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Hosting tips

Share tips and best practices, ask other hosts for their short-term rental tips.

66 Topics
claire
Known Participant
claireKnown Participant
posted in Industry Conversations
Rental management in France

Hello Community!We’re looking for advice regarding running a short term rental business in France including tax optimization. Does anyone have any direct experience or could recommend an advisor?thanks so muchClaire

110
claire
Known Participant
Alex 66
Participating Frequently
Alex 66Participating Frequently
posted in Industry Conversations
Property Management Companies: Do you take your management fee from the gross revenue coming in or excluding cleaning fee?

Hi there,I'm curious about how different property management companies calculate their management fees, specifically regarding cleaning fees.My question: Do you calculate your management fee based on:Total revenue (nightly rate + cleaning fee), OR Nightly rate only (excluding cleaning fee)?Do you collect the cleaning fee yourself to pay your cleaning staff or is cleaning outsourced?For context: I've noticed that Airbnb handles this differently depending on the setup:If the same host receives the cleaning fee, they calculate: cleaning fee + x% If you want to pay a host only a percentage, Airbnb gives you the option to calculate either "including" or "excluding" the cleaning feeWhat's your company's approach? Do you include or exclude cleaning fees when calculating your management percentage?

6917
michel
New Participant
arthur
New Participant
arthurNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Do you need a real estate license to manage properties for other owners?

We are considering managing STR properties for other owners in the San Antonio, Texas area.So far we’ve only managed our own properties, so we want to make sure we’re not in over our head with expanding in terms of needing the proper licensing. I know licensing can depend on state and location, but I’m curious to hear other people’s recommendations and experience with setting things up in the best manner.

361
NickMo
New Participant
P-Ranchers
New Participant
P-RanchersNew Participant
posted in Industry Conversations
AirBnB doing well but zero bookings from VRBO

We’re getting 85-90% occupancy on AirBnB. But VRBO has absolutely ZERO bookings. Listings are as identical as can be, dnyamic pricing is synced. Is anyone else facing the same issue?

27520
Ryan Moyer
Participating Frequently
Silvysilv
New Participant
SilvysilvNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Marketing to Past Guests

I would like to harvest all of the names, phone numbers and email addresses from all prior reservations to send special offers and marketing by text and email. Does anyone have any ideas to do that? Thank you very much. 

2388
Ryan Moyer
Participating Frequently
Larry
New Participant
LarryNew Participant
posted in Industry Conversations
Pet Friendly STR's ?

I have a small Covered Wagon STR that I am considering making pet friendly to help drive more traffic and so I don't have to keep denying booking request or inquires.   The area it is parked on is gravel.  We do not have a fence up at this time.  The interior floor is wood with some insulation below it.   I am considering putting in plank flooring to seal and protect the wood and insulation.   Maybe a small kennel area and doghouse with artificial grass outside close to the Wagon.Any direction on linens to use in a pet friendly space? Any cleaners that work really well to keep out pet odor? How do you add a pet fee only to the people with pets with price labs? What kind of pet fees should be charged? What limits do you put on the pets?  dogs only, dogs and cats only, no Bird or exotic animals? How much extra do you pay cleaners for a stay with pets? Any direction or stories you can share to help us make the final decision to help us decide to do this or not would be greatly appreciated

592
Larry
New Participant
CRyan
New Participant
CRyanNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
(Airbnb) Add Video Attachment Capabilities Using the API.

Although it is here:https://feedback.hospitable.com/p/support-video-attachments-in-messagesI just wanted to give it a friendly bump. Since video attachments are now available through Airbnb messaging, video attachments would be so helpful to have this functionality available in the hospitable inbox and the API, in addition to the existing image attachment. 

271
Miles Hobson
Hospitable Team Member
CRyan
New Participant
CRyanNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
(API) The ability to send messages from different authenticated users

At the moment, using the Hospitable API messages can only be sent from the listing owner. But in the inbox you can send from any authenticated user. It would be extremely helpful to send from different users, let's say the co-host for that day, to keep the continuity and prevent messaging from different people. Our guests mention it sometimes. 

342
CRyan
New Participant
james
New Participant
jamesNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Guest “check out button”

I recently shared a request with Support to create some form of confirmation where a guest can alert host to the fact that they have checked out and left the property. Recently, we had a morning check out and new guest coming in that same afternoon. The classic scramble to clean the house in just four hours. Come to find out, the morning guest had an early flight and checked out very early, it would have been great to know this, and the fact that we had a few additional hours to prepare the house for the next guest. Does anybody have a solution for this, aside from asking the guest to send a message when they leave the property? So much of the booking process and stay is logged, it would be nice if there was a more formal way to log the fact that guest is checked out, and host has been alerted.

722
memorymakerhouse
Participating Frequently
Disney Chris
New Participant
Disney ChrisNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
suspended Airbnb

I fired my property manager and found out that her listing of my property was suspended by Airbnb. I found out after listing the property myself after the change and received a message from Airbnb informing me they were taking down my listing saying I was circumventing their suspension. I contacted Airbnb for an appeal letting them know that I didn’t know the listing was suspended because she never told me. The customer service team didn’t really understand and would not escalate to a manager. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

612
Scottm
Inspiring
hal
New Participant
halNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Hi I want to move my hosting business from personal name to an LLC. I would appreciate any suggestion,.

Hi, I have 3 properties that I own, in Galveston, TX and are on Airbnb and VRBO. They are in my personal name. I want to move these into a LLC that I recently formed and move my business to LLC. Any suggestion how do I do this on Airbnb & VRBO Platform ? Should I create new listings there & block any new bookings ? Appreciate any suggestions from someone who has done this before. 

652
Scottm
Inspiring
Host
New Participant
HostNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Direct Booking Site Setup – Mid-Term Rental Settings vs Airbnb Sync

I’m looking to set up my direct booking site exclusively for mid-term rentals (30-day minimum stays), while keeping my Airbnb calendar settings at a 3-night minimum.The last time I tried to configure this, the 30-day minimum setting on the direct site also applied to my Airbnb listings through calendar sync. Can you confirm if there’s a way to separate these settings so that:    •    The direct booking site enforces a 30-day minimum stay, and    •    My Airbnb calendar remains at a 3-night minimum?I’d like to use the direct site for corporate housing and longer stays while continuing to host short stays on Airbnb.Thanks in advance for your guidance on how to make this work.

864
Host
New Participant
jesselavender
New Participant
jesselavenderNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Travel Agents

I had a conversation with a travel agent today (friend of a friend). They asked for me to send my info to them in case they had anyone. This led me to begin thinking about outreach to other agents to see if my property would interest them for future guests. Does anyone have experience with this? How do you handle this? Discounts, referral codes, etc.

250
jesselavender
New Participant
Doug MacMaster
Participating Frequently
Doug MacMasterParticipating Frequently
posted in Industry Conversations
Business Valuations

I’ve done business valuations for acquisitions before, but not for STR property management.  Any advice or recommended resources?Key metrics to dig into? P&L - EBITDA or something else? Typical multiple?   Happy to take convo offline, if that’s better.  Thanks in advance.

512
Doug MacMaster
Participating Frequently
Linda
New Participant
LindaNew Participant
posted in Industry Conversations
How are hosts handling security deposits/insurance with direct bookings?

Interested to hear ideas on how hosts are handling insurance or security deposits for direct bookings? 

260
Linda
New Participant
SplitStay Anita
New Participant
SplitStay AnitaNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Legacy Plan

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!

1142
Brian Seelos
Hospitable Team Member
S
New Participant
SteveBarshNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Generating a Guest Pass from Hospitable Booking Info?

Hi all. We have the need to generate a guest pass for guests staying at one of our properties. We send the pass to the guest as a PNG or JPG file. They then show the Guest Pass to the restaurant staff and others, allowing them to enjoy their complimentary breakfast buffet (it’s amazing!) and access other benefits at this luxury location.Today, I have the Guest Pass template in Google Slides and manually copy and paste information from Hospitable about the booking over to the template. I need to move over:Guest NameCheck-in DateCheck-out DateNumber in PartyI would LOVE to do this programmatically! Manual copy and pasting is time-consuming and error-prone. I want the pass to “look nice,” so not just plain text.So, the question is: Does anyone know of a way to do this programmatically from Hospitable? I was trying to see how a simple integration, e.g., sending data as variables in a URL, could achieve something like this with Google Slides, Canva, etc.The desired outcome is a guest pass w

343
Andrew Schorr
Hospitable Team Member
Rose
New Participant
RoseNew Participant
posted in Industry Conversations
Introduction

Hello from Cape May NJ!I am NEW to this platform and community.  I just wanted to introduce myself.  This forum is so helpful already! 🎤 Name: Rose Veltri  📍 Location: Cape May & Wildwood, NJ, USA 📅 Number of years hosting: I hosted my personal cottage by myself for 4 years, but I am now helping a team build their company through this site!  🤝 What you do: I will assist in the management of this platform for the owners of a direct booking company.  🏡 Number of properties managed: right now, 2, but more to come….. 🎨 Interesting fact about you: I am a business consultant who is 1 year into my own company, Rose Business Assist Pro.  I help others streamline and manage their businesses and help them grow their entrepreneurial visions into reality...also walked on hot coals at a Live Tony Robbins Event…Have a great Day, Ro!

423
Petra Podobnik
Hospitable Team Member
Jay Walk
New Participant
Jay WalkNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
2 night minimum stay shows in Airbnb but is not enforced

Hey everyone!I have three properties on Airbnb and Hospitable. I have a 2 night minimum stay for all of them, but Airbnb only enforces this for one of the three properties. Even though the Airbnb app says and maintains 2 night minimum for all three listings, for two of the three listings, guests can still request and book for a single night. What is going on, and is anyone els experiencing this??

372
Jay Walk
New Participant
Solandmarfl
New Participant
SolandmarflNew Participant
posted in Industry Conversations
Prices

My prices showing on my OTA’s are almost doubled from what is showing on my pricing software and PMS (PriceLabs & Hospitable) I don’t know what else to do. I checked everything under calendar, pricing and customizations. I need help. 

404
Petra Podobnik
Hospitable Team Member
AGAPE
New Participant
AGAPENew Participant
posted in Industry Conversations
What is the most cost effective way to have branded email address?

Hi all!I’ve purchased a domain, what is the most cost effective way to have a branded email address.I’ve tried google workspace but it is too expensive. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!

563
Petra Podobnik
Hospitable Team Member
Steven
New Participant
StevenNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Agoda search

How do you find your property on agoda? When I try to search by the city, it doesn’t even show the city listed? If I search a nearby city, I see properties around my area but mine doesn’t show up. 

300
Steven
New Participant
Igor
New Participant
IgorNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Airbnb altered reservation after guest complaint

Hello everyone.We have situation when guest decided to leave the accommodation after two night staying (reservation was for 3 weeks). Guest cut off water in the apartment, sent that to Airbnb and said they don't have water. They also complained that the property doesn't have parking (we explicitly mention that the property is located in historical centre without parking on the listing page, at the moment of the reservation and five days before arrival). And also that the property does not have aircons in each bedroom - again this is historical building and putting aircons everywhere was not possible when we were doing renovation.Guest also left us one star review on Google Maps and Airbnb.So the Airbnb altered reservation and withheld the payout without any consultation with us. We got just a cleaning fee and two nights instead of full reservation for three weeks.We appreciate your suggestions how to deal with that. Thank you.

913
ppdupuy
New Participant
mary
New Participant
maryNew Participant
posted in Industry Conversations
Experience with VRBO Bookings especially on Maui

Hello,I own one condo on Maui, and self-manage it since 2019.  Up to about 2 years ago, my bookings were pretty evenly divided between Airbnb and VRBO.  Ever since VRBO restructured to One Key, my bookings from them are way down.  Now only about 25% of my bookings, but the ones I get are often for longer stays during the high season, so I still see value staying with them.   I’ve asked my “rep” what is going on, and they just tell me to make my cancellation window less strict, and offer more discounting.  But VRBO has the same settings as my AirBnB account. Overall my occupancy is 85 - 90% so Airbnb seems to filling a lot of the holes left by VRBO.   I am just curious what other hosts are experiencing.  I appreciate your time.

431
Eli Stoughton
Participating Frequently
shorewaymgmt
New Participant
shorewaymgmtNew Participant
asked in Industry Conversations
Rental Agreements - compliant?

Hi! We are currently using Hospitable rental agreements and occassionally will get pushback from a guest who doesn’t want to sign something off airbnb’s platform. However this guest seemed to suggest we need to disclose all the terms of a rental agreement prior to a guest booking. This seems impossible with the limited characters airbnb gives in disclosing house rules. We currently have listed in our house rules “must sign rental agreement after booking, failure to sign will result in cancellation.” What is everyone else doing to stay compliant with this? 

451
Mahmodul
Top Contributor

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