What are the planned efforts in the near term to empower the marketing capabilities of direct premium users.

A few specific potential options, unlocking the power of discount codes. Having the ability to set a maximum day stay per code removes risk when we want to do bogo style offers. Having the ability to have codes automatically created would enable the ability to tune marketing to the timing of the guests stay (book next years stay in the next ___ time window and receive ___ discount).

With LOS options now natively available. Can the widget take advantage of this context and display strike through pricing or other ways to indicate the savings that a guest is receiving? 

Abby,

I appreciate you providing this open forum for questions. 

I would like to understand more about the hierarchy of the various platforms and how they should best be leveraged together - Beyond / Hospitable / Airbnb & VRBO. I’m often confused by where the discounts, promotions etc should be placed and how putting certain discounts/promotions in one area may effect the algorithms of Airbnb/VRBO. It seems that the toolsets provided are often overlapping and this can get confusing.  Providing a clear roadmap as to where best to leverage what tool to maximize placement, would be beneficial. 

My use case is as follows:

• property with 5 days open in the next 21 days
• Do I let Beyond reduce pricing 
• Do I put a discount in Hospitable 
• Do I put together a promotion in Airbnb

if Promotions in Airbnb create more value to the algorithm, then should I not let Beyond adjust pricing within 30-60 days and use AirBNB Promotions. How should I leverage Hospitable’s new discount capabilities?

Much Appreciated

What is Hospitable’s long-term vision for Direct? Recent changes suggest the platform is positioning itself not only as a tool for hosts but also as one that could potentially serve guests. Does Hospitable plan to build a guest-facing platform where travelers can search and book all listings directly through Hospitable?

Hi Abby 👋,

Some of my clients are worried about connecting their Airbnb accounts to Hospitable now that Airbnb is rolling out the single fee structure. Is it true this mainly impacts PMS-connected accounts? If so, it feels even more important to build a solid direct booking setup. How can Hospitable Direct help with that?

After listening to the podcast, I understand Hospitable Direct is currently available in the US, UK, and Australia. If my business is registered in the US but I’ve expanded operations to another country, will I still be able to utilize this product?

We’ve been big direct booking fans for many years as a way to diversify and mitigate platform risk. We have our site, various landing pages, GVR & of course the HSPTB direct site. The widget offering is the weakest link in the direct game for Hospitable (especially compared to the competitive PMS landscape).

Hospitable has the MOST friendly UX but the widgets look like something from Windows 98 (in iFrames!) and are not nearly as complete or friendly as other PMS widgets that offer different styles (not to be confused with different colors...(cough)) and enhance functionality. Even a FREE direct booking site (Houfy) has more robust and attractive widgets. 

Is there a timeline for rebuilding the widget from the ground up to be more compliant with today’s web standards and competitive PMS functionality & look? 

Welcome everyone to our very first The Insider session here in the Hospitable Hosts Community! 💜

Today we’re joined by ​@Abby Grous, Senior Product Manager for Hospitable Direct. Abby is passionate about helping hosts professionalize their direct booking offering, simplify the guest experience, and grow revenue, all while reducing dependence on third-party platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com. She brings deep expertise from the payments industry and now leads Hospitable Direct.

Abby will be here for the next hour to answer your questions.

Jump into the conversation by reading along, reacting to Abby’s replies, and posting your own experiences or additional questions below.

Let’s get started!

Hello everyone! 👋🏼 Thanks for the great questions. I’m diving in now!

Thanks for the question ​@Dave !

Thanks for the question ​@Jmwilson142000 !

Hi ​@karima ! 👋🏽 Do you have some properties in the US and some in other parts of the world? Right now you can only use Direct Premium for your properties located in the US (includes Puerto Rico), UK, and Australia. If you have properties in other countries, you won’t be able to use Direct Premium for those properties. You can use Direct Basic in all countries where Stripe is supported! 

Hi ​@karima!  Yes, it’s true that PMS-connected accounts must go to the host-only fee structure in October. We’d love to help get you set up on Direct. We offer free Direct booking workshops. I’ll send you an email so you can get one scheduled 🙂

Hi ​@anthonyrallo! We hear you! We are looking to start making some comprehensive improvements to our sites and widgets by introducing a full site builder. I don’t have a concrete ETA to share just yet, but this project coming up on the docket. We’ll be able to share more once we’ve completed our initial scoping.

Hi ​@kasra12321 ! Thank you for your question.

A big thank you to ​@Abby Grous for taking the time to answer your questions today, and thanks to everyone who joined in for this first ask-me-anything session.

This Insider conversation will remain open for comments until tomorrow at 12pm ET, so feel free to add any last questions or thoughts before we close it. After that, you’re always welcome to start a new conversation or ask questions anytime in the Community, as our team and fellow hosts are here to help.

Stay tuned for our next The Insider spotlight coming in two weeks, and if you have suggestions for who we should feature, drop them in the comments! 💜

Here is the recap of the ask-me-anything, check it out. 💜