London Backpackers .net
for people travelling to London, United Kingdom
As a backpacker myself, I often search the internet for hostels. I created this site because it is sometimes hard to find the real website of backpacker hostels these days.
Unfortunately, these days, it is getting harder and harder to find a website that is created by a hostel itself. One company, hostelworld, has become very massive, and they give people commission to link to them. Therefore, most people now link to hostelworld rather than the hostel's personal website. Hostelworld themselves do not include the hostel's website address because they want people to stay on their site to make the booking.
Don't get me wrong, hostelworld are good. They have changed the backpacker hostel market by allowing instantly confirmed bookings which no-one else has done before. Unfortunately this has possibly had the side effect of pushing prices up a bit, because the 10% deposit you pay to hostelworld they keep...the hostel doesn't get it at all. I do like hostelworld (and am in awe of how well they have done what they've done), and have included links to them on this site "click here to make a booking".
In this site, however, I have also included the URLS of the hostels website, so this allows people to visit them directly. It may also have the effect of pushing the hostel's sites up in search engine listings which would be good, because that helps the backpacker at the end of the day.
To help myself remain focussed, I have created a Mission Statement
"To provide RELEVANT information for people travelling to London on a budget.
Never compromise value or information in an attempt to make money"
Ahem, well, yes, there are a few ads around. Lets face it, we all want to make money, and if I can find a way to travel the world while making money from the internet, then Ill be a very happy person indeed. (It is a pipedream though.) Some of the ads are provided by google. These are changing, relevent to the web page, and often very good services, so are worthy as information, and of course I make a couple of pence when you click on them. The other ads, are for good services, like the London Pass. I chose Europcar for the car rental page because their prices are about the same as Hertz, Thrifty etc, and easycar because they provide a good service. There is a storage company I could make money from, www.storage.com, but I feel they are too far outside of London to be good for the backpacker, so I chose abc storage, who I don't make any money from.
Well I hope to expand the information pages as I realise more things people are looking for. Also, I wish to set up the same thing for other major cities, such as Paris, Manchester, Edinburgh and my favorite place Amsterdam. However, at the moment these sites merely link to hostelworld..damn that hypocrisy...
Good luck and have fun.
stu
londonbackpackers.net