Hostel Booking Engines and Hostel Maps

[Hostels]

Minihostels just launched a maps feature on their new site:
http://www.minihostels.com/



All booking engines should have map features.

The way hostel booking engines organize destinations makes it difficult to plan trips. Here's an example from one booking engine:



The average traveler isn't going to know where most of those locations are. Interactive maps would make it easier to plan routes. Hostels.com has always had a map, but it only works up to a certain point. You can't view individual hostels on the map. Minihostels has taken a step in the right direction. I hope they develop it even further.

Minihostels' new site is well done...

[Hostels]

I was just looking at this site and they have a hostel map also:
http://www.jugendherberge-sachsen.de...nden/index.php

[santa klaus]

True. Hostelworld could easily do that, they have all the hostels on Google maps anyway.

[Hostels]

Originally Posted by santa klaus

True. Hostelworld could easily do that, they have all the hostels on Google maps anyway.

Hostelworld has the data on their route planner on Facebook.

Hostelbookers maps:
http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/england/london/map
There's no way to zoom out of a view of just a city. For example, view a single map of the UK and zoom in on London, and then zoom out and view Manchester.

GOMIO has city maps that are similar in functionality to Hostelbookers:
http://www.gomio.com/hostels/europe/...lin/search.htm

TFThostels.com has this feature though:
(tfthostels.com is a very innovative site)



I think drilling into locations from a map is one way that users want to find destinations. I think the maps should be prominent on the front pages, like how it is on Hostels.com but with more functionality. Another navigation method that I think would benefit from development on the booking engines is the search boxes, but that's another post...

[Hostels]

EDIT: Hostelworld has the route planner feature on their home page, but it requires login so it's not really a site navigation feature.

[Hostels]

hiusa.com has a maps feature also. I think all booking engines should have this kind of feature because it helps backpackers who aren't familiar with the geography to plan a route.

Choose a state:



Get a list of cities that have hostels:



Click on a city and get a list of hostels in the city:

[Kapake]

Well, that would make my job so much easier!
Most of m y guests come to front desk asking for places to visit within argentina...I mean, we have forest, mountains, desserts, glaciars! I have so many places to offer, so many hostels to recommend (andd that takes time of browsing websites, communicating with them, getting reservations, blah blah).
I´m not complaining, coz I really love what I do, but we are just starting and gathering information was a hassle!
There is no website (at least from what I´ve seen) that has maps to plan ahead for Argentina...

I love this site, I spend a lot of time reading you guys! Your like my "all time, all favorite" guidebook!