The Best Hostel Management Software of 2023
By Jordan Hollander
Last updated March 09, 2023
5 min read
Are you new to the hostel industry? Or perhaps looking to upgrade your hostel’s tech stack? Any person or website that presents just one kind of hostel software has completely missed the mark. Anyone who's been in this business knows that hostels require several different types of software to run properly.
Whether you’re managing a hostel on the beach, in a city, or in a far-flung destination, technology can unlock more revenue and operational efficiency when you choose your software wisely. With the right tech in place, you can automate repetitive tasks and reduce the risk of manual errors, which lets your team focus on nurturing relationships with guests and building community.
Hostels have unique technology requirements that differ from traditional hotels due to their specific business model and target market. A hostel management software that includes features such as property management system, booking engine, reservation system, channel manager, and revenue management is essential. A user-friendly and efficient front desk and check-in system, pricing and revenue management strategies, direct bookings, OTA integration, and payment processing and invoicing functionality are also critical components. Hostel management systems should enable upselling opportunities and provide high-quality customer support to enhance guest experience and ensure maximum profitability.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to the essential software categories that will allow you to take your hostel’s operations to the next level. We then use advanced filters on HotelTechReport.com to search these categories for the most popular and highest rated tools by hostels specifically.
Property Management System
Any software search in hospitality should start with a property management system, or a PMS, and this holds true for hostels as well despite their unique characteristics (multi-bed, multi-booking occupancy). This software is the “mission control” of your operations, with functionality to support reservation creation and management, guest details, room and bed status, billing, and integrations with other on-premise technology. Property management systems are common in the hotel industry, but not all PMSs have the functionality that hostel operators need. A PMS that works for hostels, such as Cloudbeds and WebRezPro, will support not only room inventory, but also bed inventory that you can designate as male, female, or mixed. This functionality will allow you to not only keep tabs on available bed and room inventory, but also book reservations for a specific bed.
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Channel Manager
Most hostels receive reservations through third-party channels, such as Booking.com or Expedia, also known as online travel agencies (OTAs). It’s possible to manually update rates and inventory on these sites, but that’s far from the most efficient way to run your hostel. Instead, you can use a channel manager, like SiteMinder or RateGain, to seamlessly push your availability and rate data to these third-party channels. When you get a reservation on a third-party, the reservation data will flow through your channel manager to your PMS, taking that bed or room out of inventory. You'll also need connections to popular hostel booking websites like Hostel Geeks and Hostelworld.
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Website & Booking Engine
Third-party channels can be expensive, and it can be difficult to fully communicate the uniqueness of your property on these sites. Therefore, many hostels want to get more direct reservations, in which guests book on your own website. Setting up a website can be easy enough, but the key is to allow guests to book reservations on your site. The technology that makes these direct reservations possible is a booking engine.
A booking engine displays your rates and availability (from your PMS) and allows guests to enter their dates, number of guests, bed preferences, and other relevant details, before showing available beds or rooms that fit the search criteria. Guests can then select the option they want to book, enter their personal and payment details, and click “confirm.” The reservation flows back through your booking engine into your PMS, and you’ve secured a booking free of any OTA commission. Booking engine vendors invest in making their software user-friendly so your website can benefit from a strong conversion rate. A high-quality booking engine will also be mobile-friendly so that guests can easily book from a smartphone or tablet. Many PMSs have integrated booking engines and website builders that you can activate with just a few clicks, while others support integrations.
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Guest Messaging Software
A fantastic way to leverage technology to eliminate manual labor is to automate guest communication with a guest messaging system. Again, some PMSs have this feature built-in, but other vendors, like ALICE and Whistle, specialize in guest messaging. In your software’s dashboard, you can configure message templates to send on a set schedule via email or SMS. You can also track open rates and engagement to monitor whether guests are receiving and reading your messages. For instance, you might want to send an automatic confirmation email after a booking is made. Then on the day before check-in, you might want to send an SMS with detailed arrival instructions. Maybe you even want to text guests on the afternoon of check-in to invite them to your nightly happy hour. Without messaging software, you or your front desk team would need to send these messages manually. Messaging software alleviates this manual load and strengthens your relationships with your guests.
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Revenue Management Systems
While there's lots of revenue management overlap between hostels and regular hotels, hostels have different revenue management system needs compared to traditional hotels due to their different pricing strategies, guest demographics, room types, and booking patterns. Hostels require revenue management systems that can adapt to changing demand, manage inventory effectively, and price rooms appropriately to attract price-sensitive guests while still generating revenue.
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Mobile Key & Contactless Check-in
Mobile keys are increasingly essential for hostels due to their high volume of guests and fewer staff members, leading to more congestion at check-in and check-out times. Unlike traditional hotels, hostels may have multiple guests arriving at different times, which can cause congestion at the front desk. The mobile key technology allows guests to bypass the front desk and go straight to their rooms using their mobile devices, reducing wait times and minimizing congestion. This feature is particularly important for hostels with a large number of dormitory-style rooms and shared bathrooms, as it reduces the need for staff to monitor access to these areas. Additionally, with fewer staff members available to manage guest access, mobile keys offer a secure and convenient solution for guest access to their rooms. Mobile keys provide a fast, convenient, and secure way for hostel guests to access their rooms, which is critical for ensuring a positive guest experience in a high-traffic environment.
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Payment Processor & Accounting Software
Now that you’re getting reservations, how do you collect payment? If your PMS doesn’t include one, you’ll need to set up a payment processor to collect funds from guests’ credit cards and transfer those funds to your bank account. Payment processors, like Stripe, Planet and Adyen, can integrate with your PMS or POS for effortless credit card charging. Then once you’ve collected funds, you need to keep track of where that money is going. Some accounting software, like QuickBooks, is industry-agnostic, while others, like Xero or Inn-Flow, are hospitality-specific. Within your accounting tool, you can draw up invoices, bill vendors, and run financial reporting.
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Point of Sale System
Besides a PMS, if your hostel sells any type of food, drinks, merchandise, or tickets, or charges fees for linens, laundry, or lockers, then you’ll want to use a point of sale system to handle billing and collect payments. Some property management systems have a POS built in, while others support POS integrations. With a PMS and POS integration, you have the option to add charges to a guest’s folio so they can pay for all purchases (room rate, F&B, merchandise, and more) in one transaction upon checkout. Many modern POSs, like Micros and Clover, accept not only credit cards, but also contactless payment options like ApplePay and Google Pay, so that guests can pay using their preferred method.
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Although these are the most critical pieces of software for managing hostels, the list of tech solutions doesn’t end here. Other common software tools include contactless check-in kiosks, keyless smart locks, reputation management systems, housekeeping management systems, and more. But it’s not about the number of systems in your tech stack, it’s about how you use them. Your technology should enhance your hostel’s guest experience, not over-complicate it.