The HI Hostels Webflow site has 34 CMS collections, built around a single core entity — the Hostel — supported by a structured ecosystem of taxonomies, content records, and relational entities. Almost every collection either references Hostels or is referenced by it.
The site supports four locales: English (UK) as the primary locale, plus German (Switzerland), Arabic, and Chinese (Simplified). The CMS was built out in phases: the initial taxonomy layer was created on 4 February 2026, the Hostels collection on 5 February, and the most recent additions — Rooms, Group rooms, and Guides — on 8–9 March 2026.
1,815 items. The gravitational centre of the entire CMS. Almost every other collection references it or is referenced from it. The schema has approximately 65 fields, grouped below.
Name, slug, PMS ID (used for booking and availability sync), and a required reference to the hostel's Member association.
Meta title (60 chars max) and meta description (150 chars max) — note these have tighter limits than the standard taxonomy fields.
Short description (40–100 char RichText, used in cards and search results), full description, and a separate group description tailored for group travel audiences.
Hero image, video hero with thumbnail, and video tour with thumbnail. Three gallery sets — common areas, exterior, and rooms — each with a thumbnail hero image and a MultiImage gallery field.
Accommodation overview (RichText), room types (multi-reference → Room types), group accommodation overview, group room types (multi-reference → Group room types), group minimum size, and group maximum size.
Facilities (multi-reference → Facilities), amenities (multi-reference → Amenities), accessibility features (multi-reference → Accessibility features), safety features (multi-reference → Safety features), sustainability features (multi-reference → Sustainability features). A separate group accessibility notes field covers large-party needs.
Services overview and group services overview (both RichText, 250 chars max), services (multi-reference → Services), experiences overview and group experiences overview, food and beverage overview (individual and group variants), and wellness overview (individual and group variants).
Group hostel flag (switch), group contact phone, group contact email, and group enquiry URL — all separate from the standard contact fields.
Full address (street, line 2, city, state/province, country, postal code), latitude and longitude, phone, email, and website.
Check-in time, check-out time, parking info, and getting there (RichText directions from major transport hubs).
Tags (multi-reference → Tags), nearby hostels (self-referential multi-reference for cross-promotion), Spotify playlist URL, and guides (multi-reference → Guides).
These collections provide the standardised vocabulary used across the site. All follow a consistent schema: name, slug, icon (Image), description (RichText), and meta-description (PlainText, 160 chars).
18 items. Features such as pool hoist access, step-free entry, and hearing loops. Referenced from Hostel records.
Attributes that promote guest safety and security — CCTV, lockers, 24-hour reception, fire systems, etc. Referenced from Hostel records.
Eco credentials covering energy, water, waste, and broader environmental practices. Referenced from Hostel records.
In-room items available to guests: lockers, pillows, towels, and similar. Referenced from Hostel records.
Standard room category definitions — dorm, private, en-suite, and so on. Referenced from both Hostel records and individual Room records.
Room categories specific to group stays. Referenced from both Hostel records and individual Group room records.
Categories for individual Facility records. Examples include outdoor spaces, catering, sport, and cultural venues.
Categories for individual Service records. Used to group services by type for guest-facing filtering and discovery.
Categories for individual Deal records. Includes a group deal flag so types can be scoped to group travel contexts.
Categories for individual Community records — for example, cycling, student travel, or environmental communities.
Categories for Opportunity records — volunteering, work exchange, residency programmes, and similar.
Categories for hostel-specific Policy records — cancellation, check-in, house rules, etc.
Categories for Partner and provider records — for example, activity operators, transport partners, or food suppliers.
Categories for editorial Guide records — destination guides, how-to guides, itineraries, etc.
A cross-cutting thematic taxonomy used across Facilities, Services, Experiences, and Guides. Themes such as adventure, culture, wellness, and food provide a shared discovery axis across content types.
104 items. The primary guest-facing discovery taxonomy on Hostel records. Richer than most taxonomy types — includes an option field for tag type with ten values: Traveller, Travel style, Setting, Vibe, Seasonal, Food and drink, Transport, Budget, Awards, and Editorial.
Types of group that might book a hostel — school groups, youth groups, corporate groups, etc.
Feature badges used to describe what makes a hostel suitable for groups.
A lightweight self-referential hierarchy — each Location can have a parent Location — allowing continent → country → region → city nesting. Used to scope Guide content geographically.
These collections describe actual hostel offerings. Most follow the all-hostels switch pattern: a switch field to indicate the content applies globally across all hostels, combined with an optional multi-reference to specific Hostel records for everything else.
25 items. Named individual facilities — for example, a hillside garden, a climbing wall, or a rooftop terrace. Each is categorised by Facility type and Theme, has a hero image and description, and is linked to one or more Hostels.
Named activities and experiences — cycling trails, guided tours, cultural events, and so on. Each has availability date range, optional event start and end dates, a meeting point, a booking URL, optional Provider references (→ Partners), and a Theme. Linked to Hostels with the all-hostels switch.
Named services such as bike hire, packed lunches, or seminar rooms. Includes availability dates, an additional cost flag, a booking URL, optional Provider references, Theme references, and hostel links.
Named promotional deals typed by Deal type. Includes availability dates, a group deal flag, a booking URL, and hostel links.
Hostel-specific policy records — for example, a cancellation policy or house rules document. Typed by Policy type and linked to a single Hostel. This is the only offering collection that uses a single required Hostel reference rather than the multi-reference plus all-hostels switch pattern.
Individual room records typed by Room type and linked to Hostels. Currently carrying core fields — hero image, description, meta-description — with scope to expand further.
The same structure as Rooms, but typed by Group room type. Designed for group booking contexts.
Editorial travel guides with intro, author byline, published date, optional external read URL, and a global guide flag. Typed by Guide type, themed, and linked to both Hostel records and Location records for geographic scoping. Referenced back from Hostel records.
Represents HI's national member organisations. Fields include MA short name, MA full name, legal name, country, hero image, description, and meta-description. Every Hostel has a required reference to its Member association.
Individual profiles for staff, ambassadors, or featured contributors. Includes hero image, description, and meta-description.
Third-party providers and commercial partners, typed by Partner type, with a website URL and optional hostel link. Referenced from Experiences and Services as the Provider field.
Named communities — for example, a cycling community or student travel community — typed by Community type, with hostel links. Communities act as the parent container for Opportunities.
Specific opportunities such as volunteering positions or work exchanges, typed by Opportunity type. Includes application open and close dates, an apply link, a required Community reference, and hostel links.
Lightweight programme records used for HI programme branding. Fields are minimal: name, slug, description, and a rich name field for styled display.
The all-hostels switch. Experiences, Services, Deals, Opportunities, Partners, and Communities all use a boolean switch — "Available in all hostels" — combined with an optional hostel multi-reference. When the switch is on, content is treated as global. When off, specific hostels are listed. This avoids duplicating records for network-wide content.
Themes as a shared cross-cutting axis. The Themes taxonomy is used consistently across Facilities, Services, Experiences, and Guides, providing a single filtering dimension that works across all content types for guest-facing discovery.
Parallel individual and group schemas within Hostels. Most editorial text fields and operational fields in the Hostel collection have a parallel group variant — descriptions, overviews, contact details, room types, size limits, and service summaries all exist in both individual and group forms.
Taxonomy consistency. All taxonomy collections follow the same five-field pattern: name, slug, icon, description, and meta-description. This makes it easy to add new taxonomy types and ensures consistent data quality across the vocabulary layer.
Policies as a special case. Policies is the only offering collection with a single required Hostel reference rather than the multi-reference plus switch pattern. This is appropriate because policies are inherently hostel-specific and are never global.
Guides and Rooms as evolving collections. Both are currently lightly populated. Their schemas are well-considered — Guides in particular has a thorough field set including global flag, theme, locations reference, author, and published date — suggesting both will grow significantly as content production scales.
Tags are available as an optional enrichment on hostel records and cover categories such as traveller type, setting, vibe, season, and budget. However, tags are not required for go-live. The site includes free-text search and faceted filtering that will surface hostels appropriately without them. If you have the capacity to apply tags, it is worthwhile — but it is not a blocker and should not delay your submission.