Senior Partnerships Manager

at  Hostelworld Group

ABOUT US

Hostelworld group Plc is a groundbreaking social network powered Online Travel Agent focused on the hostelling category, with a unique Mission to help travellers find people to hang out with.
Our Mission statement is founded on the insight that the vast majority of travellers go hostelling as a means to meet other people, which we facilitate through a series of Social features embedded within our mobile native Apps that connect our travellers in hostels and cities based on their booking data and interests.
To date, the strategy has been extraordinarily successful, generating significant word of mouth from our customers, strong endorsements from our hostel partners and delivering consistent profitable growth in market share for our investors. Further details of our results and corporate communications can be found on our corporate website here and here. Looking further ahead, we also believe that our social network powered OTA platform has significant potential to grow beyond hostelling into a broader solo travel platform across all age groups, particularly for those solo travellers who use their vacations as a means to meet other people. For more details, please see this video.
Founded in 1999, Hostelworld is a well-known and trusted brand with 250 employees across 11 countries, hostel partners in 170 countries, and a strong commitment to building a better world in all that we do. Our focus in the last few years has also been to develop and execute a progressive Environmental, Social and Governance agenda to highlight the inherent sustainability advantages of hostelling-based travel and create a flexible and inclusive workplace for our employees. To that end, we have been working very closely with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) to develop a purpose-built sustainability framework for the hostelling category, and with Bureau Veritas to establish emissions benchmarks for the hostelling industry. We also achieved climate neutral status in 2021 and 2022, and became a signatory to Global Optimism/Amazon’s Climate Neutral pledge in 2023, with a goal to reach net-zero carbon by 2040.
Finally, we were also delighted to see our overall progress as a company recognised with the “Tech plc of the Year” award at the LSE plc of the year awards in 2022 – and we were shortlisted for two Sustainability Business Impact awards by Chambers Ireland in 2023. Hostelworld is listed on the London Stock Exchange, Dublin Euronext and is an Investors in Diversity accredited employer.

WHAT YOU’LL DO ‍

• Partnership Strategy: Develop the framework in which to assess and execute the partnerships for Hostelworld’s long-term goals and business objectives.
• Business Development: Identify and approach key third-party consumer brands that align with Hostelworld’s target audience and brand values, focusing on driving revenue opportunities through mutually beneficial partnerships.
• Contract Negotiation: Lead the team responsible for negotiations with potential partners, ensuring favourable terms that enhance value for Hostelworld while protecting the brand’s interests.
• Partnership Management: Manage ongoing relationships with key partners, ensuring successful delivery of partnership goals and optimising collaborations for mutual growth.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with the product organisation, finance, and legal teams to ensure partnerships are fully integrated and operationally smooth.
• Revenue Generation: Work with the Head of Content to develop performance metrics and monitor the success of partnerships, ensuring these align with the company’s revenue and profitability targets.
• Innovation and Market Insight: Stay abreast of market trends, competitor activities, and emerging partnership opportunities to continuously enhance Hostelworld’s partnerships strategy.
• Brand Alignment: Ensure all partnerships reflect Hostelworld’s brand values and resonate with its global community of travellers .

In parallel, we have also taken steps to align individual level policies with company-wide desired employee behaviours and working practices, so all our team members can enjoy a consistent culture/work experience no matter their role or their location. For example:

• We have defined what we expect of ourselves and of others at Hostelworld through the definition of five core employee behaviours (Master It, Grow Others, Adapt, Collaborate and Deliver). We use these behaviour definitions with a state-of-the-art employee assessment and feedback platform to ensure we provide an environment where we can do our best work with people we enjoy working alongside.
• We operate our business through five standardised operations reviews held virtually each week. These create the consistent executional drumbeat for our business – especially with our teams dialling in from different locations – so that all employees can “plug into” the business with ease.
• These weekly operating reviews are supplemented with quarterly in-person all hands meetings, where we hold quarterly roadmap planning processes, retrospectives and company-wide social events. Many functions also meet more regularly throughout the quarter in one of our offices across Dublin, London, Porto or Shanghai, as desired/needed.
• Finally, we seek to maintain our open and transparent culture through regular Townhalls and opportunities to connect socially; and our employee engagement surveys enable us to identify what we are doing well, what people value, and what areas we can improve on, to continue to build our unique and distinctive culture