Current
Participating Hostels
None
yet! What ARE they thinking?
As
hostel managers join in and participate in this free service
offering for travelers on WiseNomad.com, travelers will
be able to initiate and carry on a conversation with an
actual person at the front desk of any hostel in the world
through an instant messager application. You ask them a
question, and they can respond a few seconds later. It's
like a phone call, but you have to type instead of talk...
and it's free communication from anypoint in the world to
any other point.
Hostels
can staff this thing as little or as much as they want using
their current front desk person. If they're away from the
desk or gone for the night, it will take a message. If the
front desk person is busy, it will tell the traveler to
try back in five minutes. It's designed to simulate the
experience of actually standing there at the front desk.
In addition to the free aspect (Free for hostels to set-up,
free for hostels to use, and free for travelers to interact
with the hostels), this application from HumanClick
enables one front desk person to simultaneously interact
with 3 or 4 travelers. You can't do that on the phone.
How
will this help both
travelers and hostels alike?
Pay
for Reservations - Need to pay for the reservation
when you book it. Use PayPal
and keep your credit card number to yourself. You just
instant message your email address to the hostel and tell
them to bill your PayPal account, or you can send the
agreed upon amount to their email address. Simple, safe,
free, and it ensures the hostel that they will get their
money.
Get
Answers from those who Know - Seasoned travelers know
that the best resource for getting the scoop on what to
do and where to go while on the road is other travelers
at hostels. This is precisely why travelers prefer to
stay at hostels. You'll learn more about a destination
speaking for twenty minutes over a beer to other travelers
who've spent some time there than you could ever possibly
find in a "travel guide". The travelers who
tend to have the most knowledge usually work at the hostels.
This application will allow you to tap into that knowledge
before you get there from wherever you are at on your
journey, even before you leave home.
Know
a hostel not using this free service?
Ask
them why not and let them know about WiseNomad.com. We'll
show them how to set it up here on WiseNomad.com and on
their own website.