Would greatly appreciate anyone’s input on their experience of other platforms for doing listings like mine, spare rooms, not the entire home…
I only rent out 4 entire houses. You say that Airbnb has the lowest fees - yes for the host, but not for the guest. The fees my guests are paying to Airnb are around 20%. So total fees paid are around 23%.
Booking.con charges the host approx 15%. The terms and conditions on Booking.con states that their listing must be the cheapest if you list on multiple OTA’s
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Concur that Achilles should try to remove some of their eggs from the Airbnb basket. However, do not underestimate the power of sheer persistence – while ginning up listings on other platforms of course. You can be pleasant but take the approach, “I am NEVER going away.” Sometimes it’s better to have an organization longing to get rid of you than sympathetic.
It doesn’t take much time to keep repeating a succinct statement on Facebook and Twitter “I got two retaliatory 1 ratings, one from a guest who sexually harassed me, so frightening and thank goodness my husband was able to quickly get there, and one from a guest who never actually stayed but did not like the strict cancellation policy. Airbnb closed my listing due to those ratings. Airbnb reps have repeatedly assured me they are looking into reinstating my listing, but I have not heard any progress for x weeks.” Then just copy and paste it every week, while you are busily listing on HomeAway, Craigslist, your Nextdoor group, etc.
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I agree with @muddy, that is just way too much for anyone (let alone Airbnb CS) to read and follow. Short chronological bullet points are key here.
To others who have suggested other platforms, agreed, however as @Achilles666 has a shared space within her home, Airbnb is really the easiest route for her, assuming no more account “difficulties” moving forward. (No way in hell I would list my shared room on CL or the like, and VRBO, BC, etc. really are not the best fit for her, IMO.)
Great advice.
I like how you had phrased that example you used on what I should stare repeatedly weekly on twitter and Facebook. To copy and paste it would take little time. I may use something very close to your example. Thats spot on and to the point.
Im trying to keep a persistent mindset because I woukd like to continue with them for being the being the busiest app in my area. From what I hear the other platforms like vrbo has very slow business.
For now, at least in my area, Airbnb is where its at if you want to make money and have come consistently.
Repeated post on social media may give Airbnb a sense of more accountability since its viewable to the public. Great ideas ill definitely do that. Thankyou:)
those points are excellent advice.
I kinda have the same feeling about those platforms may not be a good fit for my set im not sure since I’m unfamiliar on how they work.
May i ask the reasons you feel that way?
Air is the only one that is oriented toward home sharing. The others are all marketing whole home rentals, and some only do whole homes.
Exactly what @NordlingHouse said. When you are renting rooms from your home, that you live in, Airbnb is probably your best bet to get (the most) bookings. The other sites don’t really market to that segment of folks.
It appears that homestay.com caters to this market? There may be others - no harm in trying.
We have never used them as our stay is “entire place”.
Is there any other platforms you know that does?
Thats all I can do is home sharing. So u guess its either airbnb or nothing. Im suppose to hear their final decision tomorrow. I had been on twitter like
okay I cam give any platform a shot that has opportunity in home sharing
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I’ll have to check that one out. No matter what, it’s always nice not to have to rely on Airbnb 100%, though for home shares, I think it’s the best one out there.
My concern with any of the other services that are nearly all complete homes/apartments is the issue of guests not reading listings. If homestay or any of the others has just a small number of home shares, I’d worry that no one would expect a home share.
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Excellent point! Hopefully @Achilles666 can get this sorted with Air and moving forward has no more issues.
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I looked at the Homestay website a couple of years ago- I can’t remember too much about it (I’m going to have another look) but it was definitely all home shares. That was the whole deal- that you stayed with a host in their home. As I recall, it seemed a bit geared towards maybe visiting students and such. And I seem to recall that the host was supposed to provide meals, i.e. the guest eats with the host or family. But it may have morphed since then.
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No thanks - not going to torture guests with my cooking! NEXT!
Edit: Upon looking at their site it looks like providing meals is optional.
I searched my area which has 300+ listings on Airbnb, but on homestay.com there are only 2 search results…
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Oh, thanks for looking, I haven’t had a chance. Yeah, I thought the same when I looked at the site a few years ago- I pretty much dislike cooking, although I do cook (gotta eat, right?) but many is the night I just throw a few veggies in a bowl, call it salad and make a grilled cheeser. My days of making a full-fledged breakfast and dinner every day ended when my youngest grew up, like 20 years ago.
I don’t even eat breakfast, really. Late riser, coffee and a cig, then I’ll make some lunch a couple hours later. I can’t imagine getting up at 7AM to make breakfast for a guest. Almost all my guests are up, showered, coffeed and out the door before I even wake up 
DItto!
Me too, and that’s the way I like it. They get their privacy in the AM and don’t have to deal with my grumpyness in the morning. win/win.
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