110-unit pod hostel: two categories, 33 ways to book
Updated: 4 days ago
110 sleeping cubes, 2 PMS categories — 33 ways to sell them. A good reservations agent sells the same room differently to different guests. GauVendi does that on the website, automatically. The rooms don't change; the pitch does.
On average, around €3 more for every direct online booking
Per 100 bookings in the same direct online channel:
Sales mix: 70 individualised feature or experience products · 30 plain categories.
38 of those 70 product bookings were above the relevant category price. At an average premium of around €7 on those bookings, the room-feature premium totalled around €259.
Additional-service upselling on individualised product bookings generated €50 more than additional-service upselling on comparable category bookings. Together with the room-feature premium: around €309 in additional premiums per 100 bookings.
Regular category upgrades and the usual sales of additional services come on top of these premiums.
A water view guests chose deliberately
In the feature analysis, water view was actively selected in 100% of bookings that included it. For corner cubes, the share was around 56%. These rates identify features guests deliberately chose.
Recorded room-feature premiums per night: €3 for a quiet cube, €2 for a water view and €1 for a corner cube, above the corresponding category reference price.
Similar cubes, different preferences
Windowless cubes and high floors each appeared around 50% more often in solo travellers' bookings than in the average booking. Couples accounted for 66% of bookings in the guest analysis, solo travellers 34%.
A feature one guest values may mean little to another. The hostel can offer the same cubes in different ways and let guests choose what matters to them.
33 products from the same sleeping cubes
An agent who sells room 12 as 'garden view' to one guest and 'next to the lift' to another still has one room 12. Every product draws on the same physical rooms and shares their availability. Availability and smart room assignment run automatically. Assignment is included and respects the booked features. More products add no manual inventory or assignment work. This city hostel uses Mews.
Guests can book a recommendation or choose a feature that matters to them. The variety sits behind the booking experience; it does not require every guest to configure a sleeping cube.
Price guest preferences and flexibility
You decide what guests pay to secure a quiet cube or water view. Guests who leave the assignment open give you more flexibility and can book at a lower price. Even similar sleeping spaces let you price individual preferences and flexibility. The measured premiums reflect this hostel's chosen strategy.
Giving guests choices they cannot find in a standard category listing creates a reason to book directly. Bookable preferences also save calls to reservations and reception. This property's online direct-booking share has at least doubled compared with the period before GauVendi.
Two questions for your IBE or CRS comparison
“How much additional premium do your customers earn per online booking from room features and increased additional-service sales, beyond their usual upselling?”
“What is your average look-to-book conversion rate, and how do you calculate it?”
Ask for both figures, the booking sample and the calculation. That shows what the technology actually delivers in sales.
Source: GauVendi Business Intelligence. Premiums are averaged across all online bookings analysed and expressed per booking and per 100 bookings for comparability.
Comments