Best website / direct booking platform?

Question

I am building a 12 unit glamping resort and want to setup a direct booking website. Does anyone have recommendations or good experience with a company that handles this?

Craig Jones · Answer

I built my own website in Wordpress using a vacation rental template that I bought for about $20.  I use OwnerRez as my PMS and their Wordpress plugin provides the booking functionality on my website.  They also do hosted websites for a little bit more money if you don't want to muck around with Wordpress.

OwnerRez also syncs calendars across all channels.  In my case, that's AirBnB, VRBO, Google Vacation Rentals and my own website, but it also supports many others.  And it syncs the dynamic pricing data from PriceLabs to all those channels as well (or Wheelhouse, Beyond Pricing if you prefer those).

They also support integration with real credit card merchant accounts.  So I'm under 2% for CC fees on most of my channels now, don't have to live with Stripe's 2.9% anymore.  Except AirBnB of course.

Lisa Graesser · Answer

I use Houfy.com as others use their own website, no fee for owner/guests direct booking site.

They also offer a website builder to create your own website and you can also pay to upgrade and use other tools.

They are now offering a damage protection plan  and  cancellation insurance with an additional optional fee cost to the guest.

Kristi Miller · Answer

iGMS is my channel manager and they offer either a ready-built website for you or a Wordpress plugin.

I have both now to decide which I like better. Both are free (included in subscription) and use Stripe to collect payments. No other booking fees.

I built my own Wordpress site with the plugin: exploresalida.com

And here's the basic, ready-built site: highrockyrentals.com

Andrew Steffens · Answer

If you are hiring a PM (a good one) you will be on their site and you will not need to co-market.  I would not recommend Vacasa or Evolve either (plenty of info on the forum why not).  Find a good local PM.  If you do decide on your own site, we use Bizcor.  They are decent and are affiliated with our PMS so it was easy.  Good luck!

Collin Hays · Answer

In the early days of our property management company, we used VacationRentalDesk.com.  It's an all-in-one, property management system and website for your properties.  I believe it was just a flat rate per property per month, and quite inexpensive.

John Underwood · Answer

following - Always interested in something new.

Sarah Kensinger · Answer

Boostly is good but they have been struggling to get people's sites up and going. Are you using a PMS that would have a direct site available? If you have a PM managing the property this should be something they're doing, not you as the owner.

Zander Kempf · Answer

Yeah I'm mainly just interested in the actual website creation service. I assume I'll need to place a Guesty or Vacasa on top as the actual property manager. I could pay a regular marketing firm to build a site, but since so many STR owners have this need, I have to imagine there's an off the shelf option rather than having a custom site built.

Mike Grudzien · Answer

I concur with John: "following - Always interested in something new."

I'd be interested in a fee based vs. percentage....Mike

Best website / direct booking platform?

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