@Don_Burns
I think it’s great you created your own website, and I can tell you are passionate about your business. But, if you are going to direct your guests to another listing site - it may as well be one that does not charge guests booking fees! Your repeat guests already trust you. I see on your site you direct guests to ABB or TripAdvisor. You can replace those links with a link to your Houfy listing instead.
It’s free to list your property. It’s also integrated with Stripe and Square. So credit card acceptance costs you no more than you are already paying ABB and TA. The difference is that you will receive the money directly into your bank account right after the guest books, not after they check in. And Houfy does not insert itself into your money transactions. That’s between you and the guest. Your damage deposit is between you and your guest.
I understand that for now you are comfortable with ABB and maybe a last minute cancellation does not impact your bottom line very much, so you are not the least concerned if one of your guest’s uses the extenuating circumstances policy. But I would never send my guest back to a site knowing I could lose all the $$$ for that booking if they get sick and can show a Drs note.
When you import your listing into Houfy, you can also import all reviews from ABB or VRBO. Then you can sync those reviews as new reviews arrive and they will appear on your Houfy listing. The reviews do say which site they came from. People who book you on Houfy can leave a review directly on Houfy.
You can also sync your Houfy calendars with ABB and other calendars.
And you mentioned your website has weblinks to local attractions. Did you know that Houfy is a social site for travelers and you can create many guides of local things to do, wineries, hiking, restaurants, etc.? You can link them from your website or even embed all of your guides directly into your website. Once you write local guides on Houfy - let’s say a traveler comes across the site and is thinking about visiting the wineries in Murphys, CA, but they’re not actually decided where to vacation yet. In one area of the site they can type in murphy’s California and your guides can show up. The traveler clicks on your winery guides and starts reading the info you wrote. They can save this info to their favorites for future reading material. And your listing can be embedded into every single piece of local info you write.
So even someone in the research stage will know of your place to stay in the future. They can easily share your local info from Houfy directly to their friends on their social sites. They can also “follow” you on Houfy and receive any new posts you make in their Houfy newsfeed. Most of my guests have recently been joining Houfy to “follow” me on there. These guests have for the most part come through an OTA. But now they know they can book me with no fees next time. And long after they leave…they are still reading about my local posts of the area. What better way to keep the guest thinking about your area.
One suggestion for your Facebook page. Have you thought of adding a “learn more” or “book now” button? Keep the send message button if they have a question, but add one of the blue contact buttons. If someone is on your FB page, then they can click that button and be linked directly to your Houfy listing. Of course you could also direct them to ABB or TA too if that’s your preference.
Here are the free embed tools that Houfy allows people to use on their own websites. You of course need to have your property on Houfy in order for this to work on your Meadowslair site. I am not sure if they are compatible with every single website but I used some on my wordpress site, so def. worth a try or PM me if you have any issues.
You just copy/paste the embeds onto your website. You can add your property’s availability calendar, a seasonal rates table, up to date reviews, and a quote tool where guest enters dates and number of guests. When you need to update for example your holiday rates on your Houfy listing, it will reflect those changes on your website within seconds.
Here is an example of a Houfy member who has the quote tool, seasonal rates table, and calendar embedded. If you click on the his reviews tab you can see how he has also embedded his reviews. https://bearhavencabins.com/inquire-and-book/