Hello everybody!
My name is Pierre and this is my first post here!
I have launched last week a website https://smartbnb.io which is meant to give Airbnb hosts more powers than they have currently, based on my own experience as a host in Belgium.
So far, here is what it can do:
- Auto-messaging
The objective is to get rid of the most repetitive communication you might have with a guest, and providing a maximum level of customization for a minimum effort.
It can react to events (for example a new booking inquiry) or schedule messages at key moments of your bookings (for example, a few days before check-in, the day after check-in, the even of a check-outâŚ).
If you are living in an area where you host people speaking multiple languages (really important where I live, between French, Dutch and English), you also have the possibility of creating templates in several languages, and that template will be picked if it is a better match than the âfallbackâ English. It even comes pre-loaded with templates in French and in English!
Obviously, you can customize a template to each guest and stay with short codes (it is more authentic than the average copy-pasted/saved message), including the possibility of confirming the amount of a reservation in the guestâs native currency (really neat).
If you are not comfortable with sending automatic messages, there are also options to adapt this.
If you are, a reply will be sent within 30 seconds on average. In our experience, guests do not feel that itâs weird: in many cases, they actually complement the host (the probably havenât even left the messaging window).
- Auto-Update:
Would you book a place whose calendar was updated â2 weeks agoâ? This fixes that by sending a signal to Airbnb that a listing is up to date. In some instances, this has had the effect of offering a small boost in search rankings.
- Checkpoint:
I require guests to verify their ID, but there are many loopholes on Airbnbâs side that I have often considered turning it off.
For example, the guest has already paid when they are asked to verify their ID, and Airbnb does not tell the guest the reservation has been sent (it has) or that it blocks the calendar for up to 12 hours (it does). With this, you fix this situation: you are informed when a guest is booking your place, but has not confirmed their ID, and you can also send them a message to troubleshoot them.
Seems small, but I have 25 reservations that were dropped by guests just because they didnât understand what was happening (a small fortune).
- Daily ranking and pricing reports (Market)
Automated pricing does not always work transparently, so it often requires some tuning⌠on which basis?
With this component, you can receive every day a summary with the most important metrics for your listing (position in search rankings, your marketâs rates, and the general number of listings available) for the next 30 possible stays.
I invite you to have a look at this on https://smartbnb.io, and I would definitely appreciate your views with this.
You can also see some public metrics of your listing by running a listing report. You might learn a few things.
There is currently a free trial for 14 days (irrespective of your number of listings), but feel free to send an email at hello@smartbnb.io to have an extension to a full month (before August 31, 2016).
I wish you all a happy hosting!
For the free waffles: It would be a pleasure to give you some if you travel to Belgium! (probably with a beer too!)