Stop booking hostels through the big sites, call them direct instead

I used to think the hostel search engines gave me the best deal, but after 6 trips in Europe last spring I added up the difference. Same bunk in a Prague hostel was $34 on the booking site, but calling the front desk got me the same bed for $24 with breakfast thrown in. The sites take a 15 to 20 percent cut from the hostel owners, so they bump the price to cover it. If you call ahead, they'd rather pocket the full amount and give you a break. I saved $90 across three cities just by making two minute phone calls in my rusty Spanish. A lot of smaller places won't even list their discounts online, they keep those for walk-ins and direct bookings. Has anyone else tried this with guesthouses or B&Bs, or is it just a hostel thing?

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nina_hall4815d ago

That "15 to 20 percent cut" part is the real kicker, I read a breakdown about it last year from a hostel owner in Lisbon. He said the big sites squeeze them so hard that they basically have to raise the online price just to break even. I tried this on a trip to Portugal and Spain back in September, called three places direct, and every single one matched or beat the site price. One guesthouse even gave me a corner room for less than the basic one listed online, just because I asked. So no, it's not just hostels, B&Bs are even more flexible since the owner is usually the one picking up the phone.