Hostelworld FAQ

Hostelworld provides 24/7 customer service:

• E-mail: support@hostelworld.com
• 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.

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 a canvas structure with a small bed and normally sleeps mixed genders.
• Double bed dorm rooms: Shared rooms with double beds.
• Gender-specific dorms: Female/Male only rooms.

Cloudbeds Channel Manager sends rates per person to Hostelworld.

For dorm room types, it sends the rate per bed, but for Private Rooms, Cloudbeds Channel Manager takes the rate and divides it by occupancy. See examples below:

Dorms

You have a 3 Bed Dorm, and the room rate is $15:

Cloudbeds Channel Manager takes 3 Bed Dorm Rate: $15 and because in Cloudbeds Channel Manager, 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:

Cloudbeds Channel Manager takes the Standard Double Room Rate of $30 and divides it 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 them to us because they do not have them.

• 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 you 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."

Cloudbeds Channel Manager 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 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 payment methods for bookings. The reservation can be hotel collect or channel collect depending on the settings and payment type chosen on the Hostelworld side:

• PayNow (Channel Collect) - with the PayNow or Channel Collect option, Hostelworld is responsible to collect the payment from your guests. This option is only available for non-refundable rates.

Hostelworld will directly charge 100% of the non-refundable booking value and transfer it to your account through a bank deposit every 14 days.

• Hotel Collect - with Hotel Collect Booking, your property is responsible for collecting payments from guests.

Depending on your policies on Hostelworld, you can charge your guest credit card (will be included in the reservation) or the guest will pay at your property in your local currency.

Configure Hostelworld PayNow reservation source in your property configuration settings by following this guide: Reservation Sources - Everything You Need to Know.

• 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 in this article: How do you sync rate plans to distribution channels?

Hostelworld supports:

• Cancellations
• Modifications
• Minimum length of stay
• Maximum length of stay
• Rate Plan Mapping
• Close Day (Stop Sell)
• Credit Cards

Hostelworld doesn't support:

• Close days for arrival
• Close days for departure