Published: 18 Aug 2008: HostelBookers.com has rolled-out videos of its properties, offering users as well as agents and operators a better experience on the website.
The UK-based budget accommodation website says it has set an industry first in the budget accommodation sector in doing so.
The company has undertaken the entire project in-house – from the recording to the editing – and will be opening the field up to user-generated content, and footage created by the properties themselves, in the near future. HostelBookers is planning to roll out as many videos of its properties as possible in the coming months.
The project enables a realistic view of the facilities and atmosphere of a property allowing agents to be best placed when recommending hostels to their customers.
HostelBookers also claims another budget sector first by teaming up with TripAdvisor, to promote a selection of the videos, which can be found at: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/members-videos/HostelBookers
Although the project is still in its infancy, HostelBookers says it has noted a slight uplift in bookings for those properties featuring video footage on their microsites.
HostelBookers´ Head of Ecommerce, Ed Goldswain said: "We were keen to produce a type of video that was in sync with our market and wanted to shoot the properties as they were, in a totally realistic fashion, without staging any of the shots. The videos form a major part of our ongoing quality assurance drive: the aim of the exercise, after all, isn´t to create a glossy ´sales´ video, but to be totally transparent and allow our customers to see more of what a property´s actually like before they book it."
Martin Verdon-Roe, Director of Sales, Europe for TripAdvisor said: "HostelBookers´ videos on TripAdvisor provide valuable content for our younger demographic by giving them a behind-the-scenes look at accommodations for budget travellers. Shot with a camera phone, travellers benefit from a real view of the properties, allowing them to select what best suits their needs."
