Comparative Hostelworld/Hostelbookers

E-MARKETING & E-COMMERCE ASSIGNMENT

EMAR1A.R

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2

I/ INTRODUCTION 3

1) Hostelworld.com 3

2) Hostelbookers.com 3

3) Hostel Bookings Market 3

II/ COMPARISON OF THE WEBSITES 4

1) Contents of the websites and Navigation 4

2) User friendliness and graphics 11

3) Statistics of the website 12

III/ ANALYSE OF COMPANIES’S CONSISTENCY & E-ACTIVITIES. 13

1) Search Engine Marketing 13

2) The 5 I’s of the web-marketing 15

3) Hostelworld.com – Mission/Vision 16

4) Hostelbookers.com – Mission/Vision 16

IV/ CONCLUSION AND PERSONAL OPINION 17

BIBLIOGRAPHY 18

I/ INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, there is many different websites for people who desires to book hostels. These booking websites operate on the budget, youth and independent travel market. I am going to compare the two major players in this market: Hostelworld.com and Hostelbookers.com. I am first going to make a little historical overview of both websites and then I will make a developed comparison of the two websites. I will finish this comparison by analysing separately what they both have accomplished regarding their vision and mission.

1) Hostelworld.com

Hostelworld.com is a hostel booking website which was launched in 1999 by Ray Nolan and Tom Kennedy and based in Dublin. They decided to create this online reservation site in order to permit hostels to manage bookings online. They created the Web Reservation Online which is represented by their main website Hostelworld.com. Nowadays, the website is leading the market of online hostels bookings. It covers bookings from hostels to Bed & Breakfast and cheap hotels and currently contains over 25,000 accommodations in over 180 countries worldwide.

2) Hostelbookers.com

Hostelbookers.com is a hostel booking website launched in 2004 in order to provide to customers worldwide an...