Hosting tips

Hey Fellow Hosts and Property Managers If you are in a World Cup city, it appears that Airbnb will pay you a referral bonus (and/or a corresponding host account bonus in some cases if you are a property manager) for all new properties brought on board in specific Zips (and postal codes here in Canada) between now and the end of February.  You might be wondering “how is this different than the normal referral program from Airbnb?”. In this case, API-connected hosts (a la you on Hospitable) are ALSO eligible. Under the regular referral program, API hosts are specifically EXCLUDED (BTW - you can ask me how we generally get around that requirement and get rewarded EVERY time we bring on a new account - but that’s a separate tale). Anyway, if you are in Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, Atlanta, LA, Mexico City, etc (World Cup host cities) check out this referral program from Airbnb.

Hosting a new property and owner wants it to be as environmentally sustainable as possible. Is there a good resource to study specific to the STR world?

Hi everyone,I have a quick question for all property managers who manage units on behalf of owners. I’m curious how you calculate your management commission:Do you base your fee on the Airbnb payout (i.e., the amount after Airbnb fees)? Or do you use “Accommodation after Discounts” as the calculation basis? Or do you follow a different method? We currently calculate our commission using Accommodation after Discounts, which (from what I’ve read and seen in hospitality best-practice materials) seems to be the industry standard. However, owners sometimes ask why we don’t calculate based on the payout instead — so I’d love to hear how others handle this to benchmark our approach. Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences!

Hi everyone. just wanted to share something that’s been working surprisingly well in my Airbnb. I added a digital guest kiosk in the unit a few months ago—basically a sleek little station that sells things guests often forget (toiletries, towels, pain meds chargers, snacks, etc.)It’s free to set up, I choose what’s stocked, and I keep all the revenue. I’ve also added a QR code to my direct booking site on the kiosk, which has already led to a couple return guests booking directly with me.Didn’t expect it to be such a hit, but guests mention it in reviews and it’s been a nice passive income boost. If anyone’s curious, happy to share what I’m using. ✌️

📊 Feeling Your Bookings Slow Down?If your calendar isn’t filling the way it used to — don’t rush to slash prices.Sometimes the issue isn’t demand… it’s presentation, positioning, search visibility, and rate strategy.I’m offering a free Listing performance report to help hosts understand why their calendar isn’t filling the way it should.Share your Airbnb link below. Each week, I’ll select 2–3 listings and send a quick full breakdown directly to you by message: Search ranking health Photo audit & visual hierarchy (what guests see first vs what should be first) Title + amenity relevance Review pattern risks affecting conversions Pricing vs market comparison Calendar pacing & competition signals No public critique, no video — just a private, actiona

Have a house in Banner Elk NC and selling it - not performing nearly as well as expected. Anyone have any ski town recommendations to check out for good ROI? Preferably East Coast or Colorado. Please don’t say Banner Elk :)

Hi community!I’m going to begin hosting in Portugal and I know they have some requirements and I wanted to see how other hosts are using Hospitable or other software to make it easier and follow all regulations. 

I’ve been reviewing our owner statements and noticed an inconsistency in how our commissions are being calculated. Our agreement sets a flat 20% fee on the commissionable base for every property. However, the reservation-level payouts we’re receiving as a co-host aren’t consistently hitting that 20%. Some are coming in at 18%, others at 19.2%, 19.8%, etc.Since all properties are on the same 20% structure, the commissionable base and the payout should always match that rate. I want to make sure we identify why the calculation is fluctuating and get everything aligned going forward.

I’m trying to add a action button on my fb page and thought it would be good if this was integrated.

Hi, a strange thing is happening recently that is quite consequential. We have several properties in Durango Colorado. When I search in for Durango, Colorado, the homes are not showing up properly. They may even show up on the 15th or 16th page. When I search for Durango, CO 81301 which is the ZIP Code or other locations in Durango itself, the home show up on the first or second page. I have reached out to Airbnb several times and are not getting any help from them. They are saying things are normal and some listings show up later. However, there is some glitch that I'm not sure how to get rectified. We went from having bookings quite often to almost no bookings. Also, I am using rank breeze and our home is not showing up on the first 17 pages. I spoke to somebody from rank breeze and they also told me that for whatever reason that Durango Colorado search is not producing our home in the search results. Has anybody seen something like this occurred before

I wanted to throw out a Town Hall guest idea — Justin from HiChee.com It’s a free tool that shows guests where they can book the same property cheaper, which ostensibly would be your direct site! (Airbnb, VRBO, or DIRECT), So it helps hosts push more direct bookings which I think totally lines up with what Hospitable ultimately wants for its subscribers.. We need to get hosts to suggest it to their guests because once people know about this they will use it to book direct, whether it's with us or another host. It will benefit us in direct bookings! I'm really passionate about this because I am so sick of Airbnb! Would love to see him on a future Town Hall! But any hosts seeing this check out his website. Hichee.com . I'm not a paid promoter. I just want more direct booking LOL — Kim

Hello - how is everyone setting up on the taxes % on direct feature - before i create the site it is asking me to set up this  - this is for a unit in UAE ? Thank you 

Hi CommunityWe’ve noticed an uptick in reservation cancellations recently, some of them about 30 days before check in. These are mostly on Airbnb, where we have the Firm policy in place, we have this for VRBO as well.  We’ve automated a message to politely ask why people cancel, is there anything else others are doing to reduce cancellations or any advice?ThanksClaire 

Hi everyone,I’m looking for some advice on how you handle theft prevention in your properties. From time to time, I notice that smaller items — especially towels and similar things — go missing. I know that having a proper security deposit is usually a game changer, but unfortunately deposits aren’t available yet for the Euro zone in Hospitable. Until deposits are supported, I’d like to put a temporary workaround in place.How do you deal with this in the meantime? ➤ Do you use item or inventory checklists for each stay?➤ Do you enforce any specific policy or send reminders to guests?➤ Any proven methods to minimize loss or prevent items from “disappearing”? I’d really appreciate hearing how you manage this and what has worked best for you. Thanks!

Hi community There’s been a lot of discussion on changes impacting hosts this year by Airbnb, has anyone looked into the impact to hosts on liability for chargebacks? We’re thinking of amending our rental agreement to add some level of protection but would appreciate any guidance from hospitable or other hosts. If it’s not already started, it would be good to kick off the discussion.thanksclaire

How my client has been approached by someone who can remove Airbnb reviews has anyone had any experience with this.

Hey all! Just curious what Zapier Zaps you all use for your vacation rental management businesses (if any)?I’m just getting started with it and doing the following:Tracking the number of guest messages sent by property per day. Tracking the number of confirmed bookings each day. Thanks!Scott

Hello to anyone using VRBO!This is my first booking for VRBO and I need to manually invoice the owner for my 25% Co-Host commission rate. I do not need to do this for AirBnB, because I am already set-up as a Co-Host on that platform to received my 25% commission rate plus the cleaning fee.Is anyone able to help me mirror AirBnB’s fee split for VRBO, so I can explain to the owner how I got to the 25% commission for this VRBO booking? I know AirBnB deducts the Host Service Fee (3%) and the Cleaning Fee, prior to the split and they do this off of the Host’s Payout (not what the Guest paid), and AirBnB does leave in the pet fee, for the Owner and Co-Host to split, but luckily no pet fee here.I guess my last questions other than calculating the 25% Co-Host percentage + Cleaning Fee, is if there is any way for this invoice split to happen automatically?

Hi. I am very new to Booking.com and I find the platform to just be very confusing. I had one booking through Booking.com and they already stayed at my rental. I cannot figure out if they paid or not. The reservation just says “no payment on file”. I am set up with Booking.com payments but I’m not sure it was set up at the time of booking. I also tried to call customer service and I just get a message that says “down for maintenance”. I’m not sure what I do from here. 

We are new to the market and have listed cross platform. Upon going live we received two bookings through VRBO immediately but haven’t seen anything recently come through even with the upcoming holidays. It’s been silent on AIRBNB and BDC. Airbnb removed our “new listing” promo as they stated our listing was getting adequate traffic. I’ve since added some other promotions manually but doesn’t seem to have helped. We are also utilizing the Pricelabs tool as well. Any insights to help our listing would be appreciated. We are new to this and would love some advice from some of you experts! Thank you! airbnb.com/h/thevinny

Hi there,Has anyone done a detailed comparison between PriceLabs and Hospitable’s dynamic pricing?Also, I’m wondering why don’t Legacy plan users have the option to simply pay extra to add dynamic pricing? Forcing a full plan upgrade seems unfair, especially considering the major differences between the Legacy and newer plans. Switching plans would be a big downgrade for me in terms of features, so that doesn’t feel like a reasonable solution.Thanks in advance for any insight!

HelloI am struggling with what direction to take with Vrbo to eliminate a Charge back and Damages.I have always trusted the guest (8 yrs) up until recently.Do I require a security deposit? Rental Agreement or require them to purchase Insurance.Do they shy away from booking for these reasons?Looking for options that have worked best for others.Thank You 

I just had to verify my contact, bank account and email address with my AIrbnb account. Are any other “mogul” users also seeing this event in their Hospitable business? Also, I was updating my direct stay pricing url, but Airbnb “backup door code” keeps auto-populating the wrong August Lock door codes, so my guests get “locked out” every time before entry! Has anyone else had this issue with the “back-up” Airbnb door codes? thanks:Marie (Mary-Barbie) 

So now that Hostpitable supports booking.com I am finally ready to put my listing on it. I thought it would be easier to set up and get paid than when I looked at the booking site previously. I am so lost with setting up the details on booking.com. I have called booking a couple times and they keep saying they will have to call me back and never do. Can anyone answer these questions for me?will they collect payment and remit?will they remit the VAT or I have to remit after they collect?what is their commission fee?how does their cancellation policy work?what about any guest damages?I don’t want to make the listing live until I completely understand how their system works  Help anyone with booking.com experience?Thank you in advance  

I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence but ever since Airbnb enacted their policy on fees, my net new bookings have gone to zero.  I’ve not even received an inquiry.  I’ve lowered my pricing. I’ve looked in all of the insights and changes that I can make. This weekend I will be making adjustments to my listing photos to be more complementary to the winter season. I’m curious if there’s anyone else  experiencing this since the change with Airbnb.  Searched on my property and it still comes up as one of the top as a guest favorite. This is my only second year going into the season and it was quiet last year, but I was still getting bookings for holidays and weekends.Thanks for any insight anyone can provide I’m just wondering if Airbnb is somewhat influencing this in the background.  But then again I’m also not seeing any VRBO bookings eitherThanks in advance for any feedback you can provide if you’re in a similar situation.