Advantages and Challenges of Doing Your Own Bookings

[RiverRock]

@Brian_R170

I would be worried about getting scammed.

That make no sense to me. I do business with small businesses online all the time and I have never been scammed. I have had a VRBO host forget to return a $500 deposit, which I also forgot about, then she returned it 4 months later when she caught the mistake. I choose to trust people and small businesses.

RR

[Brian_R170]

@Debthecat, @RiverRock, A scammer in another country can simply grab the photos and description from a real Airbnb/VRBO/BDC listing and use them to setup a direct booking website with all the same info and wait for somebody to come along and say “we looked at your place on Airbnb and BDC” and happily give the scammer their money.

[RiverRock]

@Brian_R170

A scammer in another country can simply grab the photos and description

Yes that could happen, and it would suck and my credit card company would pay in the end. It also can and does happen with cloned Airbnb sites, so anything is possible yet we all still travel.

RR

[justMandi]

The demand for longer STRs here is high, being a hospital and university town. Lately we have noticed an overall decline in the quality of guests, owing to more listings and more competition. But longer term STRs are not that common.

The advantages of booking direct are obvious. You control it and what goes on in your home. If needed, you can kick at will. It is more stable.

Downsides? Interviews are tedious. So is background checking, etc.

The one advantage we enjoyed was being able to profile our ideal guest. This was harder, but it ultimately saves a lot of time for everyone.

[Helsi]

I don’t remember saying they had a hosting platform @mypictonhouse? although as you know they do recommend self catering and hotel accommodation on their site so are a useful comparator for you when you are looking at buying an advertising package on Vacation Soup.

[Chris]

@mypictonhouse

Challenges:

• Rulings on damage–did the guest really do it? The guest did it, but is it a result of normal wear and tear?, etc.
• How to require govt-issued I.D. (many folks aren’t comfortable with this, but feel safe when it’s a platform; not so safe when it’s an individual).

Both “challenges” are no real challenges.
In both cases you have far more control than on a platform, so what you call challenge, is actually an advantage.

1. You can set the deposit and decide wether to keep or return it, no 3rd party requiring proof or invoices.

2. You can check the ID and register it. No 3rd party checking it trough a vague system, without you knowing if they actually checked anything.

[Chris]

@Brian_R170

Looking at it from a guest point of view, I would be worried about getting scammed. How do I know if the website is legitimate, the property is accurately represented, or actually exists?

If your that kind of guest I do not want you anyway. Seems like a high maintenance nightmare guest…

[Debthecat]

I think you may be better for a hotel

[Brian_R170]

Does that mean you only want non-savvy guests that are easy to dupe?

I guess I’m not clear why that would make a guest you don’t want. People get duped by fake websites all the time. You can read about Airbnb scams on this forum. It’s a real concern for somebody paying $300/night for a vacation rental.

[dpfromva]

I direct book in a low key way with return guests, who might have business or family in the area. If I run into my guest and have a good conversation, I tell them in person how to book direct next time. If I get a repeat booking of someone I like through Airbnb, I will write on the whiteboard “Avoid the booking fees – book direct at [my email].”
(I also have what I’ve come to think of as an “intelligence test” in my suite – my laminated placements have the book direct tagline with my email, right at the top. I have had exactly two guests ever notice this!)
Recently I’ve begun leaving a little stack of home-printed 3x5 postcards in the suite. (But I remove them from the room if the pre-booking communications indicate potential issues, such as questions that show they failed to read, and persistent requests for rules exceptions.)
I did a second set of postcards for my vacation house, which is word of mouth only.
I’ve been making the cards available at events when I feel it won’t be annoying, such as the open house for neighbors I threw at my vacation house. I invited the guests to take some of each – for the vacay house and for my Airbnb at my primary residence in metro DC. My real estate agent took a pile of them. Eventually he will have a client visiting to tour homes and will refer them to me, and I know he won’t send me any jerks.
The next time my book club meets at my house, I will have my postcards on hand. We are a very supportive group of each other’s life ventures, so they won’t be offended.
And I plan to mail them to my extended family with a note about “shameless self-promotion.”
Of course I offer the “friends and family rate” under these circumstances – which varies depending on how friendly and how family they are. At a minimum they avoid the Airbnb fee.
Payment can be to my PayPal, cash left in the space, or old school paper check, upon check in. If payment fails, I’d just never have them back.
This is a very slow way to develop business, but has the advantage of not requiring a website and trying to have SEO content and a lot of social media presence, and somewhat limits damage concerns so I don’t collect a security deposit. The pressure instead is that people have to have a lovely experience staying at my places to generate the returns and referrals.

[Chris]

No, people do not get duped all the time.
Just as host do not get scammed all the time.

These are stories AirBnB and other OTA’s are pushing to keep you scared, and keep you on platform.

STR has existed long before, and will still exist long after AirBnB, no reason to get scared.

Guest that are so clueless, that they are scared to book outside an OTA tend to be very high maintenance.

[Helsi]

No guests don’t get duped ALL the time, any more that Airbnb hosts have problems with their guests ALL the time, or guests have problems with hosts ALL the time.

It’s quite hilarious that you think Airbnb would want to push out stories that guests (their major income stream ) are getting duped by fraudsters pretending to be Airbnb.

Quite honestly @Chris I am not sure why you post here. From your comments you clearly don’t like Airbnb too much and rarely seem to post with any constructive advice or input for your fellow hosts.

[Chris]

I post here to troll hosts like you.

You cannot ignore that AirBnB keeps scaring hosts and guests not to do anything outside their platform, because you could loose AirBnB’s “Insurance”.
And both hosts and guest keep falling for it.

And no, I do not like AirBnB, but I do not like BDC, Homeaway and TripAdvisor either.
Unfortunately it is very hard for a host to keep a high occupancy rate without these platforms.

I have added plenty of constructieve advice, but not always the advice the avarage AirBnB lover would like to hear.

[adrienne12]

Challenges:

• you won’t be found by guests, someone needs to take care of SEO, but even with this, it takes a long time, perhaps years to be displayed on 1 st page in google and depending on what key words.
• taxes. You will have to do the finances yourself, to accept credit cards and partner up with someone who processes credit cards on your behalf, in other words to get a merchant account with them, so you will pay them 3% of the amount, pretty much what ABB takes off your bookings.
• depending of the country you are in you might have to form your own business. In USA you certainly would and this makes taxes more complicated, whereas, me, having ABB do everything for me, can be considered a landlord. Very easy taxes.

[Helsi]

What exactly is it that you want/need to do outside the platform @Chris?

You are right the term troll sums you up perfectly

[Helsi]

Great post @dpfromva repeat guests and word of mouth marketing are two of the most powerful and cost effective ways to promote your listing.

I also like your ideas around ‘third party marketing’ ie working with a third party (the estate agent) to get the word to his/her clients who may be in need to temporary accommodation. And sharing with your book club.

[Jenna]

@mypictonhouse

So, for you, it’s marketing and driving traffic to the site. And have you personally attempted this? Are you still figuring it out? Or…?

Hi everybody I’m new here it’s all very interesting!

I’ve been renting a holiday home for a number of years and just started airbnb a year ago.

I have a diploma in web marketing and internet communications.

I agree with Helsi there is no way your personal website can compete with the marketing machine of Airbnb. They pay a fortune to appear in banners, ads, on google, on email.

If someone clicks on your apartment or types in keywords your ad pops up on their email etc.

They are top in the search engine results.

There is no way your individual website will ever be able to compete with the giants Air, HomeAway, Booking.

You might have some moderate success through FB but mainly with paying ads.

Several years ago you could hope to appear in search engine results by making a good site, updating it a lot, and putting in the right keywords. Today, the “organic” approach doesn’t work you have to pay to appear and there is no way you can compete with the powerhouses.

[lililou1]

Advantages:

• no review hypocrisy
• no airbnb fees
• more freedom to cancel a booking if needed
• ability to be more selective about who you accept in your property

Challenges:

• Visibility/Marketing/Search engines - you will not appear in search results, will need to work hard other methods of advertising your property there are some good ideas here.

• People will not want to pay in advance to a random person on the web, even if your site is fabulous and you have references, you will find many people getting cold feet when it comes to paying.

=> it has happened to me more than once a guest contacts me by my website thinking they are gonna be smart and not pay Airbnb fees. But finally when it comes down to making the payment directly to me, they get cold feet and decide a hundred dollars fees on Air is worth the security they get.

• Managing the bookings, cancellations, changes and avoiding double bookings might be hard you can make a mistake, it’s so easy on air.

• Managing payment follow up, chasing after them for the money (unless you make them pay in full upon booking, but most people won’t want that!).

• Need to find solution for people to pay with a credit card

[mypictonhouse]

@lililou1. Have you checked out Square? It’s a great tool for sole proprietors who have clients pay with credit cards.

[mypictonhouse]

@adrienne12: Square for credit card payments. Super simple. And Paypal. Also super simple.