UPDATE:
Looks like things will move forward. A new hostel OTA, Dorms.com, has entered the space and has a very competitive rate and policy options. Also, Hostelworld was slow to adapt, but now might move quickly under new leadership. Hostelworld has recently made some major improvements since their commission hike last year. Their front end has improved significantly, their mobile apps have enhanced greatly, and the rumors of the MyAllocator integration are exciting news. However, there has been little to no word on any improvements that can genuinely help us all capitalize on the revenue we generate from them. It is about time Hostelworld offers the basic revenue management controls the "big boy" OTAs provide, such as non-refundable rates, length of stay pricing, and packages.
The hotel OTAs (especially booking.com and expedia.com) are light years ahead, and some of the tech-savvy hostels actually utilize them accordingly to promote certain guest behaviors. Most do not. The thing is, promotions play a daily role in a hotel pricing strategy. It has become standard for hotels to hire revenue managers and use revenue management programs, receiving high returns for doing so. Here, they use their historical data to plan a strategy and then rely on current progress and pacing reports to act, promoting the types of bookings they want more of.
To achieve this, they use "controls" such as length of stay rates, advance purchase rates, geo-targeted deals, closed group deals, and package deals, to name a few. By using specific promotions across different channels, chosen strategically, they boost their revenue, and it works wonders. You do not have to be a statistician, fluent in R programming, or a predictive modeling data scientist to enhance your own revenue. What I can say is that Hostelworld lacks in providing hostels the tools to properly manage their incoming revenue. Advance purchase and non-refundable rates are outright against their policies, and it only offers the basics, whereas if you use BPO, you can have the rate increase automatically if availability decreases. Whoopdi-do.
With non-refundable rates, you would charge the customer at the time of booking, giving you some revenue to work with. If they cancel or no-show, there is no loss to you. You could even resell the bed and make double. You keep it cheaper to encourage this behavior, and they are usually applied to dates far in advance as advance purchase rates, allowing you to build a base of bookings. If you have a high cancellation rate, you should consider this approach because it offsets that problem. Additionally, advance purchase rates do not have to be non-refundable, but I urge them to be. Length of stay pricing can offer a discount only if guests stay for a certain duration. There are options for discounts, but nothing like how the "big guys" do it. Here, you want to encourage guests to stay longer by making it cheaper for them, but you still take bookings from those staying shorter times. Some management systems even offer length of stay pricing, but that can get complicated.
It is about time Hostelworld offers the basic revenue management controls the "big boy" OTAs offer.
Package deals include your extras in the offer. Simply put, you can label the promotion as "Free Champagne" and provide a bottle of champagne to your private room guests on Valentine's Day. Think of the extras guests always request, like including airport transfers, breakfast, dinner, pub crawls, etc. You can get creative here, and this is where you can distinguish yourself from the competition—if Hostelworld lets you do it.
Now, more about controls… controls are parameters you set for your promotion or special rates. What you have is a "booking window," basically a timeframe during which people can see the deal. So, you should be able to open and close the rate either by a specific date for a targeted promotion like Valentine's Day or contingent on the current date, such as from 90 days out to 30 days out. Geo-based controls allow you to target people inside or outside your country, or even specific countries. This largely depends on the capabilities of the OTA. But say, if you dislike Irish people because they can take a joke, you could implement a negative discount, thus charging them more. Unfortunately, geo-deals are based on the IP address of where the person is browsing from, and considering many non-Irish live on the Emerald Isle nowadays, it might not work effectively.
Finally, with closed groups, you can assign discounts to groups for being loyal OTA customers or frequent bookers. They usually bring in a better quality of guest, so I recommend it. If you receive a lot of bookings from Booking.com or Expedia, I suggest experimenting and seeing what it can do for you. However, I highly recommend you tell your Hostelworld account manager that you want these possibilities available on their channels as well. They might have a strong market share of hostel bookings, but they are "small potatoes" compared to the overall accommodation booking market. They need to step up their game to compete with the giants like Expedia and Priceline, and this will benefit us all.
If you want to delve into revenue management, I recommend you check out the HostelBench product. It offers many features at a price that is more than reasonable.