When planning to travel Europe, eventually you will be faced with whether to book your hostel or risk showing up without a reservation.  On the one hand it is exciting to keep all options open and see where the fates lead.  After all plans change as you meet new people and hear about new places.  On the other hand, why risk it?  However, because the travel market is currently down, booking prematurely or unnecessarily can result in your overpaying thus making you feel ripped-off and frustrated. 

A common scenario that I discovered goes like this: a traveler books a bed online for €25 which they lock into for 3 days, totaling €75.  Another traveler rolls up to the hostel without booking, and because there is vacancy the price is dropped to €16 per night so her three night stay costs €48 or €27 less for the same accommodation. Then these two travelers chat over a beer and one learns that they paid 30% more, which they take up with the hostel who won’t adjust the price leaving the traveler feeling unsatisfied with the hostel.  There is an opposite scenario in which the traveler does not book online and she rolls up to find vacancy and she gets stuck paying a lot more for an alternate accommodation.  With a little thought this situation is easy enough to navigate thus putting yourself in the best situation and most likely saving some money.

Here is what to think about to decide if you should book or not.

1. The time of the year: High season in Europe is between late May and August when the majority of students and recent graduates are traveling for the summer.  March to May and Sept to October fluctuates from dead to slamming.  November to February with the exception of Christmas and New Years, depending on the city, is usually the most quite time of the year.  Of course this scenario is flipped for places that thrive in the winter such as ski towns.
2. The time of the week: I know that when you are on the road for a month that everyday is Friday, but weekends need to be considered as they are busier because study abroad students travel more on weekends; hotels have less capacity thus giving budget travelers fewer options; people like to stay put for a weekend thus resulting in fewer beds because of less turnover.
3. The city: Some cities are just more busy than others.  Plus, in major cities there is a chance that a convention, concert, holiday or sporting event could fill room capacity which will again shove more budget travelers to hostels.
4. How popular is the hostel:  The more popular a hostel the more likely it is to be booked, but don’t take this for granted.  I suggest going to www.hostelworld.com and www.hostelbookers.com to read the most recent reviews.  Also, ask around when you are on the road (i.e. receptionists, tour guides, other travelers, etc) because you will get a more candid picture from someone who has stayed there rather than online reviews.  Its for this reason why keeping your options open is more desirable because there would be nothing worse than booking a lemon hostel three months prior  only to find out that two blocks away is currently the funnest hostel in Europe.
5. Hostel capacity: Size matters!  A lot of great hostels have reputations that are far larger than their capacity.  Examples of this are Mambo Tango in Barcelona and The Beehive in Rome, which have great and well deserved reputations but not a lot of beds.  Other hostels like The Pink Palace, Balmer”s and the Generator are massive.
6. Type of room needed (dorm, single, quad): Along with size, most hostels will only have a few doubles, triples or quads so they will be harder to get without booking.
7. Number of spaces needed: How many people are you traveling with?  Of course single travelers will have an easier time than a group of 6 or more.
8. Your risk tolerance: Can you take not knowing?  Are you flexible?  That is for you to decide.

Back of the napkin calculation that could save you money if you book when you don't need to.

Full disclosure, iKangaroo uses hostelworld.com as the booking engine on this site.

Okay, from here you may have decided to book a hostel.  Great!  But now which booking system to use?  All are basically the same in terms of providing a secure and reliable reservation.  Between HostelWorld.com (HW) and HostelBookers.com (HB) it is hard to tell a difference except that HB does not charge a booking fee and HB has a more detailed rating system of each of its properties.  Hostelworld is a much bigger organization and is the market leader and as such hostels commonly allocate them more beds, which means a better chance of getting a booking and a wider selection.  But wait, not so fast, shop around because one site may have a better deal than another.

Three Examples:

1. Oops Hostel in Paris, a new and well located hostel that is becoming more popular.  I did a search for May 25, 2009 (two months in advance, high season, popular city and hostel) for one person for 7 nights and the best deal I got was through HostelBookers and the Oops website, with HW coming in €8.50 more expensive total.
2. Home Hostel in Valencia Spain for May 25, 2009 for 7 nights (two months in advance, high season, less popular city, popular hostel).  I found capacity on each website for a number of dorm rooms.  At this place HostelBookers had the best prices on 12 and 16 person dorms at €11.20 compared to €13 on HostelWorld, which when the €1.50 HW service charge is factored in turned out to be €14 more expensive.  Surprisingly Likeathome.com was more expensive again.
3. One last example to show that HW is not always more expensive and that it behooves you to shop around is Balmer’s Herberge in Interlaken Switzerland.  Balmer’s is one of Europe’s anchor hostels that has maintained a good reputation over the years. Again a search showed that HW was more expensive on the dorm rooms, but it was much less expensive for private and smaller rooms by at least 30%.  Since the Balmer’s website is supported by Hostelworld, which is common, the website had the same prices as Hostelworld.

If you decide to book it is in your best interest to shop around. As you can see prices vary.

The current economy is presenting some great bargins for everyone, including for budget travelers.  Over the past 10 years websites like hostelworld.com and hostelbookers have been instrumental in helping the idustry grow and they continue to do a great job of serving hostels and travelers, but right now it is in your best interest to shop around and possibly just try show up in a city to get the best deal.  That is how they did it in the 90’s and it worked just fine with a lot fewer beds.

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