Hi guys,
Just saw this article, and I was curious to see what you thought:
http://blog.rented.com/nyc-airbnb-hosts-banished
What do you guys think of Airbnb banishing hosts from the platform?
The writer is mis-using the term “superhost” - he doesn’t seem to understand that it’s a quality designation, not an indication that someone is hosting several different properties. I’d like to know why AirBnB never sent around a notice about this compact thing - I’d rate them 1/5 on Communication.
I like how he said that there are other sites that will start pop up if Airbnb will start closing accounts of a host with multiple properties.
People who have it as a full time job and only rely on this income really need to consider other options.
Thoughi do love Airbnb and the whole operation how easy it is with payment being processed, I started listing with booking.com and after few struggles now have half of my rental through them. In fact this month it was very slow with Aribnb, it brought me only a bit over 200$, the rest 85% came from booking.com.
This option is not for everyone as there are no verified guests, but for a person who heavily depends on this income is the way to go.
So with booking.com, do you have to be able to take credit cards? I’ve been thinking I should look into that, but thought maybe my turnover wasn’t high enough to qualify.
Oh wow. I’ve also heard a lot of similar stories of homeowners making significantly more from channels other than Airbnb, which is interesting considering how much attention Airbnb gets versus other booking channels (eg FlipKey, Booking.com, VRBO, etc.)
Here’s one deck I’ve seen that compares platforms: http://www.vrma.com/files/2015Annual/Materials/Third%20Party%20Channels%20How%20to%20Generate%20Millions%20of%20Dollars.pdf
What do you mean: turnover not high to qualify?
You mean with credit card processing?
We have business so we are using credit card processing Square all the time. You need to have legal business with EIN and so on.
It’s very easy to do.,just do the fictitious name (50$) , and then apply for EIN on line, they give you number right away. If you are in US
How it is abroad I have no idea.
Then they send you a little thing that you put on your phone and that’s it., Can’t be easier than that.
You also can do cash ony, but I can tell right away, people are not going to like it. Everyone uses points now when they pay with card.
With Square you qualify with any turnover
Does booking.com give you any chance to screen guests, collect deposits and collect cleaning… or no?
I’m really surprised there are no more competitors to give Air a run for its money. And I don’t mean dinosaurs like Flipkey… Competitors who are hip and young start ups and more like Air.
It takes awhile to get where Airbnb got.
It looks simple, but in fact it’s not that simple.
You would think Thant booking.com that was in business for such a Long time perfected it but in fact their glitches in system are horrendous, the whole process is very long. It took me 2 months to list after going back and fourth, I almost gave up.
Then they don’t let you edit your own listing.i had to go back to them many times to correct and add.
Times of arrivals are the worst. Guests just ignore my messages about arrivals.
You would think when they ask to put a credit card info in , this would be somehow verified. Not with booking.com:). It’s totally up to a host to verify and collect payment, and then pay commission separately to booking.com
Then people of course don’t read. So, they call me to ask if there is an extra charge for kids. It happened once.
You can collect deposit, there is an option, but I am not sure if its for reservation itself or for damages.
I know when they pay, total doesn’t come up with damage deposit. So, I am assuming, you would need to collect it yourself. . Cleaning fees are included in total, so is tax 11%. I know when we rented a cabin in NC, we were supposed to send deposit by check. As I remembered correctly the owner asked us in a message sent through booking.com for deposit.
1 Like
I think the industry as a whole is moving towards instant bookings. I’ve heard that HomeAway is looking to make that the standard by 2016.
1 Like
Thanks, Yana. I’m in Canada, so I’ll just ask my guy at the bank. I have a GST number (federal sales tax) from when I was an IT consultant, but I don’t use it for AirBnB - there’s a $30K annual limit below which it’s optional (not sure if separating it like that is legal, but I don’t collect it so I don’t think I need to use it). The GST number is in my own name (I’m a “sole proprietor”). I had a business name years ago when I was doing photography, but let that go. I’ve never heard of Square - I figured I’d just look into Visa for now.
We have something similar to that in Hawaii called excise tax. Anyone who is self employed has to have one. As an advertising writer, I already had an excise tax license for 18 years before there was an Air, and now have to report my Air earnings on it. Which is why we have to also have to collect TAT…