If you’re associated with the Indian hospitality or the hostel industry, you must be aware about the 1st Annual Hostel Association Conference which took place last month in Goa.
Here’s a sneak peak of the event:
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During the event, HostelWorld presented some great insights to attendees. Out of which, one data showcased the top 5 hostels in India receiving maximum bookings from the travel site. Those 5 hostels were:
Now let me mention an important finding here.
4 out of these 5 top performing hostels are using eZee’s hostel software.
Wonders never cease! Right? It was definitely a proud moment for us, which lead me to a thought on what made these hostels choose our hostel software.
And one more fact dawned upon me gradually.
With more than 70 hostels onboard, we are the preferred choice of majority of hostels in India.
Why do hostels need technology?
Now if you see, hostels have evolved with the latest trends of travelling and backpacking.
Hostels these days are not limited to just offering dormitories, but rather a unique experience with a wholesome stay to the guests within budget. They’ve embraced versatility by providing shared and private rooms besides dorms with amenities like free WiFi and breakfast. Besides, they even organize activities like city tours, treks, musical nights and more.
More than 70% of hostellers are millenials.
Consequently, with the evolving trend of backpacking, the significance of hostels has increased to a great extent in India as well.
The exponentially increasing number of hostellers has transformed the mission of hostels from providing only accommodation to imparting an unforgettable experience to the guests.
Certainly this would need them to seek for a technology to manage their expanding operations, which could even help them grow in their business, which is where eZee fits in.
What made these top hostels and others choose eZee’s hostel software?
So, after meeting and talking with many of our hostel customers in the conference, I figured two major reasons behind eZee as hostels’ choice of technology.
1. We provide technology which they exactly need
Ever since we determined hostels’ need of technology some years ago, we started constantly researching on their requirements, on how they operate, and their mindsets.
And we developed a technology, a completely integrated hostel management system which would help all the types and sizes of hostels, as well as hostel chains in managing their operations. This technology is periodically updated to ensure optimum performance and efficiency.
Here are some special features of our hostel software which sets us apart from others:
- Dorms or private rooms: Hostels can set up dorms as well as private and shared rooms in the system and sell them accordingly.
- Connection with the right OTAs: They can manage their availability on the right channels directly from the system and acquire more guests
- Booking engine for direct bookings: Hostels are able to get more bookings from their website through our integrated booking engine
- Dynamic pricing for hostels: Hostels can set up and manage slab-wise pricing depending on the occupancy and seasons.
- Handling promotions and packages: As I mentioned previously, hostels these days offer a myriad of services along with accommodation. Hostels are able to manage the sale of these activities and packages and even run promotions along with their regular operations
- Managing Pay@hostel bookings: Hostels can easily accept booking deposits for pay@hostel bookings by sending an online payment link from the system.
In addition, hostels are even able to manage their online reviews and reduce their last minute no-shows and cancellations using our technology.
You can explore our completely integrated hostel software from here.
Here’s what Deep Banka, the Online Sales Manager @ Zostel had to say about our technology at the conference, and why they have chosen eZee:
Headquartered at Gurugram, Zostel is the biggest backpacker hostel chain in India. Started with 5 hostels in India, they now have hostels at 36 locations across India and Nepal; that aim to provide safe, hygienic, relaxed and affordable accommodation to travelers.
2. Unparalleled, round-the-clock customer service
Well, customer service is an important aspect of any business. Even more, when you’re in an industry which revolves around guest experience.
We have always been on our toes to provide not just the best technology, but equally excellent customer services, which include:
- 24x7x365 live support
- Dedicated account manager
- Unlimited free product training
- 100% product implementation and onboarding
Similar to what it is for all our users, we have been able to offer the hostels an unforgettable customer experience, helping them wherever required and enabling them to look after guest experience by automating day-to-day operations.
This is what Pankaj Parwanda, the Co-founder of goStops shared on why he swears by eZee:
goStops is known as India’s most trusted experiential and social hostel chain. They have hostels at 12 locations across India; in which they offer great amenities, along with carefully curated activities to ignite the passion to travel.
About the 1st Annual Hostel Conference
The Backpacker Hostel Association of India (BHAI) organized the Annual Hostel Conference from 18-21 April for the first time in India. The conference witnessed hostel owners across India getting together with travel giants like HostelWorld, Goibibo and Tripoto, companies like Veepay, RedBus and Arbor Bewing, and other industry professionals along with eZee as the hostel technology providers to discuss on the latest industry trends, challenges and solutions.
Niral Ramani, the Regional Manager of eZee Goa and I represented eZee in the event to showcase our special offerings to the hostel industry. It was a memorable experience for both of us, where we were able to meet our various long-term customers and even converse with several interesting industry professionals.
Our cutting-edge technology is all set to facilitate the evolving hostel industry in all possible ways. Just as these 4 leading hostels, many hostels worldwide are simplifying their hostel operations with our hostel software. And we’re welcoming more such hostels and hostel chains onboard everyday.
But we are not ceasing here! We’ve already fueled our hostel management system with nascent technology such as a booking engine chatbot, digital assistant, data analysis tool; and we promise to continue to augment our technology which transforms the way the hospitality industry conducts business.
