New: Hostel Management Chat Feature

[Hostels]

EDIT: this chat feature has temporarily been removed for upgrades. More news coming soon.

I've added a Hostel Chat Room feature. There is a tutorial about how to sign up on the Hostel Chat Wiki Page.

The Hostel Chat is a free place for anyone in the backpacker travel industry to hang out and chat - either for business and networking, or just for killing time while at the front desk or office.

There is a public chat room as well as the ability for private messaging between users.

The final result of following the tutorial will be a chat window like the one below:



I will try to be available in the room whenever I'm online. (Site support, hostel directory assistance, inquiries about hostel-related projects, etc.)

If the tutorial looks complicated, but you still want to join the chat room, just send me an email and I will help set you up with an account. If you have Gmail you can add me to your Gmail chat buddy list and I could walk you through it that way.

[Hostels]

This new chat room feature is still in a testing period and I'm adding more documentation.

This is the short version of the tutorial:

If you have a Gmail account, the easiest way to join the chat room is to download a free program called Pidgin (Windows, Linux) or Adium (Mac).

Pidgin Setup (Windows or Linux)

If you are using Pidgin, follow this tutorial to connect to your Gmail chat account.

Then follow these instructions to join the chat room with Pidgin.


Adium Setup (Mac OS/X)

If you are using Adium, follow this tutorial to connect to your Gmail chat account.

Choose "join group chat" from the menu and use the following settings:

Chat room name: hostelmanagement
Server: [TEMPORARILY REMOVED]
Handle: [enter your desired username]
Password: [leave this blank - there is no password for the room]

[Hostels]

Just posting a notice that the chat room feature is temporarily offline until I can get an easier-to-use system.

I'm on Twitter the username joshhostels, or you can find my chat account information here if you want to contact me by chat:
http://wiki.hostelmanagement.com/wiki/User:Hostels

Twitter is like a giant chat room. It works best if you access it with an instant messaging program -- either Jabber or Gmail. Here is a tutorial on how to get a Jabber chat account.

There are also a few other hostels on Twitter... I may post a list of them later.