E-membership pilot Rob Ralston & Rolf Duelks

E-membership Purpose – from original consultation paper

• “E-membership is intended to help address the

lack of clarity surrounding membership and the

lack of a visible solution for the sale of online

membership”

• “It is intended to support the preferred access

initiative” [membership savings programme]

E-membership CEO Meeting, Amsterdam 2010

hihostels.com membership survey

4 simple questions

• Have you heard of HI membership or membership of your local

National Youth Hostel Association?

• Are you a member of Hostelling International (HI) or your local

National Youth Hostel Association?

• If yes, please specify:

– Member of Hostelling International

– Member of local National Youth Hostel Association

• If you are not a member please specify why not?

– Price is too expensive

– I do not see any value in membership

– I am unsure how to become a member

– I have never heard about it

– I have never been asked for membership at hostels

– Other (please specify)

hihostels.com membership survey over 3,500 total respondents in 6 languages

• 86% of respondents had heard of HI membership and

76% had heard of National Youth Hostel Association

membership

• 64% specified they were a member.

– 59% are members of HI and

– 41% are members of their local Youth Hostel Association.

• The top 2 reasons amongst all languages for not being a

member were:

– I am unsure how to become a member and

– I have never been asked for membership at hostels.

• When asked to specify other reasons for not being a

member a common theme was that

– membership had expired or

– the respondent had no plans to travel.

hiway, June 2011

• Bernd Dohn (Germany)

• Hassan Mansy (UAE)

• Drazen Gecevic (Croatia)

• Fernando Cruz (Chile)

• Rolf Duelks (Australia)

• Alistair McLean (Canada)

• Daniel Khoo (Singapore)

• Kojin Hako (Japan)

E-membership Steering Group 2010/2011

E-membership Steering Group 2010/2011

all possibilities – all options – all concerns - all opinions

Workable compromise for all customers & all

NAs

E-membership Key foundations

• “Introductory” 6 month e-membership. Possible future

extension to 12 months

• only available to customers who book on hihostels.com

• sold only as a single category e-membership at a fixed

price of £9.99 GBP

• Home NA of member receives 90% of the revenue

• data will be made available to NAs after 4 months for

conversion to full NA membership.

• confirmation (email, PDF and SMS) will be dual branded

– HI and the home NA of member. PDF confirmation will

resemble membership card format

• e-membership initiative to launch as a 1-year pilot,

requiring 100% participation of NAs

E-membership CEO consultation process

• E-membership business plan as proposed by

Steering Group circulated to CEOs for input

(March 2011 deadline)

• Responses received from 38 National

Associations

• 73.6% of respondents were in favour of

proposals

• Some minor suggested changes were

discussed further by the Steering Group and

adopted

• HI Board approval May 2011

SMS Confirmation

E-membership – sample PDF receipt

E-membership – sample PDF receipt

E-membership Verification

• use same verification procedures as with

membership cards

• cross-check member’s identity

• verification lookup system for hostels &

membership partners

– E-membership number

– Email address

– Date of birth

E-membership pilot Where is the development?

• Approximately 80% complete

• Finalisation of wording & designs

• Some further testing required

• Translations

• Communication plan for ALL HI hostels – with

NA liaison

• November/December target launch

E-membership 12-month pilot

• Clear communication to NAs and hostels

• E-membership sales reports will be updated

daily on hiway (against targets)

• After 10 months, each NA to be sent detailed e-

membership report & survey for feedback

• Review at next CEO meeting

• HI will collate all feedback & send to Steering

Group for comments & recommendations on

how to proceed

• HI Senior Management Team will consider

Steering Group conclusions and make a

consolidated recommendation to HI Board

96%

4%

• That the CEO Meeting gives the formal recommendation to HI to proceed with the launch of the 12-month e-membership pilot on the following basis:-

– sold as an “introductory” 12-month e-membership

– selling price to use different national membership prices set by NAs in local currency.

– hihostels.com booking process to charge appropriate national e-membership price depending on country of residence designated by customer

– sold only as a single category e-membership

– home NA of member receives 90% of the revenue

– only available to customers who book on hihostels.com

– e-membership initiative to launch as a 1-year pilot, requiring 100% participation of NAs

E-membership pilot - Revised Proposal

1) Yes

2) No

E-membership pilot

Thank-you!