recently by World Travel Market London.
The survey found that just 9% of millennials are interested in getting drunk while travelling. This is in contrast to the rising importance and interest placed on Instagram, with more than two thirds of those aged 25-34 say they post more than once a day while travelling.
Published just three days before the last ever Club 18-30 customers head overseas for their final holiday, the findings reflect a significant shift in modern travellers attitudes. Club 18-30 is a long-standing and once extremely popular holiday company specialising in party holidays for those aged between (you guessed it) 18 and 30.
Incredibly, the company’s owner Thomas Cook stated that it is axing the youth travel brand as its ‘holidays are not Instagrammable’, showing just how important the photo-sharing app has become for millennials (and therefore should be for hostels too!).
While we’d still very much recommend promoting your hostel’s happy hour and sharing information about nightlife in your local area, it’s important for hostels to promote other authentic experiences to their potential guests.
For party hostels who specialise in showing guests a good time after hours, it’s important to ensure that your online marketing emphasises this so that you are attracting the right guests.
Partying is not at the top of all traveller’s priority lists so it’s vital for hostels to move with the times too – or risk losing out on bookings to those who have.
3. HOSTELS NEED TO SHOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT TO AIRBNB
“88% of Airbnb hosts around the world incorporate green practices into hosting, 79% of guests said they decided to use Airbnb because they wanted to live like a local, and 66% of guests said the environmental benefits of home sharing were important in their choice of Airbnb.” – Source
According to a piece published on Hotel Business Review, hotels (and therefore hostels!) must begin to promote their differences to Airbnb.
While AirBnB’s popularity continues to grow among travellers, there are areas in which it is unable to compete with hostels – and these are the exact areas you should be focusing on. Hostels have the ability to create personalised guest packages and develop loyalty programmes.
Most importantly, the social experience on offer at your hostel should be emphasised in your marketing – this is your biggest competitive advantage.
4. HOSTELSKILLS TAKES TO THE STAGE IN LISBON
Just over a week ago, industry professionals gathered in Lisbon for the sixth HostelSkills conference.
Talks over the two days covered a wide range of valuable topics including getting the most out of your hostel’s Instagram (from us!) to managing your team effectively.
To find out more about what happened, click here to read our Hostel Skills diary where we highlight the main takeaways and note down our thoughts on the experience.
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