This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
I’m just curious to see which sites work best for everyone and why.
BDC: I’m in a ski town and get many one night stays, most in my town don’t offer one night stays, since I clean myself it’s no problem, I have the highest BDC rating in my town, even better than 5 star hotels. So I do well and guests have been fantastic.
Airbnb: probably fills me up faster, guests for the most part wonderful, downside is they bring more people in their group. More work and more neighbor complaints.
VRBO I rarely get bookings and the ones I do get never leave reviews: any suggestions? I even offer my lowest price on vrbo, I just can’t seem to work my way up in the rankings
Travelocity: infrequent bookings, no reviews, but ok guests.
I’d love to hear what others do, and if you have suggestions for VRBO I’d love to hear them.
I can’t help much since I only do Airbnb and direct. My experience is similar to yours. Ours is a homeshare so Airbnb seems the best match and it’s driven good business for 10 years.
I’m excited to hear that BDC has worked for you. I’m interested in giving it a go but I’m afraid I won’t be able to stay organized. What’s the best part about it compared to Air?
I did VRBO and Air on a single listing for an entire year. We got maybe 20 bookings on VRBO and the rest on Air (0% vacancy). The VRBO guests seemed pretty much the same as Air. But it was too much of a pain to maintain both platforms so just went with Air after that year trial period.
I’m currently on Air only. If the perfect booking platform were an A+, I’d give Air about a B overall. Things that would make the platform better:
More tools for multiple listings
Improve auto-pricing
Overlay local festivals/holidays/events on the calendar
Better queries for deducing taxes/revenues/cleaning fees
Let me “archive” old listings (“snoozing” and/or “deleting” doesn’t solve my problem)
Fix the overall clunkiness of the App once and for all
Let the user determine featured “amenities” on listing results
CS reps should be domestic to your listing (NEVER will happen)
CS reps should have more leeway to solve problems in the moment
Fix dog fees to behave exactly like “extra person” fees (or give us the option)
Create a co-host/house cleaner option that let’s me decide EXACTLY what they can see
Better tools for staff and cleaners in general (3rd party tools already do this, why not Air?)
Create an error trap (Uber has this) for guests that when they leave anything less than a 5-star review it reminds the guest that it’s a debilitating review
Most are dreams. But I think it will get better. NOT SOON ENOUGH!
We’re the opposite of JohnnyLounge21. Usually get 70% of our bookings through Vrbo, 20% ABB, and 10% directly from our website.
We listed on BDC but then shut it down. Their policy of requiring the host to provide a replacement property of equal or better quality if you cancel on a guest doesn’t work at all for us - there aren’t many places near us that fit that description and they are all frightfully expensive
TripAdvisor is another place we list but I haven’t even had an inquiry from them in three years.
Which platform works the best for you really depends on your location, property, and clientele. We are in a fly-to “bucket list” location (St Lucia in the Caribbean), are a three bedroom home with a pool, and have full-time staff to take care of guests. Our guests are mostly from the US, and are families or groups of friends traveling together. They tend to be older and have traveled using vacation rentals before and are familiar with Vrbo.
Has BDC listing descriptions improved much for STR?
The last time I used them, they auto generated the description and you couldn’t edit it. They did this to easily translate it to other languages.
Can you easily control your own policies and rules?
Can you collect a security deposit?
Do you still take the payment yourself (they give CC) or are they the merchant?
The end of month reconcile used to be a hassle to fight with them about fees on cancels.
As far as the description in BDC I put in all the information and if I change it they do it, but it hasn’t been a problem. They handle the payments for me. Customer service has been both helpful and useful for me, so no complaints with BDCfrom me.
I don’t collect a security deposit with BDC or any site, however my BDC guests have really been my best.
It’s so interesting how this varies depending on location. I have a friend who has run a small hostel here in my Mexican town for about 20 years. She mostly is listed on hostelling sites, but tried out BDC for a brief time. She said she got the absolute worst quality of guests through them ( pigs and thieves) she has ever experienced, plus tons of no-shows. To add insult to injury, she never got paid for the bookings that went through and after fighting with them for awhile, threw in the towel.
I’m the same as Christine. Although when I say ‘direct’ it’s sometimes a case of driving traffic to the Airbnb listings via social media, networking and blogs.
These keep my two rentals booked year round but bear in mind that I’m well-established so have a lot of repeat and referral business too. I like these, as both parties know what to expect.
@James333 I have the same questions. I started setting up on BDC today but gave up for the moment. There is A LOT of detail to add and they are clearly coming from a hotel biz model and they use international terms (like “holiday” vs “vacation”) that confused me for a minute.
I am almost (70%) set up but I need to do a ton of h/w before I’m willing to make my listing live. I may not get that far. If you go for it, be sure to come back and give an update, please.
