Airbnb/Vrbo Fatigue. Lodgify.com???

Question

Hey Y'all.

About a week ago, Brian Chesky, did his Summer Release video chat.  Apparently, it was an "exclusive" invitation only...haha.

I was not impressed at all with it, as it was completely guest focused, with some people invited into a room with Brian to clap like trained seals, who looked like they were all high.  They were probably getting paid to be there.

I've had Airbnb/Vrbo fatigue for a long time now and want to move towards direct bookings.

Can Y'all share your experience with direct booking your properties?  Is it worth it?

Lodgify.com claims that I could increase my bookings/earnings by 80%, but I am only interested in PROFIT.  What does it matter if I lower my nightly price and hit 90% occupancy, if my bottom line profit is stagnant.  Lodgify Ultimate is $62 a month.

Any insight will be much appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Collin Hays · Answer

As for Lodgify's promise:  If you have 10 direct bookings per year, and Lodgify says they can increase that by 80 percent, that's only 18 total bookings. So you have to be careful with percentage claims - grain of salt.

Everyone would love to have direct bookings, but we are dealing with the Amazons of our industry and you have to play.  That said, there are other OTAs that are popping up that offer a chance to diversity a bit.  We just joined Marriott Homes & Villas and are having some success. And you have Booking.com and a few others out there.

Mike Shemp · Answer

We have signs in our properties at the front door, the fridge, and next to the toilet by the toilet paper that suggest that if they want to stay with us again, they use our web site and book direct with us to save.Have a social media presence also helps too for attracting direct bookings.  We use hospitable.com and make promo codes for our Instagram followers so we can give them a discount for following us, or help sell cancelled holiday times.Hope that helps.

Mike

Andrew Steffens · Answer

I agree with all of the above.  Every attempt I have made over the years has generally fallen flat, very costly with generally negative ROI.  The best I would say you could hope for is collecting guest info and marketing directly.  StayFI is good for this.  You can expect a 10-20% direct booking rate using affordable tools, at least in my market.

John Underwood · Answer

Vrbo and Airbnb are still the 500lb gorilla.

I would focus on converting repeat customers to direct booking.

From what I have seen,  not many people have much luck with a static direct booking site without driving people to that site.

Ken Boone · Answer

For sure - it is always cheaper on the guest and straight forward - at least in my setup. When you go to checkout you see everything. Last night I had a 3 time repeat guest who has always used AirBnb in the past and they went and looked and texted us and said this doesn't look right. AirBnb is cheaper than direct booking. So looking at it, AirBnb was only showing him the 3 nights plus the cleaning fee and left out the taxes on the initial display. After checking it out and all pricing was in place it saved him over $100 booking direct.

John Underwood · Answer

And with direct bookings you can provide the guest with better pricing.

I often see where the guest is paying an extra 1k beyond my payout.

Mike Grudzien · Answer

Don't know if I'm lazy, but I use Airbnb and VRBO to initially get bookings.  Then I wow my guests with the property and amenities.  Then I let them know to book directly with my for future visits.  This has been working well for me.

Airbnb/Vrbo Fatigue. Lodgify.com???

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