In this article you can find the most frequently asked questions about Hostelworld. See How to connect Hostelworld to Cloudbeds PMS for more details about the connection process.
If you don't find the answer that you're looking for, reach out to our Support Team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hostelworld provides 24/7 customer service:
- Phone: +353 (0) 1 5245800
- E-mail: customerservice@hostelworld.com
- There is also a useful FAQ section here: https://hwhelp.hostelworldgroup.com/hc/en-us
Private Room/Family room/Apartment
An accommodation where you will need to book the entire room.
Example: Three guests booking a four-bed private room need to select and pay for four guests if they wish to have a private room.
Private rooms can be classified in the following sub-types:
- Double Room: Has 1 bed which sleeps 2 people. Only 2 people can sleep in a double room.
- Twin Room: Has 2 beds and sleeps 2 people only.
If your guests set their preference to a private room and there is no private room available, the website will offer them the best alternative available.
Dorm Room
The room has multiple beds and can be shared with people who are not traveling together. They usually have bunk-style beds. Dorms can also be sub-classified into:
- Tent: Can be found in any property type classified as Campsite. It has canvas structure with a small bed and normally sleep mixed genders.
- Double bed dorm rooms: Shared rooms with double beds.
- Gender-specific dorms: Female/Male only rooms.
Myallocator (Channel Manager by Cloudbeds) sends rates per person to Hostelworld.
For dorm room types it sends the rate per each bed but for Private Rooms, myallocator takes the rate and divides it by occupancy. See examples below:
Dorms
You have a 3 Bed Dorm and the room rate is $15:
Myallocator takes 3 Bed Dorm Rate: $15 and because in myallocator, occupancy for Dorms means beds, it sends $15 for each bed.
- Bed 1: $15
- Bed 2: $15
- Bed 3: $15
Hostelworld shows the Rate per Bed as $15 - Easy and correct!
Private Rooms
You have a Double Room and the room rate is $30:
Myallocator takes the Standard Double Room Rate of $30 and divides by the occupancy of 2.
The rate of $30 divided by the occupancy of 2 = Cloudbeds sends $15 rate per person to Hostelworld.
For PCI compliance, Hostelworld does not store CVV codes, so they can not provide it to us because they do not have it.
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If you are using a payment gateway: It depends on both the gateway company and the security settings the individual accounts have enabled. A lot of gateways allow you to charge without the CVV code. Please contact the payment gateway company directly for further details.
- If you are not using a payment gateway: Contact the guest directly to request this information, if desired.
Stop Sell is a rate plan restriction that is commonly used by OTAs/properties. It allows to stop selling rooms on individual rate plans for a time of the property's choosing.
When you click on this feature on your Hostelworld extranet, you'll notice this warning: "The Stop Sell functionality should be handled through your Channel Manager."
Myallocator only supports managing one rate plan (base rate). Meaning, when a room is marked as closed, it closes the availability for all Hostelworld rate plans.
Zero availability = all rooms occupied
Stop sell (Closed availability) is the same as sending 0 availability, however, the reason for the flag is so that you do have to overwrite your typical inventory for that day.
- If you typically sell 10 rooms, but maybe there is a temporary reason that you need to close off that day(s) - like maintenance - you can set the flag which will overwrite the 10 rooms of inventory.
- If the maintenance issue is fixed and you can start selling rooms for a date again you simply delete the flag and you are able to immediately sell 10 rooms again.
In short, it's a way to overwrite inventory to zero, but still, retain the original count in the "background" in case you want to lift the stop sell.
Hostelworld offers two methods of payment for their bookings:
- PayNow (Channel Collect) - Hostelworld collects the payment from your guests
- Hotel Collect - you charge your guests directly.
Visit this article to learn more.
- If you do not set anything on Cloudbeds PMS, Hostelworld will default the Min LOS to 1 and the Max LOS to 14
- The lowest Min LOS and Max LOS that can be received by Hostelworld is 1.
- The highest Min LOS and Max LOS that can be received by Hostelworld is 14.
- So if you have Min LOS or Max LOS higher than 14 set on your Cloudbeds account, Hostelworld will default to 14 due to the limitation on their side.
You can sync your Cloudbeds PMS Rate Plans & Packages with Hostelworld. Check further information on this article: How to sync Rate Plans to Distribution Channels?
