YHA Wellington City Voted Oceania’s Number One

YHA Wellington City Voted Oceania’s Number One Hostel

Hostelworld.com announces top hostels worldwide at 2007 hostel conference

Dublin, Ireland - January 30, 2007 - YHA Wellington City, one of Wellington's top hostels, has been voted Oceania's number one hostel at Hostelworld.com's 5th annual Hoscars awards ceremony.

Over 500,000 hostel users voted, selecting the winning hostel from more than 12,000 properties featured on Hostelworld.com. The customers, who booked their hostel stays online, were surveyed after their stay and asked to grade their accommodation based on six different criteria; character, security, location, staff, fun and cleanliness.

YHA Wellington, located just off Courtenay Place in the city, is a favourite with guests thanks to its excellent facilities, the wide range of accommodation it offers and its laid back atmosphere.

Other winners in Oceania were Gilligan’s Backpacker Hotel &Resort in Cairns and Urban Central in Melbourne, coming second and third place respectively.

Speaking after winning the award YHA New Zealand Manger, Marketing and Sales, Daniel Shields said, “Travellers are the best judges of what other travellers will like. Because of the customer feedback basis of the Hoscars, YHA Wellington City winning means a lot of travellers have had a really great time staying in Wellington. We brought YHA New Zealand hostels onto Hostelworld.com in mid 2005 and one of the reasons we did this was the ratings system. It has credibility and independence and opening ourselves up to Hostelworld.com has meant a whole lot of backpackers who might not have tried us have had top accommodation in New Zealand”.

Lorraine O’Reilly, Hostelworld.com’s Regional Manager for Oceania, said that winning top hostel in Oceania is an excellent achievement. “In a region where hostel standards are getting higher all the time, YHA Wellington has kept up the pace offering its guests a well run hostel which provides value for money, an excellent choice of room type and a dedicated staff.”

The coveted "Hoscar" award ceremony was part of Hostelworld.com's 3rd annual Hostel Conference which was hosted in the Hilton Hotel, Dublin and featured speakers on a number of topics including the development in social media and Travel 2.0 technologies and their impact on the marketing and distribution in the travel industry.

The awards were presented at a ceremony in The Village in Dublin and were attended by more than 350 hostel owners and managers from around the world.

Top ten hostels worldwide were as follows:

1. Jetpak City Hostel, Berlin, Germany

2. Hostel of the Sun, Naples, Italy

3. La Chimba, Santiago, Chile

4. Mamas Hostel, Krakow, Poland

5. Wombats City Hostel (The Lounge), Vienna, Austria

6. Friendly Fun Franks Backpackers Hostel, Riga, Latvia

7. EastSeven Berlin Hostel, Berlin, Germany

8. Argonaut Backpackers, Riga, Latvia

9. Oasis Backpackers Hostel, Granada, Spain

10. Oki Doki Hostel, Warsaw, Poland

About Hostelworld.com

Hostelworld.com is a leading provider of online reservations to the budget, independent and youth travel market. It offers confirmed online reservations for over 12,000 hostels and budget hotels in 165 countries worldwide. The site also offers budget travellers free podcasts, customised city guides, a travel social network and more. Hostelworld.com is headquartered in Dublin and is fully owned and operated by Web Reservations International Ltd (WRI).

ENDS

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