The 2010 Hoscars Award Ceremony

For the past 8 years, HostelWorld has recognized the top 10 hostels worldwide with the best reviews on its website with the annual Hoscars Awards Ceremony (HOStelworld Customers Annual Ratings). I was invited by HostelWorld to attend this year’s event last week at The Button Factory in Dublin, Ireland. The Hoscars is essentially a big party to honor the hostels that are ranked the highest in a number of categories like Most Improved, Cleanest, and Best Staff in additional to the top 10 overall worldwide.

The Hostel Owners

I was surprised to see how many young hostel owners and staff there were, many of them current or former backpackers themselves. They were very keen on maintaining and improving upon their reputations in their respective categories and the other hostels not on any of the lists were looking toward 2011. The hostel owners and staff take the reviews of their hostels seriously and the Hoscars seem to benefit hostels and hostelers alike.

The Top 10 Hostels Worldwide

I’ll introduce you a bit more to these hostels later in the week, which are overwhelmingly based in Europe. The results were based on over a million user reviews of 23,000 hostels featured on HostelWorld.

1. Traveller’s House – Lisbon, Portugal
2. Rossio Hostel – Lisbon, Portugal
3. Living Lounge Hostel – Lisbon, Portugal
4. Academy Hostel – Florence, Italy
5. Carpe Noctem – Budapest, Hungary
6. The Riverhouse Backpackers – Cardiff, Wales (Also voted best staff. Find out why in this Guardian article by Dixe Wills.)
7. Lisbon Lounge Hostel – Lisbon, Portugal
8. Greg & Tom Hostel – Krakow, Poland
9. The Naughty Squirrel Backpackers Hostel – Riga, Latvia
10. Lisboa Central Hostel – Lisbon, Portugal

I would like to have seen hostels representing a wider global reach. While Europe is certainly a very popular area of the world for backpackers, I’m sure there are excellent and unique hostels from other parts of the world that simply didn’t get enough volume of votes.

The HostelWorld Hostel Conference

The Hoscars were only one part of a 2-day HostelWorld hostel conference revolving around how hostel owners can better use social media to engage travelers. The discussions revolved around what travelers want (i.e. booking very last minute and family rooms) and accommodating the newest backpacking nationalities (Brazilians are climbing the list fast).

Hostel Feedback

Often travelers don’t regard hostels as businesses and neglect to leave feedback online or in person during and after their stays. I tried to speak with as many of the 400 hostel owners in attendance as I could and almost all seemed receptive to comments and complaints – but noted that backpackers in general don’t make their concerns known immediately.

That the top hostels are recognized both globally and locally by events like the HostelWorld Hoscars pushes the receptive hostel industry in the right direction, opens up budget travel to more people, and improves it for current backpackers.

Backpacking Basics Part 3: What Is A Hostel?

This is the third part of 5 in a series of backpacking basics. You can catch up with Part 1 (What Is Backpacking?) and Part 2 (Picking The Right Backpack) if you missed them.

Almost an integral part of backpacking and the culture behind it is the hostel. A hostel is basically a low budget lodging option, generally where you share a room with 4-12 people. Hostels are plentiful in many cities around the world and geared towards backpackers offering things that most hotels charge extra for like wireless Internet access and last minute booking.

Why A Hostel?

Hostel rooms in Europe, for example, run about 10-15 Euros a night compared to 80 for a hotel. Most people choose to stay in a hostel for the lower prices, community atmosphere, and their unique character. Hostels are where most backpackers stay if they’re booking accommodations and they’re a great way to meet other people of like minds.

Most Hostels Have…

Hostels, much like hotels, vary quite a bit in their offerings but here are some pretty consistent things you’ll find across most.

• Sharing a Room and Bathrooms – Many hostels do also have private rooms for one or two people for a bit more cost but almost always less than a hotel.
• Booking A Bed, Not A Room – When you book a hostel, typically you’re reserving a bed not a room. That means if you’ll be traveling in a group and want to stay with your friends, depending on how the beds are filled you might not be in the same room. (It’s rare this happens in groups of 4 or less.)
• A Kitchen (For You To Use) – It’s cheaper and healthier to go grocery shopping and cook at the hostel. Most also have a fridge and places to store your extra food.
• Quiet Hours – You might be worried about sleeping in a room with 12 other people but most hostels implement “quiet hours” between reasonable hours of 10pm and 8am. Here’s a guide to sleeping in hostels.
• Free Wi-Fi – The access point is usually open and you don’t have to register or jump through hoops to get online. That makes it much easier to use wi-fi with your mobile device or iPhone without breaking the bank.
• Tours and Local Travel Information – You can stay in a hostel and still take an organized tour if you like and often the prices are lower than booking elsewhere since many hostels work with local vendors.
• Helpful (Understanding) Staff – People working at hostels know many of their customers are on a very tight budget and will let you know where to eat, drink, and entertain yourself for less.

Many people who’ve never stayed in a hostel have a number of misconceptions and one of them is that all the people who stay in hostels are seasoned travelers who never do any ‘regular’ travel stuff. In a lot of ways staying in a hostel isn’t all that different from staying in a hotel.

What Hostels Are Not

Quite a few people are afraid to stay in hostels due to several misconceptions about them. Most of them revolve around the idea that hostels are huge parties full of 20 year old drunk backpackers. While there are definitely “party hostels” and you can easily find out which ones they are by reading the reviews on the site you’re booking through.

One thing to remember is there are a variety of hostels – you can find the right one for you.

How To Book A Hostel

There are two major websites to search when looking for hostels before your next trip. It’s not all that different from booking a hotel on Kayak, Travelocity, or any other online travel agent.

• HostelWorld – Works with over 23,000 hostels around the world and they just rated the best hostels of 2009. (There’s also a Hostelworld iPhone app.)
• Hostelbookers – Also has a large collection of hostels and you can search both to compare prices (sometimes they vary).

Once you do find a hostel you can also try Googling them to see if they’ve got a website and perhaps some special offers for particular dates or if you book directly through them.

The Easy Part

After the first time booking a hostel takes about 5 minutes online. It doesn’t take extensive research and you can get most of the information you need by reading the reviews of the hostel before booking or on sites like Hostelz. Finally, just like anything else, if you’re not happy or satisfied you can ask it to be fixed or for a refund. In the end hostels are businesses and a more normal experience than most imagine them to be.

Tomorrow in Part 4 we’ll get to the fun part of backpacking and some of the best places to start.

[photos by: mikeleeorg, nest hostels valencia, Dolarz]

Part 2 Of My Interview With Roger Middleton About RoomAtlas

On Monday I posted the first part of my interview with Roger Middleton who helped create the very useful Google Maps mashup RoomAtlas. I was lucky enough to get geeky with Roger about RoomAtlas over on the Tech Guide Of Travel (one of my other travel blogs) which is reserved for those type of things. It’s a slightly technical discussion but if you’re wondering how some of these nifty travel tech tools work, or are considering developing your own, you’ll find it a fun read.

Some Other Tech Guide For Travel Posts You May Find Interesting

• Comparing The Traveling eBook Readers: Amazon’s Kindle vs. Barnes & Noble’s Nook
• Luggage Limits Lets You Find Out Just That For Over 55 Airlines
• A Traveler’s Guide To Hacking Wireless Networks [Part 1 of 2]

I’ve written quite a few tech posts and interviews here on foXnoMad as well, including with Ben Kazez about the free iPhone app HotelPal and with Ray Carcoana about TravelHolic Confessions.

[photo by: visual.dichotomy]

A Chat With Roger Middleton About RoomAtlas, Hotel Booking Google Maps Mashup

Roger Middleton is one of the brains behind RoomAtlas, a very neat Google Maps mashup I think many of you will find useful. Roger was kind enough to set aside some time to answer some questions about how and why RoomAtlas might be part of your next hotel booking plans.

What is RoomAtlas?

RoomAtlas is the easiest way to find and book the right hotel, in the right location.

We plot 53,000 hotels on Google Maps, with color-coded markers showing live room prices and availability. To make the traveller’s life easier, we’ve built in everything needed to make the right choice – TripAdvisor reviews, Wikipedia landmarks, Google Street View, and more.

All the information you need to find the right hotel, all in one place.

How is RoomAtlas different than other online hotel locators?

We’re all about location: our interactive map shows hotels on the beach, near the shops or by the airport. We don’t force you to complete a form before seeing hotels, and we bring all the extra information (reviews, landmarks, photos) you might need under one roof.

Our interactive map is great for leisure travelers, and even better for business travelers – since they can enter the street address they’re visiting and view all nearby hotels. No more discovering the hotel you’ve booked is the other end of town from your office or conference.

Where did the idea for RoomAtlas come from?

We felt the standard, linear hotel booking process (completing a series of drop downs, leading to a list of hotels) could be improved.

There’s a huge amount of rich information out there, but until now it’s been scattered across the web. One might start with Expedia, then check location on Google Maps, TripAdvisor for reviews, Wikipedia for information about the area, Street View for a walk down the street… choosing the right hotel can be a time-consuming business!

We wanted our site to make it quicker and easier, by bringing all those information sources together. Instead of pages of results, we show the full range on Google Maps – and instead of our users consulting multiple other sites, we’ve built them in to RoomAtlas.

Where does RoomAtlas pull its data from?

We have over 53,000 hotels on our map, drawn from Expedia and Hotels.com. They provide us with live prices and availability, and handle bookings for peace of mind. There’s no premium for booking via RoomAtlas.

What’s your favorite single feature of RoomAtlas?

Hard to choose, but we think our color-coded hotel markers are pretty cool. They show live prices, right in the marker, and only appear on the map if the hotel is available for the user’s chosen dates. We have pins for low, medium and high priced hotels (with thresholds set by the area), and an orange pin for special offers.

When we saw them scattered across the map for the right time, we knew we had something our users would find useful.

Do you have any other upcoming projects or updates to RoomAtlas in the works?

We’re always working on new additions to RoomAtlas and have a ton of exciting projects under way, including a mobile app – watch our blog for new announcements!

We’ve actually just launched a new feature to allow users to create their own custom hotel maps, for events like conferences, sports events and weddings. They can then send these out to attendees, with a pin at the location of the event – and all available surrounding hotels shown on the map (e.g. http://www.roomatlas.com/e3expo). We’re pretty excited to see what our users do with that.

You can check out RoomAtlas for free. I’m  also excited to tell you that Roger will be getting geeky with me tomorrow and answering some questions as to how RoomAtlas works over on the Tech Guide For Travel.

Burn 50 Calories In 5 Minutes With This Hotel Room Workout

The frantic pace at which many travelers leave their hotels rooms is a source of anxiety and can encourage other unhealthy habits as well as increase your blood pressure. Rather, you can use this nervous energy and channel it for 5 minutes to burn a nice amount of calories without even leaving your hotel room.

It’s a simple workout that most anyone can do in the morning before hopping in the shower. For someone weighing 150 pounds (68 kilos) you’ll burn approximately 50 calories. The more you weigh the more calories (and stress) you’ll burn and get a great start to sightseeing.

Tips On Keeping the Pace Up

Before you get started here are a few things you can do to get yourself going for a full 5 minutes.

• Blast your iPod touch or find a good music channel on the TV. (India’s got loads of them.)
• Have an empty stomach (not even coffee)
• Remember, it’s only 5 minutes!

Minute 1 – Push Ups (9 Calories)

Do as many push ups as you can in 1 minute. As your arms get more tired you can switch from supporting yourself with your feet to you knees. If traditional push ups are too difficult just start on your knees and go as slowly as you need. The important thing is to keep moving for the entire minute and get your heart rate up.

Minute 2 – Jumping Jacks (9 Calories)

As soon as your minute of push ups is done, hop on to your feet and begin a minute of jumping jacks. Don’t stop! Keep moving and make sure your form is proper. That means keeping your back straight and your head up while at the same time keeping control over your extremities. Refrain from flailing your arms and legs about you wildly.

Minute 3 – Sit Ups/Crunches (9 Calories)

Lay down with your legs bent at a 90 degree angle (not under your butt or stretched out in front of you) and slowly lift yourself as far up as you can. You may get the feeling where – POOF! – you want to fall back down and lie flat. If that happens rest for a count to 3 and keep going for as long as you can. It’s only 60 seconds and you’re more than halfway done!

Minute 4 – Kick Your Knees Up (16 Calories)

Standing up straight, kick you knees up to your chest as high and fast as you can without losing your balance. You shouldn’t be stomping your feet so try to stay light on your toes. No matter what pace you maintain or how much you slow down, keep moving the entire time. It sounds easy now but on the 4th minute it can get tough. Find a good pace that works for you.

Minute 5 – Dance Your Heart Out (7 Calories)

Vigorous dancing in front of the TV or with your iPod touch on full blast is an excellent way to have some fun in the morning and burn a good amount of calories. Dancing around as silly as you want to be might also put you in a better mood for the rest of the day since you’ll be hard pressed to get your groove on without a smile. It’s even more entertaining if you’ve got someone to dance with.

Convert Your Energy

This is just one of the countless ways to get your heart rate up before leaving for a business meeting, a day of sightseeing, or before dashing out to the airport. You can add as much variation or duration to these exercises as you see fit to mix things up if they get boring.

Frequent flying puts a great deal of stress on the body and traveling can age you. Anxiety is a good source of energy if you know how to hone your stress to improve your travels and your health.

[photos by: ~ggvic~, practicalowl, apol-photography, bodhithaj, Marshall Astor - Food Pornographer, Chandra Marsono]

Use Corporate Discounts To Get Better Deals No Matter Who You Work For

Large hotel and car rental chains, as well as many airlines, all give corporate discounts for employees of large companies that most anyone can take advantage. Hotels, airlines, and other players in the travel industry typically give these discounts to entice the huge business a corporate partner can give them.

Since sales staff will rarely verify your employment by a corporate partner you can often get a corporate discount just by saying your work for (some specific) Fortune 100 company.

In addition to discounts, a corporate connection (or just by saying you have one) can get you bumped to the front of the line when there’s a shortage of rental cars or you’re a few behind first in the standby line. While I won’t debate the ethics of doing so, the best way to maximize your corporate discounts is to research ahead and not be shy to ask.

Pick Your Company

You’ll need a company that you’re an employee of but generally anyone on the Fortune 100 is a good bet.

Call Ahead

Prior to booking any hotel, rental car, or airline reservation give the specific branch a call directly and ask if they have a corporate discount. Don’t be shy and call around to see what’s available and which companies have agreements with which chains. No need to go into details of exaggerate (you’re just an employee, not the CEO).

• Don’t forget to check for conferences in and around town the dates you’ll be there. Hotels usually have discounted rooms for those attending corporate and private conferences (like Comic-Con). Do a simple Google search to find conferences of all sizes.
  

Head Of The Line

We’ve all seen chaos at ticket counters and hotel lobbies when things are overbooked. People go up to the clerk and fall back to the crowd in a rotating line of frustration. Using your corporate connection you can go up to the counter and get yourself bumped to the head of the line and maybe even get a better deal while you’re at it. Your ‘corporate discount’ may entitle you to an upgrade, so while all of the rooms are booked there might be a presidential suite you can afford.

• You’ll be more likely to get your way in any situation if you use Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to win battles at the ticket counter.

Sorry, We’re Out

A busy weekend where there are no rental cars, rooms, or flights available usually means not available for the general public. Companies usually set aside a certain number of cars, rooms, seats, etc. for valued members, which generally includes those with corporate connections. All you have to do is say you’re traveling for (insert Fortune 100 company here) and ask if there’s anything available for preferred customers.

• Don’t panic if you’re asked to show some proof of your employment. Just say you don’t have any – if that costs you a discount then so be it.

Keep A List

It’s best to be organized and keep track of which places gave you which discounts so you’ll have less reconnaissance to do next time you book. You can also try changing companies to see if perhaps some get better discounts than others.

Things To Remember:

• You don’t necessarily need to be wearing a business suit when you ask or when you show up.
• While large chains are usually a safe bet ask for corporate discounts and smaller hotels which may not advertise their corporate partnerships.

All You Have To Do Is Ask

You don’t have to wear makeup, change your voice over the phone, or come up with an elaborate story about how you became the most powerful person since Steve Jobs. It’s as simple as coming up with a company big you work for (whether you do or not) and asking if that hotel, rental car company, or airline offer a corporate discount. The worst that can happen is they don’t or won’t give you one which is where you’ll be if you never ask anyway.

[photo by: thinkpanama, Warder Jack, koalazymonkey]

My Interview with Ben Kazez About The Free iPhone App HotelPal

Ben Kazez is one of the developers of the FlightTrack iPhone application and recently developed HotelPal – a free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Ben was happy to answer a few questions about the application, another free and useful iPhone app for travelers.

In a Tweet of 140 characters or less, describe what HotelPal is.

Browse & search hotels worldwide with full-screen photos, live availability, rates and more. Then reserve the perfect room right in the app!

What advantage does HotelPal have over booking online before you get to your destination?

Our goal was to make it easier to book hotels on an iPhone than it is on a computer. Online travel sites typically try to sell you flights and rental cars along the way, display unhelpful extraneous info, and sort hotels in mysterious “Our Picks” orderings that actually reflect the amount of commission that the travel agency makes, not the value to the traveler. With HotelPal, we’ve trimmed it all down to provide just what you need. You can sort hotels by price or distance, compare locations on a map, and view important details from photos to amenities to live rates and availability.

Even better, HotelPal makes it possible to research travel plans from anywhere, with anyone — on a bus, while waiting in line, or elsewhere. It opens up all sorts of possibilities for travel planning.

Is HotelPal’s search limited to a certain set of hotels?

HotelPal includes over 100,000 hotels, inns, resorts, and B&Bs worldwide. You’ll be surprised just how many smaller, independent hotels are included. It’s not everything, but it’s among the most complete hotel databases available anywhere.

How does booking a hotel with HotelPal work?

To book, simply pick a room, type your billing info, and tap Book Now! Typing booking info on an iPhone keyboard isn’t fun, so we’ve added a unique feature called Secure AutoFill — choose a password and HotelPal saves your booking info for the future with secure encryption. It’s like keeping a credit card in your wallet, only more secure. After you’ve booked, it’s a simple tap to get directions from your current location to the hotel.

What about people who don’t have iPhones, anyway they can use or try out HotelPal?

Your best bet is probably to befriend an iPhone or iPod touch user. HotelPal does require an iPhone or iPod touch right now.

Anything else we should know about HotelPal?

It’s a free download, so give it a shot next time you traveling! We think you’ll love the full-screen photos — it’s amazing how much detail you can get about many hotels without having to scope out the places on foot.

What other projects are you working on next?

We’re always working on updates to FlightTrack, FlightTrack Pro, and HotelPal, as well as other helpful travel apps. Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter @Mobiata for the fastest updates!

Thanks for letting us know more about HotelPal – the app is free for both the iPhone and iPod Touch. If you have any more questions feel free to ask Ben in the comments below or add your own thoughts on HotelPal after giving it a shot.

Hotwire’s Hotel Rate Report

Consider the 10 cities with the biggest hotel rate drops in the US and Canada when searching for a new destination on a budget using Hotwire’s Hotel Rate Report. The report, released every month, shows the percentage drop as well as average hotel price for a given city. I came across this handy graph when writing about good hotel and hostel alternatives earlier this week.

The chart is just the thing when you’re planning a trip to somewhere you can’t figure out quite yet.

Planning on staying at a hotel in a (medium to large) city not on the list? Google around to see if there are any conferences in town and see if you can get a discount or consider a stay at a hostel.

Good Alternatives To Hotels and Hostels

There are plenty of ways to save money on flights but hotel prices vary widely and hostels may be crowded and lacking enough privacy for your tastes. Fortunately there are a number of good of hotel and hostel alternatives to consider if you’re looking to save on a family trip, or crash on somebody’s couch for free.

1. VRBO.com – Search through vacation rentals by owner (VRBO) and stay at apartments and houses put up for temporary rent. The starting prices are generally equivalent to a hotel and more expensive than a hostel, but you get the amenities of a full fledged home. VRBO is has a long list of offerings with pictures and rate details. There is usually a minimum stay of 3 nights with lower rates for longer stays. I’d suggest emailing the owner to bargain your way to a good price.
   • A major advantage of a vacation rental is that most places accept dogs and cats.
   • VacationRentals.com is another site similar to VRBO but with less offerings.
   • Consider putting your own place up for rental when you’re away traveling to raise funds for more trips.
2. CouchSurfing.com - Make arrangements and stay for free with participating members at homes around the world. Couch Surfing members vouch for each other to provide a trusted circle that helps you and your hosts stay safe. Couch Surfing is free but you’ll have to spend some time searching for and making arrangements with the hosts that accept you. This may involve meeting the person for coffee so they can get to know you a little better, but I’ve heard from countless people the process is usually a smooth one. It’s also a great way to meet other travelers and experience the local culture.

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A Guide To Sleeping In Hostels – [Part 2 of 2]

Yesterday, in part 1, Hostel Bloggers ran down some basic tips on booking and choosing a good hostel. Today, in the second part of their guest post they’ll help you understand shared rooms, how to pay, and some general pros and cons.

Decide What you Want!

What really makes a ‘good’ hostel, though, depends on what you want out of the trip. If you’re looking to party and meet new people, look for a hostel aimed at young travelers, with lots of social events.

Want a friendly, laid-back atmosphere? Then choose a smaller, independent hostel, which is less intimidating, especially if it’s your first time staying in this environment.

Each hostel has its own character – so it’s best to do a little bit of research to find the best place for you.

Private or Shared?

There are two different ends of the hostel room scale – from a basic bunk in a dorm with shared bathroom facilities to an en-suite private room or apartment with private living and kitchen space as well. Many hostels offer a range of mixed and single-sex dorms to choose from, and it’s always best to double check that the shared rooms have single bunks if you don’t fancy an unexpected bed mate…

Think carefully before choosing your room type to find the best value for money – you might like a bit of privacy on holiday, but do you really need an en-suite shower when you’ll only use it a few times a day?

Dormitories can be off-putting as large groups of friends can be split up and, ultimately, you can’t choose who you share with.

If other guests in your room are affecting your stay, you have every right to complain to the hostel manager – but in my experience travelers are usually considerate!

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