BUG Travel Publishing

In 1997 BUG started publishing budget travel information online at www.bug.co.uk. BUG started out with European destination guides but its core focus was hostel reviews (it was the first hostel review website). In 2000, BUG expanded to cover destinations outside Europe and in 2003, the first BUG guidebook was published (BUG Australia). BUG's most r... ecent travel guides are the fourth edition of BUG Australia and the third edition of BUG New Zealand. BUG travel guidebooks focus on independent budget travellers (backpackers). The only accommodation establishments included in the guides are backpackers' hostels and youth hostels, but every hostel in each destination featured in the guides is reviewed and the reviews are more detailed than other travel guides. This focus on hostel accommodation means that BUG guidebooks have more detailed reviews of more hostels than any other travel guidebook. All hostels reviewed by BUG also feature a star rating that is assessed by BUG's authors. BUG uses an objective system for assessing the star rating, which makes the star rating a consistent and reliable way to compare hostels. BUG has rated over 1500 hostels in over 15 countries, which makes BUG the world's largest assessor of hostel star ratings. These reviews and ratings are supplemented by reviews submitted by travellers to BUG's website. These reviews were one of the first features implemented after BUG started in 1997, which makes BUG the original hostel review website. The traveller reviews on BUG also tend to be more detailed than reviews on other sites. While researching the latest editions of the BUG guidebooks, BUG's authors shot video of many of the hostels that they reviewed.Read More