Elevate is Hostelworld’s enhanced visibility tool, designed to help hostels increase their exposure in search results and attract more bookings , with full control over their investment
Elevate gives you direct control over your ranking by allowing you to adjust your commission level and see the impact instantly.
Elevate is a proven tool used by over 3,000 hostels who value having more control over their traffic and visibility on Hostelworld. It delivers strong results by allowing properties to influence their ranking through commission adjustments.
Elevate is built to help you push your property higher in the sort order, giving you more exposure when it matters most.
What Influences Your Ranking?
Hostelworld’s algorithm uses a smarter Sort Order that blends two key types of signals:
- Quality Signals
- Guest reviews
- Location
- Traveller behaviour (length of stay, booking window)
- Historical performance
- Live Pricing
- NCS (Net Competitiveness Score): compares your price and availability to other channels
- Device/platform-level performance
- Economic Signals
- Average bed price
- Historical production
- Commission level (this is where Elevate has direct impact)
Why Elevate Matters?
When travelers search for hostels, those listed at the top of the page receive the majority of clicks , over 50% go to the top 5 positions. Even small improvements in ranking can lead to significant increases in traffic and bookings.
Elevate works best when paired with competitive pricing. If your rates and availability are already attractive, boosting visibility will help you capture more bookings. Once your NCS (Net Competitiveness Score) is strong—then Elevate can help to maximise your results.
Who Benefits Most from Elevate?
Performance of Elevate depends on your hostel’s profile. Elevate is especially effective for high-quality hostels, with strong historical performance and with dorm availability. Hostels meeting these requirements achieve significant ranking boosts when commission increases. This is where Elevate shines: small inputs = big returns!
Lower-performing properties may need higher commission adjustments initially but will still see strong returns due to low base costs and traffic gains.
How Elevate Works?
We recommend using the Elevate simulator before activating the tool. It allows you to simulate a real search, just like a traveller would. You will see both your current position and how much you could move up in the rankings by increasing the base commission.
2. Choose your commission level
3. Select your desired travel dates to simulate a real search and simulate,
just as a traveller would. By running this simulation, you’ll instantly see both your current ranking and your projected position.
4.After choosing the right amount for you, click on Inactive toggle so it updates to Active and that’s it, your Elevate is live and your position will improve on the city page:
This is how it looks when Active:
Once activated, your property will move up in the search results, increasing visibility and the chance of being booked.
Why Monitoring Matters?
The Hostelworld algorithm is dynamic. Your ranking can shift based on traveller behaviour, competitor activity, and pricing changes across channels. To get the most out of Elevate:
- Monitor your performance regularly
- Revisit the simulator frequently to adjust your strategy
- Stay competitive in pricing and availability to maintain or improve your position
- Review performance regularly with your Account Manager to ensure Elevate is helping you grow your share of Hostelworld demand
If the simulator doesn’t work, please check that you have at least 2 beds available in the booking window. This is required for the simulation to run properly.
Tips to Maximize Results
- Don’t settle for the minimum—test higher commission levels to see stronger results
- If you are not sure or concerned about the investment, just try Elevate for a limited period to evaluate its impact
- Instead of dropping rates last-minute, invest that discount into Elevate for better visibility and bookings
Elevate is your lever to climb the Hostelworld rankings. By strategically adjusting your commission, you can gain more exposure, attract more travellers, and grow your bookings, on your terms.