Encouraging the more lucrative platform

21

Good question what do they offer as far as protection? I assumed alot.

22

Not me. :slight_smile:

I’m busier than ever these days. I hear all this talk about people working from home (supposedly) and having lots of time on their hands. But I’ve worked from home for years so there’s no difference. Covid has just made me even busier.

I still think though that using so many sites seems like an administrative nightmare compared to just having Airbnb and your own site.

I’m echoing @JohnF here but what did you assume they offered?

23

What protections does AirBnb offer?
I have my own insurance, I do not depend on air for any sort of protection

Rr

24

We have three platforms that get any business at all: Vrbo, AirBnB and our direct website. (We have a three-bedroom villa with staff in Caribbean.)
I prefer Vrbo because we get reviews on their platform and they reward us for bookings and reviews by increasing our rank.

So I charge a little more on our own website and have a stricter cancellation policy - but the guest doesn’t pay a service fee. So they pay a bit less but take more risk, and I make a little more and take less risk, but lose the “reward” of increased ranking.

AirBnB is my least favorite. Too much “nanny state” for me, especially with the (soon to be gone) extenuating circumstances policy. I block out the premium weeks and raise rates at least my direct rate, and have a strict policy. So the guest pays the most (the service fee is also higher than Vrbo) and takes the risk with the strict policy, but they had the EC backup. I get more money, but have a mixed bag of risk - protected against a lot of cancellations, but not the worst ones (we do not get last-minute bookings).

@Mountainhost - now you won’t have to think about it anymore!

3 Likes
25

Read. Your. Terms. Of. Service.

They regulate how AirBnB works and what you are supposed to do. Note that they never mention insurance, and that they don’t really take deposits even if you have one on your listing. They allow you to file a damage claim ONLY IN THEIR EXACT WAY WITH THEIR TIME RESTRICTIONS and of course don’t answer the phone now.

Air may get a guest’s ID but you won’t know what it is or see it unless you ask the guest yourself(some localities require that hosts copy passport info from guests, not the passport, but the info).

If you think they offer “protection” just search this forum for “damage claim”, “ruined”, “destroyed”, and read the stories.

Read the Terms of Service.

3 Likes
26

Thanks good to know.

27

3 bedrom Villa in Caribbean sounds great right about now! How do you keep the calendars in sync on your personal page? Manually? Also, can you recommend a service that has a nice template to create your own booking site? The more I’m hearing on here about people booking direct through your personal site, the more open I am becoming open to it.

28

That is great information. Now I have to think about how to start my own website/listing site. Thank you!

29

I am with HalonaSedona as I did some research last night and there were so many to choose from and I do not want to reinvent the wheel if most of you recommend the same one.

30

Our website has a calendar system that automatically synchs a few times a day. However, since we are on IB for both AirBnB and Vrbo (risky, but we only get ~40 bookings a year due to a long minimum stay), I don’t allow instant bookings on our website.
I built our website with a theme and a visual editor called Elementor.

31

Excellent platform

202020202020

32

Is there a specific platform you do this on?i was looking to do this too.

33

Thanks!! I will look into this.

34

My own direct book website, that’s the point. no platform, total control.

RR

35

I am on booking.com now and I have the same price as Airbnb and VRBO.

36

That works as long as the others aren’t lower for the same rental, but as @JohnF said, it’s easy to make a small adjustment in the amenities so that the rentals aren’t the same.

37

In truth I think BDC only pursue this with really big hotel groups and when guests complain. Sole operators have little to worry about unless they upset guests who are in the know about this policy.

38

I find Airbnb guests require on average more hand-holding and time, more cleaning, more accidental damage and ware and tear and more likely to disturb the neighbors. Airbnb bookings are on average shorter and so less revenue, but valuable as they are more last minute and so fill vacancy holes. Airbnb has grown to over 50% of total bookings which is too risky to be so dependent on one marketing channel. Direct bookings via our website are cheaper by an average of 15% because we do not charge commission where we load prices on other platforms to cover any commission charged to us. Because Airbnb guests are extra work and cost and I want to be less dependent on Airbnb I now

  1. Charge an extra 10% per night + flat $30 per booking on the Airbnb platform
  2. Charge a bond amount on Airbnb only because they are the guests who cause problems (smoking, extra cleaning, not checking out on time).
    We email a voucher to all departing guests for an extra 10% discount to book direct within 1 year, to try and make them our loyal guests rather than loyal to Airbnb, or BDC, HomeAway etc.
1 Like
39

Most excellent idea. Behooves us to move along and get our direct sites up and running. Sigh…

40

My first site I built myself and used ownerres as the booking engine, later on when I opened my second cabin I dumped my site and went with ownerres for that as well. I love my OR site, and its worth the small monthly investment. You can have a site up in 15 minutes. Then you need to drive traffic to the site I use google ads, some use FB but FB is dead to me since 2016 so I do not use them.

RR