All Forum Posts by: Cliff H.

I could write a novel on my experiences with Booking.com and given that's nearly Halloween, the genre would likely also be correct. 

The frameworks others have presented of viewing the site as a lead-generation tool where you, as the host, are handling all the payment processing and screening is pretty accurate. 

That said, the demographic targeting offered by the platform is quite nice. If you know your target market, Booking.com can help you find them. 

@Benjamin Sulka supply/demand of your local market will drive what you and cannot ask your applicants to do, but I always advise DIY owners to ensure they’re screening applicants before meeting anyone. Better still, automate the showing and get out of the overhead of meeting someone in person. 20y in R/E and I’ve run remote contactless showings for at least half of that and long before COVID made it a thing. It works and saves a ton of time.

@Daniel Murphy just the email of the person booking, which is gathered via the PMS’ guest check-in form outside of the booking channel.

As others have said, I have an issue with accidentally gathering minor’s email addresses with a StayFi like solution. There are laws against marketing to children and those are laws no one should aim to be on the wrong side of.

@Katie Miller get your HOA to offer online meetings. If they won't listen to owners, run for the board and enact change from inside. I run one HOA and am a member of several others. Anything's possible if you're engaged and approaching from a win-win perspective.

DIY landlords should 100% screen prospective applicants before they ever agree to meet them in person. Realtors know this all too well and there’s real data behind the realtors killed in the process of showing a property to strangers.

This is why I automate and self-service all showings. People say you can’t do that, they might damage the carpet, all the while ignoring the real threat to their own life by meeting strangers without prescreening.

Nice work @Connor Eigen. I don't think there's much wrong with the photos, but I'd recommend adding some color and local flavor in the decor, doubling down on those exterior-lighted photos, and changing the order of the photos, which are currently scattered across a variety of different rooms and spaces. That last piece is something I see all the time with real estate listings and STR listings: photos the jump all around to different spaces of a home, which is confusing and makes it hard for guests to visualize themselves in your space because they can't understand where one room is versus another. Walk your guest through your home. With that log cabin exterior, you have a great opportunity to create a first impression / cover shot that truly pops.

Keep up the good work, listing looks great. Don’t neglect the likelihood of having to lower prices initially to get started with a few five star reviews. 

Turno’s great, but as others have said, does not replace your own cleaner screening. It’s like AirBnB’s screening: intentionally as minimal as possible. I’ve found great cleaners there and others happy to go in, ignore everything in the cleaning checklist, and bill back well over $150/hour for minimally viable cleaning. 

Absolutely love how Cheeky Chesky points out people complaining about high fees, yet chooses to focus on cleaning fees in a challenging labor market versus AirBnB’s own increasing platform and cancellation fees. 

"We got a lot of feedback that Airbnb is not as affordable as it used to be…”

”So we’re raising fees to pay for AI and asking hosts to pay their workers nothing like our friends at Uber” 

@Andrew Steffens I don’t give discounts on current stays unless it is something that’s totally on me like failed utilities that’s caused direct discomfort or items promised in the ad that weren’t there. Prefer discounts to future stays as a means to not reward bad guest behavior.

@Andrew Steffens sorry to hear about that dog situation. However, you bring up an interesting point that I haven’t seen mentioned much in terms of guest reviews and damage claims.

Ex: guests who file proactive complaints on a property in lieu of damages they’ve already caused to your property. I’ve experienced this numerous times and it’s as if they are trying to head off a bad host review by finding other problems in your rentals and using them as a smokescreen before you have a chance to find damages they’ve caused.

Very strange that some folks have that much time on their hands to go to that length, but have seen it a lot over the years before cleaners find issues with a turnover.