Ah, the wonders of A/B testing. I was fortunate enough to come across a B version of their testing and wow, what an improvement. You can paste “http://t.hostelworld.com/?home=1&test=b” into your browser and see for yourself.
It might not work for every hostel; it could be implemented regionally and might not be compatiable with hostels with old smaller photos. But just to be safe, there are some page images below.
I was looking up a mate’s hostel “CabanaCopa Hoste”l in Rio de Janeiro and was surprised with the layout. It was way more modern, responsive, and well contained. The booking process only takes two pages and all the info was laid out and easy to find. Design wise, one can say that they got some inspiration from HostelRocket and content wise, they could be taking hints from Booking.com. Whatever it comes from, keep up the good work.
It is about time the pages had a reasonable face-lift, as did the index page not too long ago. It plays nicely with their new branding as well. What does this mean for you? Well, if you have many modern, high resolution images you’ll be ready for when this site, or another close to it is implemented for your hostel. If you don’t, well get at it buddy. The new photos can’t take them-selves. Booking.com and Expedia also play the nicest with properties that have many high resolution photos. So you are only doing yourself, and your guests a favor.
Take a look and see for yourself. Click the images for a closer look:
Unfortunately for Hostelworld, I did not make a booking, so the analytics and conversion rate for the B test could be off. Oopsie.
