The market and the number of consumers constantly grow and, as a result, the competition is ever greater. It’s like sports. Teaming up is the way to win.
Producers (and hostel owners are one, as service is a type of product) have a never ending task of improving their end product and trying to diversify it as much as possible from other similar products. Having this in mind, companies devote time and manpower to work out the best way to deal with the competitors and use various strategies to present themselves as better than the others to the customers, with strategies used not always being considered ‘fair play’.
Hostel owners face the same issues. However, as companies in other branches have to compete with each other (could you ever imagine Coca-Cola and Pepsi doing something good for one another?), hostels can actually work together and make a mutually beneficial cooperation. And it’s a lot easier to do this in a hostel business – few people will have trouble agreeing to hostels in Vienna and Edinburgh not really being competitors, as they don’t offer their services on the same market.
The primary aim of a hostel is (or, at least, it should be) to offer accommodation to its guests and to give them the best experience possible. From little things such as making your facilities not lack essential items for them to work properly (e.g. toilet paper in toilets) to major changes in hostel management, hostel owners always have to look out for how to improve their hostel services and better the experience of their guests’ stay.
Let’s be honest now, whoever you are, you are not the best hostel owner there is. There will always be someone with better ideas and solutions to at least some of the hostel management problems. And as we previously established, other hostels are not your competition and by teaming up with them, you can exchange ideas with each other and see what others did to improve their offer (something like an open source for hostels).
Additionally, if you think outside the box, imagine there are travelers who would like to come to your city and make a trip across your country, but, in the end, opted not to because of the quality of the accommodation. By working together, you improve each other’s offer and people will now come to your place because they know they have a decent place to stay in once they move on.
Furthermore, another means of cooperation between hostels is to supply each other with guests by booking the travelers a place in another hostel. There are three interested parties in this ‘transaction’ – two hostels and the traveler – and all of them benefit from it. From the traveler’s point of view, they don’t have to waste their time reading reviews and booking a place in advance (for a trip that must be planned out ahead). Moreover, there are no deposits paid online, so there is no concern whether your personal information will be used fraudulently.
Hostels, on the other hand, have their own piece of the pie in this. One hostel owner recommends the other one to their guest and, if it’s according to the traveler’s liking, they book them a place there. The hostel buyer earns money by getting a fee predetermined by the hostel seller, who gets a new customer. One hostel can be both a seller and a buyer, depending on the situation. If only there was such a service that would automatize this booking system, right?