Industry Conversations

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

We’ve gotten dinged lately on our air conditioning limits.  We allow guests to adjust the thermostat within the range 72°-80°.  Most of the time, since we’re in MS, it’s in cooling mode.  Some guests, if allowed, would and have set the thermostat down into the 60s, and neither of the two units would ever cool to those temperatures.  So, we include the following everywhere we can in the listing:Because the air conditioning units are residential and not commercial, we protect them by limiting the minimum cooling temperature.  Past guests have set the temperature far below generally accepted norms, well below 70º.  The units would never achieve those temperatures in the Mississippi heat and they've frozen up, resulting in no further air conditioning for days and costly repairs.  Thanks for understanding.  If you prefer inside temperatures lower than this, please do not book with us. What else can we do to protect our A/C units?  They’ve frozen up before, which renders them inoperable for

With Airbnb switching soon to fake phone numbers for guests and us how can we capture phones and emails so we can continue to communicate with our guests going forward? 

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. 

hey Folks, I’ve been hosting for over a decade now — 8 active properties, 1,400+ reviews, Superhost for years. I got my first AirBNB-dedicated house in 2019 while working full time at Google, got a few more, and after getting laid off in 2023 I started growing. As an early user I’ve clearly seen a lot of change since airbnb was for friends crashing on mattresses at SXSW… and it’s mostly been good. But now something wild is happening. I started on low budget and even so my places performed well. Always hovered around 80%+ occupancy with nice but nothing special houses. I was doing well - FMV for my units would be about $1200/mo, but I was making avg $3k/mo on AirbNB. Totally worth it.Now it feels like guest demands and expectations have shot through the roof, but rates are staying the same or dropping, and fees are getting hire so payouts are reduced. And even though my rates are roughly the same (or even a bit lower) than they were a few years ago, occupancy is down. Meanwhile, new lis

Hey there,Would you be interested in joining a video call to chat about best practices for optimizing listings and revenue?I recently joined this community and thought it would be valuable to trade notes with others on the strategies you use to maximize revenue. I’m an owner (not a property manager, and not selling anything). My STRs are in the Outer Banks, NC, with one in Denver. I tend to outperform my competitors and use some creative approaches to boost revenue and ranking, but I always pick up new ideas from others.If you also feel like you’ve found effective strategies—and are open to learning and sharing “secrets”—I’d love to connect.Reply if you’re interested! I’m hoping to keep it to a small group (5–6 people max).All the best,Scott

Switched from Evolve to managing our own listings recently.  just found out that VRBO rejected most, but not all, of the pix we uploaded.  These were the exact same professionally taken pix that Evolve used.  We bought the pic files from Evolve and I uploaded the same original files they used, which VRBO had no problem with.  Now they are rejected on our listings, and probably the reason we have almost zero traction on VRBO so far.  I have a feeling its the fact that we still have listings with Evolve until we work thru the remaining reservations we had with them.  The listings are no longer public, but they probably exist through the Evolve/VRBO integration, even though none of our remaining bookings are with VRBO.  How do we get this fixed?  Evolve and VRBO both point fingers at each other.  I don’t want to wait another 2 months until we’ve finished all Evolve bookings to delete the account.

Do you charge a cleaning fee?Or do you increase your nightly rate to offset?  Or do you put it under management fees so it is “hidden”?  Thanks! 

Hey guys I am trying to choose from this 2 apps ! For the company that I work in TULUM MEXICO 🇲🇽 specifically for the deposit and contract any thoughts? I have a special DISCOUNT if anyone of you is planning to come ! Write  (HOST) https://tpgstay.com/en-us My name is Pam See you soon!   

Is anyone using Happy Guest? My STRs are smaller, single family properties (both 2 bedrooms). I am considering using Happy Guest so I can list on VRBO and have accidental insurance coverage as well as a rental agreement. My concern is Happy Guest requires me to purchase a policy on all guest, including my Airbnb guests. I worry about getting pushback from Airbnb guests on the two options to either 1) purchase the coverage for $37 OR 2) put a $1000 hold on their cc. $37 is a lot to add on considering what my price point is and some may not have $1000 room on a credit card.  I have reviewed two properties that use Happy guest and looked through their guest reviews and BOTH properties had an unfavorable review due to having this pop up after making their reservation. Both properties clearly state this requirement prior to booking but as we all know most guests do not read all the info prior to booking.  For those using Happy Guest, what has been your experience? 

This month marks the first time I’ve used the owner statement feature in conjunction with co-host payouts. Overall, the tracking looks good—however, the “Owner Income” field is not displaying correctly.This figure is obviously one of the most important metrics for my owners, but unfortunately, customer support hasn’t been able to provide a solution.For context: The Airbnb payout is remitted directly to us (the co-host). The VRBO payout is sent directly to the owner. Owner payouts are being held by the owner, yet the system does not reflect this under “Owner Income.” Is anyone else experiencing this issue, or found a workaround? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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?

My site was recently shut down due to unpaid invoices, even though I have direct debit set up and verified all my information is correct. I receive payments from them just fine with the same data, but their direct debit is not working. I cannot find any other way to pay these invoices and I cannot even find a customer service number. Has anyone else had this issue? Is there a phone number for hosts to call booking because it is not easily found if there is.

Hi Community!  Question...As of 10/27, it appears Airbnb’s fee’s for hosts will be 15%.  I just need clarity on where we are now and where we are going and what this means….Today = Guest Service Fee = 11-14%.   What will this be on 10/27 or does this stay the same?Today = Host Service Fee = 2.4%.  What will this be on 10/27 or does this stay the same?Or will there be a new Fee line added with an additional 15% starting on 10/27?Thanks so much for the clarification.-Jen

Who is listing on agoda?? Any good traction? Worth it? Currently on airbnb/VRBO (not booking.com as I’ve heard it’s a headache)

In the early days of me rolling Security Deposits out to our Airbnb operation it has been an interesting ordeal, filled with a lot of explaining and arguing.  This makes me want to hear from others in the community about these thingsHow has the guest reception to you rolling out Security Deposits on OTAs like Airbnb been?   How do you preface the deposit and how it works? Practically speaking, if we are paying a 2% handling fee for the deposit then how does THAT allow us to comply with the general idea of trust accounting?   Do we need to disclosure that the GUEST is responsible for these fees? Do we need to be responsible for these fees as a business operating expense? I look forward to hearing how others in the community are handling this prudent evolution of the industry. 

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. 

VRBO has been working to grow their market share through a variety of strategies like partnering with companies like Rakuten and Capital One Shopping, SEO, traditional marketing, and even some influencer marketing. The effect?  Well for my operations we’ve seen a 47% growth in the revenue from VRBO in the past two months compared to the same timeframe a year ago. BUT .  . .  While a 47% growth in VRBO originated travel is nice, what we’ve also found is that a year ago we had  issues with about 5% of VRBO guests.  Now it’s surging towards the 30% mark. Did VRBO simply snipe the shadesters from Airbnb and Booking.com, or is something else awry (like my operations?!) What are you seeing?  P.S. thank you Copilot for the assistance in compiling data and seeing this more clearly 🙌

I live in Toronto, Canada. In the Province of Ontario (our state equivalent), there is a governing body called the Travel Industry Council that requires anyone who is an accommodations booker (has their own website advertising and enabling travel booking) to register with them. Their goal is to ensure the travel booking public is not scammed by bad actors/operators (not a bad goal).  The challenge for us is that their registration process is costly and onerous.Just to start, its a $3000 non-refundable payment simply to review the application.  Then, a $10,000 surety will be held by them for up to 2 years to ensure good operations Trust accounting must be set up and the Travel Council must be set up for visibility on the accounts Other assorted requirements https://tico.ca/travel-professionals/registration-information/overview-requirements.htmlSince there are not as many robust channels for advertising direct bookings in Canada anyway, in concert with the rules above, this makes Direct

I need some tips to book quickly or adverting tips to get more booking any help and support will me much appreciated 

I have recently moved from a cleaner I hired on Turno to one who I hired privately.  My question is there an integrated app or way to have them be able to complete a checklist similar to what my previous cleaner was doing on Tunro.  I am aware there is something you can build inside hospitable but my current understanding is the are unable to actually check things off or provide pictures or feedback.Thanks in advance. -Jay

We've been successfully managing our own 5 properties for several years and have decided to expand into full service property management for other owners. As we prepare to take on our first couple managed properties, we're working through the logistics of setting up the best systems/structure from day one. I assume some of you have made this transition or are seasoned property managers, so any insights, experiences, or "wish I had known that earlier" advice would be very appreciated. Here are some specific general questions we’ve been pondering:Should we maintain our existing Airbnb/Vrbo accounts and simply update the business entity on the account to our new LLC for management, or should we create separate accounts for managed properties for other owners? If we decide to use our existing accounts, are there any implications of continuing to use our personal name on the hosting account as opposed to our brand name? What's the optimal way to update existing platform accounts from one LL

What is the best way to complete this? Does Hospitable have a native integration with GHL? I’m considering using Webhooks of Zapier. Curious as to if anybody has done this yet. Thanks in advance. 

We had a guest that booked for 2 days and communicated well and gave a 5 star reveiw. However the left adult diapers laying around in 1 of the restrooms and broke a hinge on a cabinet door and took a pillow. I dont want to give them a 5 star review but most important ly how do I let other hospital hosts know this is not a good guest?  

Hello, I have a personal direct booking site and it has been ages since I have received a direct booking even though I have had visits to my site. I am looking to see what others experiences have been with the premium direct booking website and if there have been any friction or pain points for others.