Creative Marketing for Foreigners Through Hostels

Today I returned from a 5 day trip to Buenos Aires during which my friends and I spent our nights at one of the local hostels. What I noticed there was that many of the surrounding companies and stores would find ways to market their services and products to those who stay at the hostel. Since nearly all of the clients at hostels are foreign clients, these firms have found and easy and cheap way to market directly to foreign clients. The first thing that I noticed in our particular hostel was a large wooden table, on which rested hundreds of different informational packets ranging from information about restaurants to adventure tours and massages. It seems to me that most of the local businesses have discovered that this is one of the easiest and most cost effective way of attracting foreign customers. Most all of the information described a certain discount or special that guests in the hostel would receive if they frequented the business. This is a simple win-win situation for both the local businesses and the hostel. First the hostel can provide, free of charge, tons of informational resources about the surrounding area. In fact, our group found our favorite restaurant through one of these packets. Secondly, these local firms have a direct entry point of marketing to a huge group of potential customers. All they need is to print up some literature and ask for the hostel to put it in their informational resources. The next thing that I noticed was that the desk clerks, when asked about a  tour group or local restaurant, would nearly always give the same answer. In a sense then, the people who work at these hostels are the most important marketing tools that any local business can have. A marketer would be wise to befriend these workers and ask or convince them to point tourists toward their specific companies. When I asked the desk clerk about a place to get great pizza, he recommended a place that his buddy owned. I am sure that he must have recommended the same thing to thousands of other tourists before us and that his friends pizza place has benefited greatly because of it. As I mentioned in a previous post, word-of-mouth marketing is easily the most effective for tourists and many people are using this fact effectively to market their products and services.
The final marketing tactic that I saw within our hostel, was that outside companies have made deals with the hostel to have their services shown and recommended directly to the guests at the hostel. For example, at the front desk was a sign that advertised laundry services to guests at a special discount. Upon checking in, the clerk mentioned that if we were to need any laundry to be done (perhaps for Easter Sunday) that we should ask him and receive a discount. I am certain that the local laundromat set up this agreement and instructed to the clerks to recommend their services. This was probably done in exchange for a small fee paid to the hostel or by some other form of compensation. It seemed to be a good tactic because during our stay I witnessed at least 3 people use the service. This, to me, is an ingenious tactic as these firms will have hundreds of potential customers shown their services every week.

In conclusion, I believe that many small businesses have caught on to the fact that hostels are a very good way to cheaply attract customers from all over the world. Then perhaps, customers will recommend or write online about their experiences and spread the word. Smart marketers will always find a place with plenty of foot traffic to do work. In addition, foreign clients who have little knowledge of the area, will most likely choose services advertised in the hostel. They, as we did, believe that the hostel would not allow a poor business to advertise there, thus creating a form of trust that the guests can rely on to pick which goods and services in the area to purchase from.