Until more owners educate travelers and guests about Houfy…this is how the majority of us are getting our bookings on Houfy. Someone just got their 10th booking yesterday.
We have our own dedicated website with our villa name and guests can inquire and book through that. We have a Facebook page that directs people to our website for availability and pricing, I have the PayPal widget enabled on the website so they can pay. It’s “free” for us - we post a lot of information on it so we’d pay for the website even if we didn’t book.
I’m not trying to be a smart-ass, but if Houfy isn’t a way to get people to find us by attracting travelers somehow to the site, what good is it? I presumed it would get more traffic than our own website by the sheer number of owners that list on it.
I know you aren’t trying to be a smart ass. Houfy is a movement, a long-term strategy.
If owners only want other sites to bring them bookings and they are content with the controls, the service fees, commissions, full refunds given back for extenuating circumstances - then they pay for those sites to bring them bookings. They pay for them to market their properties and stay at the top of Google.
If someone wants one day to be on a site where they can get bookings for free with absolutely no controls, then Houfy is for them. The idea is to use the OTAs for bookings, but water Houfy in the background… Next year it will be worse with the OTAs
Imagine if every owner who was displeased with the OTAs actually educated their departing guests to book direct next time. But people don’t. They complain. And then say “I wish there was a site that would bring some real competition.” That 's what I wrote my Stork story about. It’s not thinking logically. Airbnb and HA didn’t all of a sudden happen overnight.
No one wants to list on a site because it has no listings. People don’t want to list because there are no bookings. Yet they think someone will spend money marketing a site with no inventory…
If anything, people who have no way to book repeats but are still taking cash- they should list on Houfy so travelers can book them directly on there and they will already be paid immediately. That’s just one way to start educating people about it.