The Hostel Booking System (HBS) FAQ

This is a free service to hostellers and participating hostels. It allows travelers to book beds at your hostel, pay for the entire amount, confirm the reservation and put the money in your account. We use the term free because there is no service or commission charged by us to the hostel or to the traveler. However there is the usual nominal service charge for clearing credit card payments of a few percentage points.

Why is this Hostel Booking Engine different from all the other booking engines?
Rather than take a commission and send the hostel a reservation, this service collects the full payment and gives it to you. The user pays up front to you. You keep control of this system. All websites and emails will always be available. At any point, the traveler has full access to information. You have TWO choices now: use the old booking engines – they take their commission and service charge and send you a note that they made a reservation for you. Or use this new one – you receive a notice that you’ve received the payment in full.

Wait a minute – so what’s in it for the Handbook?
The Handbook gets more exposure. The hostels get more exposure. The traveler gets more information and more service. I believe this is the way the internet is suppose to function. It should open doors and provide information

What do I have to do to use the service?
To be eligible, you must have a linked Hostel Handbook logo on your homepage (available at www.hostelhandbook.com/hbs). To use the service you must have a free Paypal account. (This is easy to set up at www.paypal.com.) Let me know that those two things are in place and I will set up your account.

How do people find this service?
Participating hostels will have a “Book Now” button by their listings in the Hostel Handbook. In the published edition, these hostels will have an icon indicating they can book online at Hostel Handbook Online. Participating hostels can also place a “Book Now” button for their own website. This is an optional service and we provide the technical assistance to set it up. When the traveler clicks on a “Book Now” your website, they go to your Hostel Booking System page.

What is Paypal and why do I have to have an account there?
Paypal was set up to service Ebay users. However, now it is a worldwide service used by a wide variety of individuals and small businesses. It allows almost anyone to accept credit card payments from anywhere. We were able to set up this simple and easy to use system because of the free service Paypal provides at a nominal clearance fee of around 3% and up (the fee varies by amount - the larger the payment -- the lower the clearance fee).

How does Paypal work?
You set up an account at www.paypal.com. It is free. The account is based on your email address. You can access your account by entering your user name (your email address) and your password. This Paypal account can be linked to a bank account if you like. When someone makes a credit card payment at Paypal the funds (less the small clearing commission) are deposited in your Paypal account.

If I already have a Paypal account can I simply use the same one?
Absolutely. However, you may want to set up a second Paypal account to separate the hostel accounting. If you also have my logo on your homepage you’re ready to start NOW.

How do I get my money from Paypal?
Log into your account and transfer the money to your bank account (free). Or log into your account and request a check (a small charge). You can do this as often as you like.

About this booking service, how do I control the number of beds etc?
You have a separate username/password for our Hostel Booking Engine. You can enter your page and set up your bed-loads for the next 12 months. The month for one year in advance is added at the beginning of each month. We have set up a model month which allows you to customize a template for your desired bed-loads. That template will be applied to each new month. Of course, you can go in and manually modify as you like.

What about security? Is Paypal safe?
Paypal is like any other online financial service. It is secure. However, there are constant scams online to try to get your passwords to access your online accounts. You should follow the same precautions that you do with your other online financial services like banks and credit cards. Never respond to an email from Paypal by clicking on a link in the email. (This is also true for emails from your bank or credit card company). It is usually a false link to a site set up to harvest your access information. If you need to access your Paypal Account (or your bank or credit card company online accounts) always enter the web address using your keyboard – never via a link. It is common to receive emails warning, “Your National Bank account has been compromised – click on the link below immediately and confirm your access information” or “We have just added your new address for your Paypal account – if you did not authorize this change click on the link below.” NEVER CLICK ON A LINK IN AN EMAIL. IT IS A SCAM! If you think the email might be serious (I’ve never seen one that was) – close the email and enter your online financial account directly using your keyboard.

Will the Handbook have access to my Paypal account?
Absolutely Not! Once you leave the Hostel Booking Engine, you enter the Paypal site. Our only contact with Paypal will be confirmation that the transaction was completed so we can deduct the beds from your bed-loads.

WOW! This sounds too good to be true. How do I start?
You have to set up the Paypal account. And you have to set up the logo for the Handbook on your webpage. To set up the Paypal account, go to www.paypal.com and follow the instructions for setting up a basic free account. To put the handbook logo on your homepage, simply go to www.hostelhandbookcom/logo and capture the logo on that page. Paste it on your homepage and link it to www.hostelhandbook.com. (Or do as I do and ask you the person who does your webpage to do it for you!!!)

Then send me an email and let me know you’re set up. I will give you the login info. This will come with an initial password which you can change. Then you’re in business. It’s that simple.

So after it’s set up and working, what do I have to do?
Occasionally you have to move the money from your Paypal account to your bank account. At the first of each month you want to check the bed-loads for the new month a year in advance. When someone uses the service, you will receive a notice from Paypal regarding the payment. You can use this Paypal notice to adjust your in- house reservation log. Clicking on reply to this Paypal notice will result in an email form to the traveler. It’s a good idea to copy a standard note to the traveler acknowledging the reservation. At anytime you can log into your Paypal account and review your payment history. At any time you can log into your Hostel Booking Engine page to check your bed-loads. For instance, someone says, “I sent you a payment but I haven’t heard anything” – you can log into your Paypal account to confirm payment for that person. You will also be able to log into your HBS page and review activity.

What about Refunding payments?
The Hostel Booking Online service allows you to customize your Refund Policy. When the traveler makes the payment and receives the confirmation, the Refund Policy is copied onto the confirmation letter. There’s a similar feature for travel directions that is also copied onto the confirmation.

Go to www.hostelhandbook.com/hbs. Have a look at the sample listings page. If you don’t believe it, pull out your credit card and check into Jim’s Cyber Hostel. I think you’ll agree that this is a sweet system.