Industry Conversations

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.

We currently use VRPlatform for our owners statements but have been hearing about TopKey as a superior option. Anyone have first hand experience? https://www.topkey.io/bookkeeping

We are interested in learning what accounting software PM’s are using? We see a strew of options and have found it difficult to choose.

HI , Does anyone have feedback on the Better STR app?

Hey! I’m curious how y’all handle compensation for upsells like early check-ins or late check-outs. Do you keep it the same split as regular booking income, or do you handle it separately since it’s a bit more work on the co-host/property manager’s side? Just wondering what others are doing, and especially how you explain it to owners.

I am looking for a robust scheduling app to use for mainly cleaning.  Turno does not seem to be very smart when it comes to scheduling so I am looking for an alternative. What I am looking for is something that can manage many properties and be smart enough to know if a cleaner is already scheduled on that day so that it doesn’t schedule them for 2 same day cleanings at a minimum.Basically I want to assign a “Main” cleaner and if that one is busy it goes down a list of cleaners till it finds one to do that job.  I want this to happen automatically and then alert the cleaner of the job with some way for them to look at a calendar to see their jobs and potentially decline it...then the system would assign the next cleaner on the list.Has anyone found something  like this?

Unfortunately Hospitable doesnt let you allocate cleaners to particular days for check out cleans. So for example, I have a cleaner who is available for two days a week and another one that is available the other 5. I cant automatically send all cleaning jobs on the two days a week to one and the rest go to the other. But, I have been told that other platforms do this, like Turno. Then when I investigated Turno, it became obvious that they will try to encourage my cleaners to go onto their marketplace - potentially poaching my very hard to find cleaners!  So no, I wont be using Turno. I am now looking at Breezeway. Which costs $20 per month per property (first one free if you apply within hospitable).  Has anyone had experience with Breezeway?  Or is there anything else I should look at? Thanks!Jay

We recently installed a Level 2 charger in one of our vacation rentals and have been toying around with different ideas. Who else has EV chargers at your properties? Do you assess an additional charge for usage?  How has your experience been with having EV chargers at your property?

Which automations are saving you the most time right now in day-to-day hosting? 👀P.S. Have you seen that Hospitable is hosting an AI Power-Up Workshop this Wednesday? Check it out and register here: See you there! 💜

What is your go-to camera doorbell and why? If you could provide a link to your fave, muchly appreciated. 

How far out do you keep your calendar open?  Pros and Cons please.  I currently am at 9 months and wondering if should open for one year or even 2 years.Thank you 

What are your management fees and how often do you get paid or bill the owners for the folks that are managing properties for others?

I’m a Superhost with a new high-end retreat property with 4 units. A recent group threw a party, caused nearly $1,500 in damages (covered by Airbnb), and then left a one-star review. Airbnb refuses to remove it!Should I consider “rebooting” the listing? 

Is it better to ignore the spam from Airbnb or use AI to reply? Requests to rent for a month and take convo off platform.  

I’m co-hosting a new property that will be putting exterior cameras up soon. How can I let upcoming bookings know? I will go in and add cameras to the listing, but wondered how to tell guests.  Thanks!

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

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 manag

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.

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

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.