Why do you have to join Houfy to learn about it?
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I would actually be very great full if someone took their time and gave me new free information about a new site where I can possibly get more guests.
I think the group who defends Airbnb here and picks fights with those memebers who share ideas and info about other possibilities are paid for this by Air ā¦
I would love to be selling my rooms though Air ā¦itās just not happening lately . Market oversaturated and prices dropped .
Plus too much sensory goes on with them.
I am selling my rooms mostly with Craigslist and I like this idea much better to see a guest and be seen by a guest before make a transaction.
And NOā¦Craigslist doesnāt pay me to promote them
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Actually, Yana there are so many Houfy members who are extremely grateful for my tutorials (Stories). We all help each other with answering customer service questions and general questions about Houfy. Houfy is a movement.
Instead of wasting time explaining and typing the same thing over and over againā¦many of us use Houfyās āStoryā feature publishing tool as way to be efficient.
Someone asks how to sync calendarsā¦ you just click and reply back with the Story. Someone asks another question, just reply back with the Story that includes all the steps.
Someone says they donāt understand this about Houfyā¦you reply with a Story link.
Someone wants to know how to market their Houfy listing for free, you reply back with a Story.
Itās called efficiency.
But of course some have to look for something to pick apart and portray it as a scheme to fool people on airhost forum.
And how dare I not give full disclosure that the owner of Houfy may share ownership with others. I donāt control the ownerā¦lol. First of all, it may never happen so why get anyoneās hopes if it didnāt happen. Plus, I donāt know enough about it anyway.
And secondly, people who join Houfy should be interested in listing site independence from the OTAs. Thatās why people join Houfy. No cost direct book site. Free digital guidebooks, etc.
I am looking forward to explore for sure since so many people do rent through them. Thats more my hosting style anyway: do all my self and independently without relying on any rental platform .
With changing economy only a person will remain successful who constantly adjusting and looking for new ways to run business.
Those who stuck in a past and against anything new or different will fail .
Unless they donāt care if they have this rental income or not
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It will take time. It is definitely not meant to replace the OTAs immediately. Like I said, itās a movement.
I always recommend staying with the OTAs to pay the bills. There will be a gradual shift as more travelers are educated about book direct in general, Houfy, and other book direct sites.
In the meantime, the OTAs will push their profits to the limits.
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When I travel, I try to find houses from a local chamber of commerce or web search first. If I find a house I like, I search reviews (Google, Yelp, ABB and VRBO - in that order) to verify that it is a good place.
I try not to use the big boys bc that costs the host and myself. My house is on all those, and ABB has been my best ROI so far, but since Iād rather go direct, I gave it a try and learned others would too. My website has done well for me, other options such as VRBO have not.
I think it is a conscious effort - be it a personal site, Houfy, Craigslist - for hosts and guests to choose not to take the easier route with ABB or VRBO. Some people are comfortable with it, others arenāt.
Otherall, I think, as hosts, we should support each otherās choices. We are all different (thank goodness) and, even though this is an ABB Host Forum, I certainly wouldnāt want any of us to put all our eggs in one basket that gets too crowded and one day breaks.
Try your house on Yelp, list on Craigslist, use ABB, try Houfy, use Facebook, build your own siteā¦ There are a lot of options. The more visibility I have, the less chance I have of being held hostage to the whims of anyone except myself.
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Me too! Unless they do it over and over and over and over and over and over again. I love DirectTextiles for buying linens and towels but have only mentioned it twice in 1 year and only when someone asked about purchasing linens or towels. I guess if I was acquiring points from DirectTextiles everytime I posted something about them, then Iād be motivated to post about them over and over and over and over and over again. But it would still be sh*tty of me to not inform my fellow forum members that that was the reason I was repeatedly posting about them. And I would still be breaking the forum TOS by effectively advertising DirectTextiles.
Craigslist rocks. Itās the obvious answer to direct bookings. So simple. If I wanted to direct-book, thatās where Iād look.
They donāt pay anyone to promote them. Thatās why they are as trusted as they are.
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@JJD and @Yana - Has Craigslist worked well for you? Sounds like you are both in favor? I have heard about that route but, Iām 
Not sure why, since I book direct, but thatās an admitted hangup of mine
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Iām not sure why. Itās an established and reliable interface that people are familiar and comfortable with - if youāre okay direct-booking then Craigslist seems like the obvious solution. There is a section for Vacation Homes and everything.
As a tenant, I found every apartment Iāve rented in the last 20 years (and it was at least 20, I move a lot) on Craigslist, in different cities and parts of the country. If I wanted to find a direct-book vacation or short-term rental it is definitely the first (and possibly only) place Iād look. As a home owner, 100% of our tenants have come from a Craigslist ad. There was no reason to ever look beyond there - itās free, itās easy, itās organized and people like it. I assumed it was being used by a lot of hosts who wanted to be outside the OTAs. Quite a few of the listings in my neighborhood are on there. I havenāt personally used it for STRs but have not needed the additional bookings. If I did need more bookings, then I would certainly do Craigslist as @Yana is doing.
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I think Iām leery because of the days of email scamming that came through Craigslist, and having to make up ways for your phone/email not to be stolen. I have one email account that I used on Craiglist and the spam was insane. My favorite aspect to my personal site is that there is a request form but my personal information isnāt visible until I am comfortable with the guest. Iāll have to check it out and see if that has gotten better or there are work-arounds. Guess I could link them to my house site?
Makes sense to use it in a target market, home market and in the home location, if that is all possible.
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You can choose an anonymous email for Craigslist. Iāve never used my real email there.
You could also get an app-based 2nd phone number and just use have people text you if you wanted. We use Sideline for our āfauxā numbers.
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Yes. I noticed some of the hosts in my neighborhood do it like that.
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Haha, I wish I could go back and tell 18 year old me not to have been that naive ā¦ 25 years later, the Prince of XYZ-Ville is still trying to get me to accept his inheritance! So generous, that man ā¦ 
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Craigslist works very well for me.
But .I like to host longer terms guests. My favourite are job transferred guests . These are about 30%. The rest are locals. Here you have to be careful.
Obviously the financial and life situation are not the best . Often itās people with bad credit or divorced or just with a bit lay back mindset.
It doesnāt mean they will be bad guests butā¦I try to avoid desperate situations.
98% of them paid just fine. 2% at one point started using tricks with me or ran away . Now it doesnāt happen anymore because I already see signs of that.
I start with one week pay and I even tell a person" we will.see how it goes" .
I check their record for evictions . If there is one I donāt accept.
I have lots of restrictions and it takes me sometime awhile to find that perfect guest.
I donāt allow cooking and vistors . I donāt accept smokers at all. Even if they smoke outside. I canāt stand the smell that coming out of smoker.
I set up the whole thing so peace and quite is maintained at all times .
Itās trueā¦there are scammers but they are not very creative and itās the same bs all the time .
Sometime I have emails that tell me I am horrible person to charge so much and donāt allow cooking. I just ignore them .
I find Craigslist very useful during off season . When high season comes I use Air again.
I do booking .com sometimes but guests still are surprised itās not a regular hotel but someoneās home. I managed to get to 8.2 score though but itās a strain for me to host guests from booking.
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To paraphrase Groucho Marx, Iām not sure Iād like to be a member of a crew/gang that would have me as a member 
You are so wrapped up in Houfy that youāve actually missed the most important point here, itās not Houfy per se that folks have an issue with, itās your incessant promotion of Houfy. Someone wants to set up a direct booking site, fine; in fact, more power to him.
Itās now become obvious that in Houfyland points make prizes, and points are gained by promotion of the Houfy site and more specifically, content written by members; I donāt have a problem with that, if thatās how the site owner wants to run his business then who am I to criticise? Both Airbnb and BDC offer inducements to hosts, itās common policy.
When directing forum members towards your articles/stories/guides/whatever, you were gaining a benefit, maybe not much in monetary terms right now, but a benefit nonetheless. Itās no different to a member recommending a product on Amazon, providing a link to that product, but failing to disclose that they are an Amazon affiliate thus (potentially) gaining commission from the referral.
At best I think youāve been somewhat disingenuous, maybe even a bit naive, but the bottom line is that you have been using this forum, and its members, for personal gain.
JF
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What I understood Houfy works by people telling each other about it . Airbnbhostforum is another rental platform where most hosts started to loose revenew for many different reasons . It will not get better, its changes rapidly ā¦information is very valuable ā¦and if someone volunteers it i am not sure whatās the problem is. Cabinhost was here before many others joined including those who are after her for some reason . Its not like she is someone who just joined to just sell something . 5 years must mean something dont you think its enough to be convinced this person has nothing but good intentions in mind by telling others about this site .
I wonder what does creator of this site Tom is thinking? Are we forbidden to exchange information about other new platforms ā¦have discussionsā¦even if its over and over and over again ?
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Yana - they are a waste of time. I will allow them accusing me of schemes and how they are so obsessed with me and Houfy. Itās obvious to 90% of people on this forum the ganging up on their targets continue. Many people on this forum are on Houfyā¦ and here we have this small handful of members who are plotting and trying to sway the forum and convince them I donāt give honest advice.
They are so obsessed they are spending enormous amounts of time trying to find fault in Houfy or my support of the awesome site. Even though plenty on here support the site. But many donāt speak up because they donāt want to be their next target.
They went so far today as multiple members decided to flag a reply I made to JJd as Spam. I find it sooo ironic that none of the bullying posts on here get flagged, but only posts that a certain group doesnāt like. They get together and flag them.
Of course people know I am one of the most knowledgeable people to contribute about ABB, Booking .com, TripAdvisor/Flipkey, and many other policies. People also know I am excellent at predicting the next move because I actually study the industry. I take the time to read shareholder reports unlike many on here making their āaccusations.ā
They are a waste of time - looking to pick fights and target members as usual. Itās okay.
You canāt convince these people. There is nothing to convince. They are trying to āset the stageā to convince other members of lies. It takes the heat off of their own bullying antics.
Here is a list of some Airbnb ācompetitorsā in the vacation rental space. For some reason booking dot com isnāt on this list. If you click on companies in the list then click on their competitors you get even more ācompetitorsā listed. This site wants you to sign up with your email which can be really annoying. For that reason Iām attaching their list of companies on this page so you can take a peek at those company websites.
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Sorry, but that is a load of BS.
Someone is seeing ghosts, making false accusations, and the whole forum crew blindly follows this one person.
It already starts with calling it āMultilevel marketingā and than adding āschemeā to it, just to make it sound more negative. Multilevel suggests that the person adding new members will profit from the business the member is making. This is not the case.
The correct terminology is peer-2-peer marketing. Which is a common kind of marketing, we all use this, worth of mouth is also peer-2-peer.
Then this person is falsely accusing of a person getting monetary gain, a few freebies is not monetary gain. We are not accusing @KKC of monetery gain because she posts a topic every time she gets a freebee from AirBnB?
And how can marketing advice be negative? Yes, off course you should add your listing to every blogpost you make, whether it is your personal site, your airBnB listing or any other place you list.
I still do not use Houffy, I already have my hands full with my own site, the local tourism office, Facebook, BDC and AirBnB. And I do not have time to invest in setting up a good Houffy site.
But for people that do not have their own website, or a good tourism office that spends loads of money on conventions and marketing, I can only recommend to use Houffy, mainly because it is really free. I do not know how long it will stay free, because at some point it will need income to keep the site running, but for now it is an ideal solution.
The only thing you could accuse @cabinhost off, is to be a bit over enthusiastic about Houffy. So it seems she is pushing the site down peoples throats.
But I can understand her enthousiasm, currently it is the best site to list on if you are looking for a direct booking solution. Because it is 100% free. Even when your have your own website you have to pay for your domain and webspace.
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When a user here is getting compensated for posting here about a product or service without disclosing such, it is spam. The sharing of stories generates points for the platform member.
You are welcome to your opinion, mine stands.
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