In what platforms do you list your rental ?

Question

Hello,

I'm listing my smoky mountains cabin in Airbnb & Homeaway. So far it seems Airbnb is generating more bookings but it could be because my calendar is not open until November. I created the listing at Booking.com but I'm starting to wonder if it's worth the headache to manage the listing in more than 2 platforms. I know there are channel managers but the good ones that integrate with all platforms seem to take 1% or charge for $100/month and it seems too much. Does Booking.com & TripAdvisor generate bookings for vacation rentals or is it enough to just list in Airbnb & HomeAway ?

Thanks

Jerry W. · Answer

@Maan Najjar, I use VRBO/Homeaway and AIR B&B, I have a duplex and each side is finished and furnished quite differently. One side is mostly VRBO with a few Air bnb, the other side rents almost exclusively with Air bnb and rents a lot more often then the other side. It is strange. It seems each site caters to a specific type of clientele. Many of my VRBO listings are multiple days, but very few of my air bnb are for more than 1 or 2 days. For me it seems the folks passing through use Air bnb, the folks coming to stay awhile use VRBO, weird.

Chuck Kramer · Answer

AirBnB and Vrbo for sure. With all of our cabins, about 90% comes from Vrbo. Doesn't hurt to also do FlipKey and Booking.com but don't expect much. Its also worthwhile to have a Facebook page and your own website (try Wix for easy to setup) to take direct bookings. As you develop a following and get repeat business, you can keep more $$ yourself.

In THIS area (Sevier County), stay far, far away from Craigslist. Nothing but scammers on there. But, it is good to browse it every so often to be sure your cabin photos haven't been stolen and used for fake listings. Sadly, it turns out it is VERY common. I and many other cabin owners have had people show up claiming to have reserved and paid for stays over Craigslist.

Luke Carl · Answer

@Maan Najjar depends on your market. If you were in my market I could tell you exactly what you need. Ask your realtor for advice.

Paul Sandhu · Answer

Craigslist

Matt Ayoub · Answer

My STR is in Los Cabos Mexico and currently about 60/40 Airbnb vs VRBO. I have seen this fluctuate wildly over time and agree with the observations on length of stay and guest age and quality.

TripAdvisor / Flipkey clearly have massive technical / system integration issues - couple of initial bookings but now nothing. And I’ve tried multiple times to go live on booking.com but the activation process freezes and I can’t get through to customer service to help resolve. Long term I think being on this channel is strategically important so plan to keep trying.

I am not convinced by @Kevin Lefeuvre statement that a synched calendar indicating multiple channels would cause you to drop in Airbnb search placement.
My hypothesis is that these sites, particularly Airbnb (which clearly has slicker technology / algorithms) are competing for market share of your listing.

We don’t know how the industry will evolve so definitely do not have all your bags in one basket. And I think we want competition to keep each vendor honest as a dominant player will take a greater cut of revenue over time.
Also, in the @Jerry W. duplex example, the differential performance is likely linked to search placement which is driven by listing performance, response rate, and many other variables. So they have just evolved differently over time.

Jerry W. · Answer

@Kevin Lefeuvre, my air bnb side is a lot fancier, but exactly the same size, but I average almost 30% more bookings in it.

Jay Fradd · Answer

If someone is self managing in the Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge market I believe VRBO/HA and AirBnB is enough. You may get a scattered few bookings here and there from Booking.com and/or TripAdvisor. However, from everything I have seen they generate less than 10% of the reservations in our market (and often quite less than 10%) among those that use them. Not to mention the hassle affiliated with Booking.com & TripAdvisor's somewhat frequent errors in booking details and processing.

If you are seeing the trajectory of your cabin not meeting your objectives, then it MAY be worth considering adding something other than AirBnB & VRBO. Otherwise, I'd stick with them. I hope you knock it outta the park starting in November and meet all your investment goals!

John Underwood · Answer

I use VRBO and Airbnb. 95% of bookings come from Vrbo.

Kevin Lefeuvre · Answer

Great observation Jerry for the length of stay. I see the same and it's not surprising. You could add younger average age for airbnb as well. At least by 10 years. My vrbo clients are in their late 40s (in average) while on airbnb the average is closer to mid 30s.

Now the interesting part about your observation is the fact that 2 similar units in the exact same location are more or less popular in a platform. I think this is related to the sites' algorithms. For instance airbnb penalizes you when they see another platform on your synced calendar (yes they do). Or even simply too many blocked days.

Also you may have noticed that bookings come regrouped. It happens very often to me to have 3 or 4 bookings on the same day and then nothing for a week. This tells me their algorithm has pushed my property for a few hours for some reasons. There are a lot of factors impacting the ranking of a property. That's why 2 properties even identical, in the same building may perform differently. Now I expect the difference of occupancy not to differ by more than 5% for any 12 months period.

Andrew Myers · Answer

Hi @Maan Najjar - we list our rental on Airbnb, Homeaway/VRBO, and Tripadvisor. The bulk of our activity is Airbnb (90%) and then VRBO/Homeaway (10%) - which has us about 95% occupied and above market nightly rates. We received one inquiry from Tripadvisor but no bookings. I don't know anything about booking.com. I'd stick with those two and keep it simple. Hopefully you have integrated the calendars, that helps with the management of the sites. Hope that helps.

In what platforms do you list your rental ?

In what platforms do you list your rental ?

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