Yep, it’s not worth our time to try to manage our property outside that. We are both very busy with kids, careers, etc. The Airbnb is really a very little side income (compared to our careers) in a property (our guest house) that would be otherwise unoccupied.
That’s why I don’t bother to set up a guest network for the internet. Just not worth my time. Lol. Kidding in a way but in another I’m just flabbergasted by your reply.
Why, out of curiosity? I mean, I make 12-15% extra on one transaction a month. Our Airbnb probably has a lower profit margin than most anyhow. We offer a fully stocked fridge including soda, water, teas, Gatorade. We have chips, snack bars, pizzas, burritos, breakfast sandwiches, toothbrushes, ammeneties galore, etc.
Almost all of our profit gets put back into the property or on community projects. We care more about people having a good time, not so much making a ton. We’re booked probably 27 days a month, and the other few days aren’t occupied because we’ve blocked them off for friends and family.
We’ve used the Airbnb to modernize our cities zoning and legal views on things like this, and to implement a quiet zone from the railroad for the community as a whole.
For us it’s more about the fun and challenge of it, the hassle of trying to manually coordinate/block out the times, etc. for 15% one time a month isn’t worth it to me.
We haven’t been doing Airbnb more than 5 months but we’ve already met a lot of good people, and had some life changing interactions with guests.
Hopefully that makes sense.
1 Like
I noticed the Server Error 418 - I’m a teapot on your direct website. Do you ever get bookings from that?
1 Like
I guess that makes it a win win win for hosts to lower their prices, they can possibly make just as much money. Interesting that they are only making it from the guest though. I must admit that, compared to other sharing economy platforms, Airbnb 3% is pretty low.
I also wonder if this is region specific though? Or maybe even that their percentage is region specific.
Based on the increased percentage Airbnb would stand to make even more of the total price if you did, so glad you didn’t!
The guest is paying most of that so unless you raise your direct booking price 12% it does not make that much of a difference to the host who does not want to coordinate it all.
RR
1 Like
Only from the kettles. 
You must be a techie?
Yes, last time I checked I think it was costing me 3%.
But you could make 10% more if you booked direct, you know these people you could take a check if you wanted to.
RR
2 Likes
Your site is throwing warnings:
Chrome
Firefox
Your average Joe Guest will bolt when he sees that.
JF
3 Likes
Oh, one. Okay. I read this completely differently:
A lot, a number and 25% of every month is a regular that’s like family is worth getting an extra % per month.
But now you say its just one booking. However 7 out of 27 for one family is a big chunk
I hope by posting back to you what you’ve said you see my confusion. Even for one booking a month of a week I’m guessing at least $40 is going to Airbnb fees alone. That’s another $400+ a year that could be going to charity or community projects. All the information about how low your profit margin is and how you are using Airbnb to improve your community just reinforces my view that you shouldn’t be giving Airbnb more than you need to.
I have contradictory information on how much you are booking to strangers and how much to neighbors, friends and family. So my flabbergastedness was based on thinking you had “lots” of regulars on top of your one week a month booking.
I get that. If it’s a lot of bookings from referrals but not really people that winsome knows, it makes sense.
The argument is often made that we only pay 3% but I always look at the total that Airbnb gets. It’s just a shell game.
2 Likes
Hey, you’re right. Thanksfully, the average Joe would never see that. All of our marketing has www and not TLS as its an immediate 301 redirect. I put an https:// on here out of digital habit. Either way, thanks for the heads up. Went ahead and generated a signed cert and installed it.
Nope! Just interested since I also wrote you a PM so needed to look at your profile and figured I would check out your site while I was there.
So, does your site actually work, or only the kettles?
Yes, and if you do actually click through you get the aforementioned Server Error 413 - I’m a teapot.
I see where that could be a bit confusing. Sorry for the confusion.
- We dont charge friends and family at all. We simply block the nights out. Thats around 3-5 nights a month on average.
- We do have a lot of regulars, but not on a regular schedule. Most of them go look at the calendar and book whatever is free that they want.
- Our average nightly price is like $45 with no extra fees.
- Our average profit after restocking all the amenities, etc., is like $900.
I’m sure it is a shell game. Thats what business do. 
Thats not the limit of community things, its just an addition to.
Okay, that’s clearer now. I still don’t advocate giving Airbnb a single penny more than I need to regardless of the details. But I have several repeats who book via Airbnb so I understand that approach as well. It’s typically one night as they drive through and we are talking $6.
When I book direct my guest just emails or texts me and I block the days for them and they put cash in my hand on arrival. It’s very simple and definitely worth the effort. Since it also saves them a little bit of money (we are basically splitting the total saved on fees) they appreciate it.
1 Like
You saw that error because I added an https:// to my URL on my profile. That wouldn’t be an issue for an average user because unless you add an https://, or you’re redirect to use SSL/TLS you would have never seen that. Having said that, since it was an oversight, I went ahead and added an SSL cert. How you should be able to access http://, http://www, https:// and https://www all without an error.
The 413 error response is comedic and is a placeholder, see: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2324
I have hundreds of domain names, the 413 is the one I put on sites I use for things but don’t really want a page on, so to speak. Hopefully that makes sense.
1 Like
I could see that. I also appreciate the “insurance” I get from Airbnb. I guess it’s a little less critical if you know and trust them.
I may put some consideration into that.
Yes it does. Thanx. I also learned a bit in researching the error earlier. Comedy lasts…
1 Like