Accommodation Panel
About
Hostels, hotels, camping sites and student residences are represented within WYSE Travel Confederation by the Accommodation Panel. The Accommodation Panel provides support and guidance for one of the travel industry’s fastest growing markets. The Panel mission is to be the voice and forum for providers of safe and affordable youth travel accommodation.
Objectives
The Accommodation Panel’s objectives fall within WYSE Travel Confederation’s Four Pillars: Trading, Research, Education and Advocacy.
- Trading: Provide members with new business partners via opportunities to meet with buyers and sellers of accommodation at our events as well as year-long member introductions.
- Research: Help members grow their business by making informed decisions based on exclusive industry intelligence, market research and industry benchmarking.
- Education: Keep members up-to-date on the latest trends, sector forecasting and best practice by delivering on and off-line educational opportunities through seminars, workshops, webinars, podcasts and news posts.
- Advocacy: Provide members with a unified voice on issues within the accommodation sector.
Research and reports
WYSE Travel Confederation undertakes a wide variety of research. Below you can find a sample of our accommodation reports which are free of charge for members. For all our available reports, please click here.
Education
Post-COVID positioning: Tracking and understanding European hostel performance in 2021
Speaker:
Kelsey Fenerty
Research Analyst, STR
WYSE Travel Confederation
Webinars 2021
Hostels in the not so distant future
Moderator:
Russ Hedge
CEO, HI USA | Chairman of the Management Board, WYSE Travel Confederation
Panellists:
Pete Edwards
Samesun Hostels
Carlos Felipe Santos
Viajero Hostels
Kim Whitaker
Once Youth Hotels
Yaron Burgin
Abraham Hostels
WYSE Travel Confederation
Webinars 2020
Branding and marketing for Gen Z
Panellists
Anna Fawcett
Topdeck Travel
Jason Rieff
Generator
WYSTC 2019 Lisbon
Beyond the backpacker – building the right platform experience for younger travellers
Max van der Heijden
Booking.com
STAY WYSE Amsterdam 2019
Trading opportunities
WYSE Travel Confederation offers many opportunities to meet new business partners and reconnect with existing partners at its industry events.
STAY WYSE Amsterdam: Where the hostel industry meets
Date: 26 - 27 January 2023
Amsterdam
STAY WYSE Amsterdam brings together businesses involved in the youth travel accommodation sector for two days of trading, education and socialising. Now in its sixth year the Conference has rapidly established itself as the place to meet new trading partners; from buyers, to operators, investors and suppliers.
WYSTC
Date: 27 - 30 September 2022
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
The World Youth and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC) is the leading trade event for the global youth, student and educational travel industry. Since its inception in 1992 as the annual event of WYSE Travel Confederation, youth and student travel professionals have been gathering annually to trade, network and take part in seminars and workshops.
Advocacy
Against the backdrop of increasing consolidation of major Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), a group of leading hostels and industry associations met during WYSTC Sydney in 2013 to formulate a position statement regarding online distribution practices.
Accommodation Sector Panellists
Pieter van der Zeeuw
Chair
Managing Director
Hans Brinker Budget Hotel
Louise Garner
Commercial Director
Clink Hostels
Etienne Matichard
Director of Sales and Distribution
JO&JOE
Kevin McCormick
Head of Commercial Operations
University of Bath
History
The Accommodation Panel, formerly known as STAY WYSE, was formed in 2006 by a group of the world’s leading youth travel accommodation providers, in order to address two critical challenges facing the youth travel accommodation sector. Firstly, despite being an important part of the global tourism industry, organisations and companies active in youth accommodation services were not recognised or supported by local governments or national tourism authorities. The second challenge was that youth travel accommodation providers operate within a highly fragmented industry and this niche sector lacked a unified global voice to represent its interests and a central body to collate statistics and market intelligence. Today, the Accommodation Panel strives to be the unified voice of youth and student travel accommodation.
