If you have ever booked your stay in a hostel online, chances are you did it through a major Internet Hostel Booking site such as Hostelworld.com or Hostelbookers.com. There are a lot of companies in the hostel booking game; but these two are the “big boys” on the block.
These booking companies maintain an enormous data base of virtually every hostel in the world. Infoprmation on just about any hostel can be gleaned from this single source and youcan check outlocation, facilties, services and ratings. In many cases, a hostel’s ratings is the determining factor in a decision to make a booking. But quite often the ratings can be misleading.
It might seem a little odd that we would mention that, because the ratings for our hostel (Canadiana Backpacker’s Inn) are consistantly high. (Approval rating currently 87% on Hostelworld; 89% on Hostelbookers).These ratings are very important for hostel business. A hostel with a consistantly poor rating will almost certainly soon close down.
So what can be misleading about our consistantly high rating? We strive to please our guests and maintain our rating. In fact, only a rating of 100% is beneficial to us.
But we think we deserve to be higher. Please look at the example of the ratings below then hear me out.
This comment was left on Hosteworld.com by a Swiss guest: “It is exactly the kind of service you want in a hostel. Clean rooms, a nice kitchen and a lot of young travelers. “ , her rating: 80%.
A rating of 80% sounds good, but the reality is that it actually hurts us. It brings our overall average down. In fact, it is 7% less than our average rating.
On very rare occasions in the past, we have been reluctantly obliged to ask a guest to leave our hostel for offenses like and disorderly conduct; theft; aggression towards other guests or similar offenses. If they booked through a booking site, you can imagine what their “ratings” for us look like.
The bottom line is that any rating below our current average is damaging to us. So, if you liked us, please keep that in mind.