Houfy? I am interested in diversifying: Cannot keep all my eggs in the Airbnb basket

I joined Fb just to be part of Houfy. Fb is quite a rabbit hole, but my experiences with Houfy have all been entirely positive. The site is improving time over time and more hosts than ever are getting bookings.

1 Like

I really hate it when someone has to join Facebook in order to participate in a different platform. There is no way I would join Facebook for any reason whatsoever.

3 Likes

Ok I am still confused. It takes 10-15 min to list on most sites. BDC took longer. To me, this isn’t a big deal.

If you have specific suggestions for identifying “marketing activities and channels” that would result in bookings I am interested. Most sites have a lot of listings in our area. Air, BDC, Tripadvisor, VRBO, Misterbandb, etc.

If you have some magic to knowing which will actually work for us, without trying them, that is very interesting.

So just create an account with a fake name, so that you can use the platform to your needs, without providing any info that you do not wish to disclose.

We know quite a few people that do this.

Or join Houfy using any email account. Facebook is not required.
We never use FB to join a site - as it gives them access to data that is none of their business.

image

It has nothing to do with providing info. I won’t support Facebook and Zuckerberg in any way. Nor Amazon and Bezos.

They are using Facebook as their forum. And Airhosts Forum as their forum when @LoneStar doesn’t want to use Facebook (or even Airbnb anymore). (that’s where we come in).

1 Like

If you want me to research and develop a measurable marketing and comms plan for your STR business happy to provide you with a quote @Jefferson :rofl::grin::grinning:

As I said it is not just about you listing on STR websites there are lots of other thing you can do to promote your business.

Of course I can’t tell you which approaches, channels and activities you should be using that’s where your market research comes in based on your understanding of your target markets, the key benefits of your listing and what will work best in reaching and engaging your target customers.

Just letting you know that it you could EXPLOIT FB to your ends, without providing them with anything at all (data / info) of yours. Just create a new email on some site that you do not current use (free) and use that to create a FB account. Viola - a FB account that has nothing at all about you, with a fake name and profile. If one wishes to be extra safe, use the browser in Incognito Mode as well for both activities. They will have nothing at all. No cookies, no data.

Understood. My point is merely that we had no way of knowing which sites would work for us, without trying them. For whatever reason, Air dominates our area. We did try various promotions/discounts with the others, with little effect.

When open back up with our new stay, we will try more direct marketing efforts due to the rampant and poor treatment of hosts by Air these last few months. We were merely fortunate that none of these impacted us directly.

1 Like

I tried to explain- it has nothing whatsoever to do with safety or Facebook knowing anything about me.
What they will have is one new account, whether it is linked to me personally or not. I don’t wish to add to their user numbers.
I do not need Facebook, I think it promotes a narcissistic culture and I hate the way so many businesses and people assume that everyone uses Facebook.

No worries. Just letting you know, as someone with a lifetime in IT, that there are options to use them without them using you.

All of us have the right to decide - for whatever reasons we like - to use (or not) any platform. Not trying to suggest that you should. Merely mentioning that you could - without anything of use to them whatsoever.

2 Likes

Answer: Not currently possible. The owner has noted my request and will add this feature in the next round of work they do on the calendar functionality.

It’s crazy to think they never had the request before. I know they don’t have very many hosts but still one would think with all the publicity about partiers often being same day requests it would be a no brainer.

Can’t you just approve all requests and prevent same day bookings that way?

BDC has 90% of the market, the rest including Air are alternatives.

This is is the amount of transactions WuBook, one of the largest channelmanagers in the world, processed yesterday.
So keep in mind that you are inside an AirBnB information bubble, AirBnB seems a big thing, but it is still a little dwarf compared to BDC.

Also take note of that little “G” in the middle column, good chance that that will take over the 2nd place in the not so far future.

I left the hover remark on, so you can understand the columns a bit. Left one are bookings, middle one cancellations, and right one are new bookings per property
So 270 AirBnB Transactions, of which 31% were cancellations, and 0.04 new bookings per listing

Are you suggesting that I am in an “Airbnb bubble”?

JF

Sounds like a particularly tiresome reality show :grin: :grimacing:

2 Likes

Friend of mine who’s owned and run a hostel for many years signed up with BDC. Not only did she get the worst quality of guests she’s ever had through them, she never got paid for any of the bookings.

There is no ‘instant’ book. All must be approved. As you note, the general public doesn’t go to Houfy to look for a room, they get sent there by the host. For my part, they don’t get sent ‘there’ per se: All the booking functionality is embedded into my own site.

But it shows my calendar open for same-day bookings and I am going to have to add disclaimer text that we are not staffed to accept same-day bookings until they upate this.

I am advised they will be migrating off of FB soon-ish.

2 Likes

It doesn’t matter “who is bigger”. Performance of a platform is very local and regional. We’ll use whatever benefits us. BDC was nearly useless for us, so not worth the time to setup for one booking in 6 months.

When we go to Europe (or nearly anywhere) we predominantly use Air. BDC maybe 15% of the time. Air had a lot lot more choices that are nicer, much better located and less expensive.