Wandering what is the best platform to book your accommodation? We have a few tips for you.
How many times do you think of direct booking when you are planning for your next adventure? I am afraid not that often.
Stay with me if you wonder how to make your upcoming trip cheaper and more sustainable. Here I’ll share tips that helped me save money and limit my environmental impact while travelling during the last few months.
But first, let’s start with the basics.
What does direct booking mean?
Booking directly with a hostel
Travelling is undeniably one of the best experiences and investments you can make to get the most out of life. However, exploring new places can come alongside anxiety and fear, especially when you are a solo – backpacker.
I imagine that you want to avoid scams, bad service and bad location.
By booking directly your accommodation with the selected host, you can benefit from one-to-one contact e exclusive assistance e save money.
However, I understand that it might be difficult to find a good place to stay at the start.
Using online travel agencies as a research tool
After researching what to do and what to see in your desired destination, it is time to decide where to stay for the night.
I already see you typing the some of those famous urls: Booking.com, Hostelsworld , Expedia…, you name it.
In the industry we call these platforms Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), which are a great tool to find thousands of different options with reliable payment and cancellation options.
However, if you decide to proceed with the booking process within an OTA, be ready to pay more. Those platforms are generating revenue by applying commissions to hostel owners for bookings made through their websites.
The commissions range from 15 to 25%, which naturally forces hoteliers to reflect these costs into your final reservation rate (or discount on the hostel revenue).
As such, while it is great to have a full overview on what is available in your next destination, I strongly advise you to use them as a research tool and always book directly with your chosen hostel.
Direct booking with Famous Hostels
Booking with Famous Hostel
When booking at Europe’s Famous Hostels, all we do is link you to the booking page of your desired hostel. This means we do not hold any fee on the booking, and guarantee you the lowest rate possible.
As an independent and non-profit organization, we provide visibility to the best hostels in Europe and Israel by keeping their prices as originally listed! Our main goal is to link the best hostels at each location, creating a community of backpackers who are constantly bumping to each other within our network.
We have done all the work for you. We selected the best Hostels across 19 countries, looking at their location, services, and budget. All you have to do is choose your destination.
Before a hostel is listed as a Famous Hostel they are vetted by our community, as a way to make sure we are listing the best in each town.
Again, we do not apply commissions to your bookings. Our goal at Famous Hostels, is to connect people to hostels directly by completing your booking on the Hostel’s page.
How can Direct booking make your travel more sustainable?
At Famous Hostels, we collaborate with locals first. At the core of our mission, we select the best hostel in each of our 45 locations, making it easy to pick your stay, while getting connected to the biggest backpacking community in Europe.
Our hostels are usually run by locals who know how to avoid tourist traps and will suggest to you not only where locals eat and drink, but also what to do at the most competitive price.
Moreover, if you decide to travel by Train, we partner with Eurail for the Eco Wanderer campaign. The online CO2 calculator will help you keep track of your CO2 savings when travelling by train!
To discover more about this opportunity, check out the Eco Wanderer Program!
