Backpack Online and the Dregs

[stozza]

For anyone using Backpack Online I have a question.
When we are full, there are going to be lots of single beds in various dorms. Hostelworld don't really make a great effort to bring this to the attention of the people booking. Therefore we just, for example, ended up with 5 girls booked into 5 different rooms. In this case, it was definitely the girls who should have noticed, as they were 5 different room types. But it could very easily be 5 single beds in 5 separate 6 bed dorms.
Naturally, the customers don't understand why this should be the case.

My question is...does anyone have a way they manage this?

I obviously want to sell all my beds, yet I want my customers to be happy.

[Hostels]

Does the software auto-assign beds or do you have a choice where to place guests?

[stozza]

No it doesn't auto assign the beds, we do it ourselves, but in a 6 bed dorm, there might be a 3 bed and a 2 bed booking, and not a lot of option to move them, and this seems to happen a lot. In four bed dorms, particularly, we get a lot of 3 people groups, leaving one lonely bed.

At the moment, I think my only option is to micro manage the beds. I will hold a room of each type, until all other beds are sold, and then use that room to move bookings around, and only sell the last beds one at a time, or two if they are in the same room. Its going to take a lot of work each day, though.

[Hostels]

Does it require you to assign a bed or can you leave the bed unassigned until you're ready to assign it?

[stozza]

It leaves the bed unassigned until we assign it, however if it is left unassigned it makes it hard to see in other lists, so we assign beds immediately. I really don't think we can operate properly unless we assign it.

[Hostels]

Does Hostelworld let you shut off the allocations when using BPO?

I haven't seen BPO (except by peeking over the front desk while I'm being checked in).

[stozza]

Yea, you can choose to allocate only so only your receptionists can book the beds, and they are not available online to keep them off hostelworld, but there is no distinction between my own website and the hostelworld allocation, since we use hostelworld on our website. I can also keep them hidden from my receptionists as well, which is what I do to keep a number of beds for walkins.

[hostelworld]

Hi Stozza

We do recommend that you only assign beds the day before or on arrival (except for groups or special requests)Using the calendar view enables you see the number of beds available/sold/allocated to particular room/unallocate
giving you a complete overview of your property.

When assigning beds into a room there is a number in brackets e.g. 101 (2) this number indicates the number of empty beds in the room for the period of the booking. Staff should be making a point of filling rooms

This won't solve the issue of the 3 pax in a 4 bed dorm but it should eliminate some of the issues you're having.

[santa klaus]

There´s a similar problem. Sometimes, guests get a booking confirmation like this:



This suggests that they will be split up into different rooms for the first night. Hence, they send emails like this one:

Hi, I am D_____ Y______, I have just made a reservation of your hostel,
It was 2 person, 2nights in 6 Bed Mixed Dorm.

"2 person" means I(female) and my brother(male).
So I want to stay with my brother.
Please let us stay in the same room.

This is annoying extra work for us.

[Plakian]

In a similar vein:
I am just about full for August. Most nights have zero availability on HW. However, I am still receiving bookings! It would appear that if the first and last nights of a stay are available then HW accepts the booking, albeit that the person only gets charged the deposit for the vacant nights. So I might get a booking for 1 week where the person has only paid a deposit to HW for 4 nights!