Innovation engages young travellers

Hostelling International (HI) introduced the world to the concept of youth hostelling and is now utilising mobile and social media to deliver its message to young travellers in the 21st century. In addition to its successful hihostels.com booking site, HI introduced the first hostel application for the Apple iPhone, and most recently the first hostel application for social media website facebook.com.

Launched just two years, the hihostels.com global booking website has enjoyed phenomenal growth, with tens of thousands of satisfied customers worldwide. In this time, hostel bookings have grown by 64% while overnight stays increased by 70%. Site visitor numbers have more than quadrupled to over 1.2 million, with an average of around 40,000 unique visits per day.

The easy-to-use site offers instant online bookings at more than 1200 quality-checked hostels worldwide. And unlike many other booking sites, hihostels.com enables travellers to book multiple hostels in a single transaction.

hihostels on the iPhone
The very first hostel application for the Apple iPhone was launched by HI in early March (apple.com/webapps/travel/hihostelsbooknowworldwide.html), and is proving very popular. It enables users to quickly and easily book their accommodation while on the move – select a hostel from the drop-down list to check availability, view details and photos, check maps, driving instructions etc. before completing the booking on hihostels.com.

Making friends @ hihostels on Facebook
As part of the HI strategy to engage with young people in the ways that are most appealing to them, HI launched the very first hostel application– friends @ hihostels – on social media website facebook (apps.facebook.com/hihostels). Users simply add the to their profile in order to add their hostel stays, share travel plans and meet up with other hostellers during their journey. The application has been an instant success - more than 4000 travellers have added the application along with thousands of hostel stays.

About Hostelling International
Hostelling International is the brand name of the International Youth Hostel Federation, the organisation that represents Youth Hostel Associations worldwide. Today, Hostelling International offers its 3.5 million members a choice of over 4,000 accommodation centres in 78 countries worldwide, with around 1200 now bookable online at hihostels.com.

Despite their name, Youth Hostels are open to people of all ages in virtually every country where they are located, they offer a good standard of accommodation in friendly surroundings at affordable prices and an interesting range of activities.