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To all the STR owners who are renting outside of Airbnb, VRBO, etc…
It appears that I’ve really been missing the boat and leaving a lot of money on the table by only relying on Air and VRBO and really need to start branching out and start being the “Captain of my own ship”… or at least try. With that, I’d like to know:
What are the Pros and Cons of renting “privately” (using your own website, Facebook, whatever,) without using Air and VRBO?
I’d like to learn/hear about your thoughts on:
Insurance… What happens if a guest slips on ice, etc., and breaks their neck? Or if they burn down your house?
Security / Background Checks… Are you all just renting to anyone whose “checks” clears the banks, etc. or are you doing any sort of “screening” ?
Damage… Let’s say you have a security deposit for $500 and a guest decides to wash their rubber car mats in your washer and destroys your 2-year-old $1200 washing machine… Without going to small claims court, (who needs that drama in their life? And even if you win, you still have to collect… good luck with that,) what would you do?
For example: A famous TV show about Zombies rented one of our listings for about a month and dismantled our new formal Dining Room table by taking it apart, moving it to an entirely different room and using it for their “props” table…(and didn’t move it back. ) Yes, that really happened. They did a lot of other damage, and it was well over $5000, and say what you will about Airbnb… they DID cover it.
Reviews
Payment
Availablity calendar
I’ll probably think of more areas I’d like to hear about, so I’ll probably edit this later… But this 6 items should get us started.
I don’t know how to do the quote thing for numerous posts but, here we go (BTW - Wow, Zombie show … Where are you?!?)
Insurance: OTAs aren’t going to cover me, no matter what “guarantee” they have, so I have commercial insurance on my home.
Security / Background Checks: OTAs don’t check, even though they say they do, and they don’t allow much screening or personal information, if any. So I feel like I’m better protected by direct bookings bc I have the guests’ name, address, etc. Something which I couldn’t even get ABB to furnish to the police, with my horrendous guest episode.
Damage: I keep a deposit, and don’t have to beg an OTA for it. I hope this keeps people honest, but if it doesn’t, off to court we go. If you book direct, this actually IS possible bc you’ll have their personal information, which ABB won’t help with.
Reviews: I’m on Google and Yelp and Facebook. Or they could check me on ABB
Payment: Square is great with an invoice app that makes payment super simple.
Availablity calendar: I am working on this, and would like to simplify it, but right now I have Wix Hotels and ABB on sync, and then track both to my Google calendar to report to my caretaker. @CatskillsGrrl has written before about her calendar syncing and I’d love to know more from them about that.
Like it or not, more honest reviews is an advantage Airbnb has. I don’t trust book direct reviews. There are a number of reasons why people want to book direct and they aren’t all about money.
I agree, especially if all reviews are stellar. All my reviews have been through ABB - good or not. And if anyone reviews me in Yelp, I can’t remove or hide them. I really like Yelp, and hope its honesty never bites me in the ass. There is nothing, at least in my setup, not to trust, for better or worse.
@LCL thank you for the reminder about the google calendar. I’ve been meaning to write up instructions on how I do it. It has worked for me for a number of years. Let me see what I can do.
Gulp…another poster, @PuppyLover said something similar. All my reviews are good, most are stellar. However, I don’t have a VR. What you (and all VR folks) do and what I do are very different.
@RiverRock if you do a tent and trailer then you might get some non VR folks of the sort I get. It will be interesting to see your comparison of different renters.
Oh nothing against good reviews, mine have been better than I expected and I’m grateful.
I just meant that, if I transfer all my reviews to my personal site, I also have to be honest and transfer the review from Amber, who complained that I couldn’t control the weather for her. And try to look at it that her review makes me look more approachable and realistic … I hope!
I like that we are all different and can still learn from and help out each other.
Can I ask why? Your place is so pretty and I know you are remote but you have that neighbor there and you seem to really know what you doing. Were you worried by the post you read here?
Being remote is not the situation I wanted, but thank goodness for Bill! I couldn’t do this without him. Still, it is unnerving being so far away from what I consider my responsibility.
The house is quite a drive from the popular tourist town so I thought people would have a problem with that (and there have been a few lament the drive) but we ended up with our own niche, which surprised me. Evidently people like to get married on our porch
Most of all, it just surprises me because it doesn’t seem real. I worked for 25 years to get to this and I love the house - through and through. It is the best feeling when guests see the house with the same affection as I do.
Interesting comments.
Just a little perspective is needed on the ABB’s “honest reviews”.
I 100% disagree. This is actually one of the reasons I want to do as little as business as possible on that site.
For example. A few weeks ago (Labor Day weekend,) a group asked us for a 2 hour late check out. They had been so nice, and I was in a generous mood, so I agreed. (First big mistake.)
Our check-out time is 11:00 and we agreed they could stay till 1:00.
At 1:15 our crew went to the home and noticed that all the cars were still in the driveway and there was no movement (luggage and kids being loaded into cars, etc.) I texted my crew to give them a few more mins. But still nothing.
Finally at 1:30 our crew went into the home to find them still COOKING and handing out plates of food to guests who were taking them out to the deck to enjoy a leisurely lunch. Our crew told them what they were doing was unacceptable and they needed to get their belongings and leave the home… They refused, telling our staff THEY needed to wait until their guests were done eating and THEN they would BEGIN to pack up and leave. Our crew was stunned and asked them again to leave… they ignored our crew. Finally (while waiting on hold with Airbnb,) we told them if they didn’t leave, we would contact the police and have them removed. It was only then, did they start to take us seriously and started to pack up and leave. This was around 2:15, more than an hour after our already extended check-out time.
Now for their review. They wrote privately to me that the house was beautiful and clean and it was a lovely neighborhood, but they didn’t like being “forced out”… And give us a 1 Star review. That is just 1 example of an unfair, dishonest review. I contacted ABB and they reviewed the guest’s private comments but said there was “nothing” they could do. We’ve had other dishonest reviews.
Last year a woman tried to get me to contact her off the ABB site. I refused, she then very carefully worded her attempted extortion of me for $500 or she would leave a bad review. The only “complaint” she came up with was that we had forgotten to leave a bottle of dishwashing soap (one was brought to her within 30 mins, at 10:00 at night,) and that she didn’t think there were enough hangers. For this she gave us a 2 Star review. This again is an unfair and dishonest review.
One might think… “Yeah, that’s only a couple of reviews”… But, when your place runs $1000+ a night, it doesn’t get booked but for a few times a month, so those couple of reviews really hurt us.
We get all 5 Stars reviews on our smaller rentals, no problem. But at a certain price point, people become a little more unreasonable and “greedy.”
All that stated, I would absolutely would allow a negative review on any personal website I would start. But I won’t allow a dishonest one.
Unfair/unjust reviews are one of the reasons I want to get off ABB. They are very “pro-guest”, “anti-host” IMHO.
Hi @LCL Thanks for all the great advice!
As for my location, with all respect, and not at all directed at you, I don’t feel comfortable revealing that information.
There are some infantile and potentially vindictive people here and I am concerned with “doxxing” , etc. This is standard issue procedure with this lot if you write something they don’t like.
Yes, I completely understand with location - That was starstruck me coming out, haha! I’m still trying to figure out how to get Geddy Lee from Rush to book my house …
my responsibility.
