If you are a hosteler or are currently traveling and using budget accommodation, you can get some free Skype credit thanks to a promotion being run by Hostelworld.com.

If you aren’t familiar with Skype or Hostelworld, you need to get familiar real quick, because these are two services that are absolutely indispensable for travelers everywhere.

Skype is an online calling system with which you can either call other users who are online or purchase credits toward calls to landlines and mobile phones around the world. With just a headset and a microphone, you can be calling pretty much anyone, anywhere for some seriously competitive rates. If you make a lot of calls, you can sign up for a monthly bill pay plan that allows you unlimited calls for a flat rate.

Hostelworld, meanwhile, is one of the single best online booking systems for hostels and budget accommodation out there. Though they started with just a few hostel listings in the major European countries, their listings have expanded to all sorts of accommodation options, from backpacker hovels in European capitals to teeny guesthouses in the Mongolian countryside. Most of them are offered for a really good price, too.

So, the two have paired up to offer some benefits to you, the traveler. The promotion offers 60 minutes of Skype credit, no strings attached, to anyone who makes a booking through Hostelworld.com. The catch is really that you only have until 28th October at 9am GMT (that’s this Thursday morning, U.K./Ireland time) to make your booking.

Once you make the booking, you’ll be sent an email confirming the details of your free Skype credit. In order to use the credit, you of course must have an account with Skype and downloaded the necessary software to make calls. You’ll be given a promo code which you can input to your Skype account to receive the credit.

Though they’re advertising 60 minutes of calling time, the amount of time that you actually get will be dependent upon the place and type of phone that you’re calling. Since rates vary around the world (generally, it is more expensive to call mobiles than landlines), you’ll get more talk time if you call a European landline than if you call a Chinese mobile phone, for instance.

One final catch is that, once you receive your confirmation email with the promo code, you must redeem the voucher by 11:59pm GMT on December 31 this year to get the credit, after which time it will disappear into oblivion!

Happy calling and happy hosteling!