After a hard 2025 for Southern California hostels, ITH Hostels and Pricepoint changed how private rooms were priced in the last days before arrival. In the 12 months since, the group's four US hostels grew revenue 15.3%.
+15.3%: revenue across four US hostels in the last 12 months (Oct 2025 – Sep 2026) vs the 12 months before
+$329,355: more revenue across those four hostels
+35.4%: revenue at ITH Santa Barbara Beach Hostel, the group's largest
+8.5%: ADR, with 6.3% more bed nights sold
Company: ITH Hostels — an independent hostel group with beach hostels in California and a surf hostel in Sayulita, Mexico
Challenge: Pricing dorm beds and private rooms across very different beach towns, through a tough period for Southern California hostels
Solution: Pricepoint automated pricing, tuned property by property with the owners in regular reviews
PMS: Cloudbeds
On Pricepoint since: 2024
ITH Hostels runs hostels where travellers want to be: Santa Barbara, two hostels in San Diego including Mission Beach, Hermosa Beach near LAX, and Sayulita on Mexico's Pacific coast. Each one has its own calendar. San Diego fills for Comic-Con and the CRSSD music festival; Hermosa Beach for Beach Life Fest; Sayulita for Christmas, Día de Muertos and New Year's Eve, the busiest night of its year. And each mixes dorm beds with private rooms that sell to different guests at different times.
The group brought its hostels onto Pricepoint in 2024, sharing its events calendar so every property would price for its own peaks.
2025 was difficult for hostels in Southern California. Demand in San Diego weakened, and ITH closed one of its San Diego hostels. The owners were frank with Pricepoint: several hostels were behind the year before, and they wanted to see that change.
Pricepoint's team went through every property with them, starting with Santa Barbara, the group's largest hostel and the one falling furthest behind.
The analysis pointed at private rooms. They were holding their price too long into the final days before arrival and too often going unsold. In October 2025, Pricepoint changed how the engine priced them at ITH Mission Beach, letting private-room prices come down more decisively in the last days before arrival.
It worked: Mission Beach's private rooms started selling out, as the owners wanted. They asked for the same change at Santa Barbara, and Pricepoint applied it there too.
Over the last 12 months, from October 2025 to September 2026, ITH's four US hostels earned 15.3% more than in the 12 months before: $329,355 more revenue. Average rate rose 8.5% and the hostels sold 6.3% more bed nights.
Lowering last-minute prices on private rooms didn't drag the average rate down. It filled rooms that would otherwise have stayed empty, while the engine kept pushing rate where demand was strong.
ITH changes its hostels often: turning dorms into private rooms in Sayulita, splitting a female dorm from a mixed dorm at Mission Beach, reworking Beach Bungalow's layout. Each time, Pricepoint's support team remapped the rooms and confirmed prices were syncing to Cloudbeds and the booking sites. The owners now review every property with Pricepoint each quarter.
ITH wants dynamic pricing at its San Francisco hostel too, and is working with Pricepoint on the best way to connect it. The group's co-founder is also helping shape Pricepoint's new analytics and reporting.
