All Forum Posts by: Patricia Andriolo-Bull

Do not put your guidebook link in either booking site.  They will scan for it and also scan guidebooks for links to direct booking sites - this is the guidance I received from Touchstay.  I get each guests email and then email them my guidebook.

You hosts giving 5 stars is what is wrong with the system. This is why I get 5 star guests that are NOT 5 star guests and I am baffled. They damaged something pretty destructively accidentally or not, and by the looks of it, that’s not an accident. Seems like a potentially violent person on top causing damage. Other hosts should know this. It’s like all the properties I stay at that are 5 star properties or close to and are absolutely horrendous! But they have those damn magnets telling guests that 4 star reviews are bad. You all should reevaluate. If everyone is 5 stars then no one is. 

Please do not rate them a 5. I would not want them in my place and I hate when I get 5 star guests because hosts rate them incorrectly. Of course they owned up to it. Kind of hard to miss. Seems like a violent person that could have ohh to er issues punching a hole through a door!

 But you didn't test flexible cancellation with no pets?

Many more details are needed to answer this question. In my market, smaller properties on the water have a higher return than larger more expensive properities. It is property and market specific and you would have to run the numbers for both. 

 Never for me. I prefer higher rates, better quality guests and lower occupancy with less wear and tear. It has worked great for me. Whenever I have competitive rates I get more demanding guests. 

I’m not sure what Pricelabs says but this seems overpriced to me. I’m in a different Florida market (Marco Island) and this is slow hurricane season now. I am charging less than that for a 2/2 (not 1.5) beachfront with a beautiful community pool. I have history and a 5 star review I would look at similar properties in your area manually and not rely on Pricelabs to tell you if your pricing is right. It clearly is not or you would have bookings. I use Pricelabs but never use their recommendations as they are way off (in my case too low). Listing itself looks fine along with some tweaks other have recommended. 

I do very well with Airbnb placement.  One of my properties is consistently on the front page (knock on wood that I am not jinxing my superstitious self). My other properties also do well but not consistently front page. All are set to instant book but I do not have super flexible cancellation policies (I think I am Firm). I do have 5 stars, guest favorite with one in top 1%. I believe my listings are also in very good shape which helps. All to say, not sure how much cancellation policy plays into the algorithm. But I do use instant book. 

A couple of thoughts, in the end, the guest is "supposed to see" the same rates, it just won't be broken down by host fees vs. airbnb fees vs. taxes.  In practice, my guests will now be paying MUCH more and will be advantaged to shop elsewhere, namely VRBO.  When I increase my rate based on the 15.5% to cover what was once the guest fee (I also did the math and increased my rate by 18.34%), I am doing so on all of my fees (rate, cleaning, etc.), before I used to absorb the 3% because it wasn't that much on things like cleaning.  That is no longer the case so now my guests are paying more for cleaning fees as well as the nightly rate.  And the kicker, the taxes (11% for my area) are based on my fees so now the guest pays an even higher amount of taxes also.  Airbnb is hurting themselves.  My rates on Airbnb are now higher than they are on VRBO, BDC etc.  It will be interesting to see how consumers react.  I have done a day for day comparison across all my channels including direct and Airbnb is now the highest rate because of this.