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

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

Lifestyle marketing for youth travel and hospitality

Moderator:
David Chapman
WYSE Travel Confederation
Panellists:
Lionel Ansermet
EF Ultimate Break
Johanna Atterby
Visit Stockholm
Etienne Matichard
JO&JOE
Olivia Ralston
Culture Trip

ITB Berlin 2018

Incorporating the SDGs into your youth travel business

Brianda Lopez
Hostelling International

WYSTC 2018 Edinburgh

Trading opportunities

WYSE Travel Confederation offers many opportunities to meet new business partners and reconnect with existing partners at its industry events.

WYSTC 2021

Date: 14 - 17 September 2021
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

WYSE Travel Confederation offers a self-declaration process for accommodation providers to declare that they adhere to local and national standards of operating, as well as to WYSE Travel Confederations standards of guest care.

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

Alexander Rivers

Managing Director
Astor Hostels

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.