HostelBookers.com

Introduction
We are doing a mini research project on e-Commerce transaction broker e-business model. E-Commerce transaction broker serves to reduce transaction costs and lower consumer’s search costs. The e-Commerce transaction broker we have decided to focus on in our study here is HostelBookers.com.

HostelBookers.com is an independent hostel-booking site based in London. It began in 2003 and aims to provide customers with a way to book the best budget accommodation all over the world with no booking fees. With youth hostels and cheap accommodation in over 2,500 destinations worldwide, it aims to be the number one website for backpackers and student travel, and every traveller looking for great budget accommodation. The website provides a selection of great hostels to fit all budgets and expectations. Also, to help travellers get the most out of their travels, the website has up-to-date travel guides, travel news and worldwide events.




Design
HostelBookers.com has a user-friendly interface. First time users of the website should find it easy to explore and can find the information they need with ease. In addition, the website is very interactive and entertaining in the sense that it has many pictures of both the hostels and the cities where they are located. Thus, it is not boring when surfing the website. In fact, just by looking at the pictures provided, we feel a sudden urge to travel too.





The booking and payment procedures are clear and straightforward. There is a summary of the booking generated right before the user proceeds with the payment. We feel that this is very useful as it prevents any errors that users may have made during booking.


Strengths
HostelBookers.com has a comprehensive customer ratings, feedbacks and reviews page for hostel bookers. It provided detailed information of the hostels such as their facilities and directions to the hostels from train stations or airports. There are different forms of maps provided.




Using the interactive street maps, we can “explore” the streets surrounding the hostel and see the true view of what is like around the area. However, such features are only available for hostels located in Europe, UK and US. While surfing for hostels in Bangkok, we found that there are no interactive street maps available.



Moreover, Hostelbookers.com allows users to compare among different hostels conveniently. It lists out all the hostels within the city of choice, with their prices and customer ratings displayed clearly in one page. This enables the users to be able to find the best hostels they desire based on either price or customer rating just by looking through one page, thus saving time and lowering the user’s search costs.




Weaknesses
While HostelBookers.com is an international website, it only displays the various prices in the following currencies: Argentine Pesos, Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, British Pounds and US Dollars. Hence, for those countries that do not use these currencies, the people there have to take the trouble to convert the prices into their own currencies in order to see if the prices are within their budgets. Some may find this troublesome.

Furthermore, the website does not provide a lot of information about the cities and towns where the hostels are located in. Information such as the places of interest is not available to the users, whereas in other competitors’ sites, such information is readily available.

Privacy and Security
HostelBookers.com has a privacy policy. It respects the privacy of all users and is committed to safeguard their personal information.

Moreover, in order to provide users with optimum service, the website uses ‘Cookies’. ‘Cookies’ are a feature of web browser software, which allows web servers to temporarily store information within the browser. ‘Cookies’ allow the website to obtain information regarding the users, which essentially helps them to provide the users with better experience and tailor the services to their needs. HostelBookers.com do not store and record any passwords or other highly sensitive data.

Conclusion
We think that HostelBookers.com is a very successful e-Commerce transaction broker. Users of this website can do and find their stuff easily and fast. This is important for there are many other competing hostels booking websites. With its strengths, it should still be able to attract many customers, who seek for time and cost saving deals on the Internet.