Hostel tour desks

[Hostels]

This section of the HostelManagement.com forums is about tour desk operations.

Many backpackers want to go on tours. Offering tours or tour ticket sales can bring in additional revenue, as well as help backpacers to have a good time.

There are a couple of ways to offer tours:

• Offer tours directly for a price like at Arnott's Lodge in Hawaii: http://www.arnottslodge.com/activity.htm
• Offer tours for free like at this Maui hostel: http://www.mauihostel.com/tours.html or a combination of free and paid tours like at HI New York: http://www.hinewyork.org/activities.shtml
• Sell tickets for tours at an activities desk by establishing relationships with local tour operators. The hostel's tour desk would probably be able to take a 20% to 30% commission on the tour sale.

One advantage of the last method is that it can be used to offer additional income to the front desk at no cost to a hostel. Employee morale at some hostels is not good partly because of low wages. Offering commissions on tour bookings to front desk staff can be a way to help that situation.

[thlodge]

Hey have you considered Elder Hostel? they offer tours of an instructional nature to seniors. can be weekend, or as much as week long .. they have a huge catalogue. you design your unique instructional tour and offer it thru them to a wide customer base. the offers are widely varied .. and some seem more touristyu that instructional. .. but something on the design of covered bridges in new england ... or nature life on the calif. sea shore might work ..

[Hostels]

Hey have you considered Elder Hostel?

I don't know much about Elder Hostel, but I will look into it. Sounds interesting.

[Kapake]

Right now we operate with a tour agency like you said.
Regarding the commission, we put a 5 to a 10% on top of the operator rates and they are established in advance.
Then we have an excell that we complete with the prices day by day.
Its all through credit card to the company we work with, and at the end of the month we just divide among us the totals.
We do the same with transfers and pubcrawls and tango lessons and blah, blah.
Now we are tertiarizing but the idea is to work our way to the making of our own tour operator. BUT We need time!
We make good money...compared to other hostels. So this makes it a great place to work at.

[Irishdon]

I see that Envoy Hostel in Yerevan (Armenia) offers great walking tours which help their guests to really understand and appreciate the local area and its culture. I think a lot of hostels could follow their example

[Aquarium_Rescue_Unit]

I love tour desk! Especially when they offer staff free or discounted trips (I have done some of the CRAZIEST things for free!) and you know that you are selling the customer something they will remember the rest of their lives!

I have trouble sending people on major tour buses and cruises etc ewhere they sit on their asses the entire time and barely get off to walk 100 metres to see anything...that isn't something I find esay to reccommend and I very nearly put a 70 something year old man on a crazy 4 wheeler national park ADVENTURE the other day because I could not bring myself to put him on an old people's bus tour(I put him on here in the end...it's killed me a little inside to do it!).