Hostelworld Group plc is a ground-breaking social network-powered Online Travel Agent ("OTA") with a clear mission to help travellers find people to hang out with. Our mission is founded on the insight that most travellers go hostelling to meet other people. Our platform connects travellers through a range of social features, including city and hostel chat rooms, AI-powered recommendations, and event discovery, facilitating real-world interactions before, during and after their trips.
Hostelworld's vision is to be the world's leading social travel platform. Since launching its social network in 2022, the Group has welcomed over 3.4 million social members, with engagement growing faster than stays booked. Messaging volumes grew 81% year-on-year in 2025, and social members book approximately twice as frequently as non-members, demonstrating the platform's utility and its contribution to customer lifetime value.
Our proprietary dataset, spanning over 3.4 million social members, 16 million chat messages and 17 million bookings since launch, strengthens our ability to understand traveller behaviour, personalise experiences, and build network effects that differentiate Hostelworld from generalist OTAs. This data asset, which is exclusively ours and compounds in value as our community grows, underpins our AI-powered matching and recommendation capabilities.
Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Ireland, Hostelworld is a recognised brand with around 270 employees, hostel and accommodation partners across more than 180 countries, and a growing suite of products including budget accommodation and Social Passes that extend the platform well beyond the traditional hostelling category.
Hostelworld has a long-standing commitment to improving the sustainability of the hostelling industry. The Group has introduced a hostel-specific Staircase to Sustainability framework, accredited by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, which helps partners adopt more sustainable practices while giving travellers clearer information for decision-making. Customers can choose to offset trip emissions, and for the fifth consecutive year the Group has retained the ‘Taking Climate Action’ label from South Pole.
