Content and Communications Executive

Our vision is to be the world's leading social travel platform.

We are on a mission to help travellers find their people and create unforgettable moments together. Connections matter as much as destinations, and we are building a global ecosystem to enable them.

Since the launch of our social network in the hostelling category in 2022, Hostelworld has experienced transformational growth. We have successfully welcomed over 2.6 million social members to our platform, proving the strong demand for connection in travel. This vibrant community is not just booking trips; they are actively engaging, co-creating, and becoming our most powerful brand advocates. The platform is rich with user-generated content, including a rapidly growing volume of customer testimonials and authentic travel stories that provide powerful social proof.

The growth in engagement is remarkable: the number of messages sent between travellers has grown significantly faster than the number of trips booked by social members, demonstrating the deep social utility of our platform. This momentum is reflected in our robust financial health, underscored by a strong balance sheet powered by an asset-light, cash-generative business model.

We are not just another Online Travel Agent (OTA); we have created a new category of travel altogether: Social Travel. Our singular focus on helping travellers find people to hang out with is the foundation of our strategy. It has allowed us to build a powerful and defensible market position, which attracts highly valuable customers and shifts more of our business onto our mobile-native apps.

While our app and social features create a sticky user experience, our true competitive moat stems from the incredibly rich, proprietary data set generated by our social network. As our community grows, so does the value of this data, creating a compounding network effect that is nearly impossible to replicate. This "social flywheel" allows us to understand traveller behaviour, predict needs, and personalise experiences in ways that generalist OTAs cannot match. It is the engine that will power our long-term, differentiated growth and solidify our position as the sole player in the Social Travel category we created.

At our Capital Markets Day in April 2025, we unveiled our ambitious strategy to build on our success and realise our vision over the next three years. This strategy is organised around five key themes:

• Strengthening the Core OTA Platform: We will continue to enhance our core booking engine, ensuring a seamless and efficient experience for our customers and hostel partners, further solidifying our position as the leading platform for hostel discovery and booking.

• Building 'Pre-Booking' Social Features: We are developing innovative features like 'Travel Plans', designed to engage users much earlier in their travel journey. These features will accelerate the creation of social profiles and drive app downloads, fuelling our social flywheel before a single bed is booked.

• Leveraging AI for an Enhanced Social Experience: We will embed AI into our pre- and post-booking features to deliver unparalleled personalisation and value. This includes AI-powered recommendations for people to meet, places to go, and things to do, making our social network an indispensable travel companion.

• Expanding our Addressable Market: We will expand our reach and product portfolio through targeted partnerships and M&A. This will allow us to cater to a broader segment of the youth travel market and integrate new, complementary services into our social travel ecosystem.

• Building New Revenue Streams: Our social network is more than an engagement tool; it is a new platform for monetisation. We will develop new revenue streams directly from our social features, creating value for our users and our business in ways that traditional OTAs cannot.

Our Culture

At Hostelworld, our culture is a direct reflection of our customers: adventurous, curious, and social. We have a shared love of travel that fuels our work and connects us on a deeper level. It's a fast-paced environment that blends the agility and "scrappy" resourcefulness of a start-up with the experience and ambition of a global, publicly listed company.

We are a team of pragmatic optimists who are data-obsessed and results-driven. We value a 'test and learn' mindset, encouraging experimentation and empowering our teams to take calculated risks. We believe in doing the right thing—for our customers, our partners, and each other. We foster a supportive and collaborative atmosphere where diverse perspectives are celebrated, and where every team member has the opportunity to make a significant impact on our journey. We embrace the journey, not just the destination, and we seek leaders who will thrive in a dynamic environment and inspire their teams to do the same.

This role is based in Portugal. We have an office hub in Porto available for those who prefer a hybrid model where you can spend time with colleagues in-person. You will need to be able to commute to our office hub as required from time to time.

The Content and Creative Team manages all Hostelworld's words and imagery, from snappy on-trend social and dreamy destination inspiration to compelling and concise UI copy, in-depth blog articles on our favourite places peppered with local detail and slick branded content to woo and wow our hostel-owning partners.

We write and design for every team across the business and ensure that every bit of content is on point and aligned with Hostelworld's brand guidelines and tone of voice.

This new Content and Communications Executive will be responsible for developing content for the organisation's ESG activity (Environmental, Social and Governance) the Hostelworld blog and will support a jam-packed calendar of corporate and B2B marketing and communications campaigns and initiatives.

In a nutshell, you will plan, coordinate, write and deliver content-focused projects, and lead on internal comms for specific campaigns working independently as well as collaborating with colleagues across multiple teams. 

You will:

• Develop and oversee content for all audiences (consumer, corporate, hostel partners, and employees) across various touchpoints including landing pages, blog, CRM, social media, internal comms, and external platforms. 

• Manage content creation workflow, including briefing designers for visuals and collaborating with freelance writers (assigning briefs, processing contracts, and providing feedback).

• Ensure content freshness and organisation by managing our content and information in Dash, SharePoint, Loop and other tools.

• Be a member of the ESG Steerco, leading content and internal comms alongside senior stakeholders with support from the Head of Content and Creative.

• Craft copy and content that resonates with international audiences, coordinating localisation for multilingual campaigns.

• Proactively manage relationships and deadlines across the business and with external partners to ensure smooth content delivery and campaign execution.

• Write long-form content for the blog and content partnerships, supporting social media, B2B newsletters, and award entries.

• Attend relevant meetings, representing the Content Team and gathering information to inform content strategy.

• Assist the B2B marketing team with event content and activation collateral.
  

Experience & Qualifications:

Essential:

• A minimum of 2-3 years' relevant professional experience in a similar role. A professional background in travel, ecommerce or B2B content and comms would be advantageous.

• Native or C1/C2 level verbal and written English. You will be writing primarily in English, our main target language.

• Excellent communication and organisational skills.

Nice to have:

• An educational background or qualification in journalism, PR and communication or digital marketing/media.

• Experience of DAM (digital asset management), working with UGC (user generated content) and or in multi-lingual content environment.

• Experience working in JIRA (or a similar system such as Asana, YouTrack).

• Knowledge of Wordpress or another CMS (content management system).

• Additional language/s preferable but not essential.

Knowledge & Skills:

• A skilled self-starter and curious communicator, you will love owning your role and thrive on seeking and sharing opportunities to make our content better.

• Exceptional writing and editing skills.

• Comfortable working as an independent contributor and collaborating across multiple teams and projects.

• An ability to adapt your writing style to multiple formats, audiences and tone of voice.

• An enthusiasm for initiatives represented within the ESG strategy.

• Passion for travel, particularly for backpacking and hostelling.
  

• Competitive salary & benefits 

• Enhanced annual leave plus 3 Wellbeing Days per year 

• Paid family leave (maternity, paternity, surrogacy & adoption) 

• Agile working (plus a Working from Abroad Policy) 

• Support for your ongoing growth & development 

• Inclusive people policies (sickness, menopause, compassionate and fertility leave) 

• A chance to give back to your local community with 5 paid volunteering days
  

• Grow others - We fundamentally believe that investing in growing others benefits everyone, whether it's helping them develop hard or soft skills. We want learning and growing to be part of our DNA to help makes us a better team, together.

• Master it - We are obsessed with our area of expertise and enjoy developing our skills. We rarely take things at face value; we investigate, interrogate, and always look for 'the why,' and wherever possible, we use data to find the best solution.

• Collaborate - We are in it together, for the tough stuff and the celebrations too. To achieve the best results, we need expertise from all areas of the organisation, and we wholeheartedly welcome diverse thinking.

• Adapt - We work fluidly, adapting to new information and the evolving environment while staying committed to our goals. Innovation and experimentation fuel our projects and we're never afraid to pivot.

• Deliver - Our focus is always on the end result; we value outcomes over activity. We collaborate to deliver work at speed without dropping any of our other behaviours.
  

We believe in talented and diverse teams that reflect the diversity of our customers and the communities in which we operate. Everyone brings different perspectives and experiences. We lay out the above requirements to guide applicants to the experiences that we believe will allow you to be successful in the role. If you don't meet them all, please consider applying if you think you can still perform the role as described.