Plum Guide Award

[Richard531]

Has anyone received a "nomination" to be a part of this platform?  It costs money (on our side) to participate, etc.  But it sells itself as an elite platform for advertising your listing(s).  You are promised "higher end" guests.  The platform allows these guests quicker access to your listing as they won't have to muddle through a trove of mediocre listings before reaching you in your market.  Supposedly. . . 

Your first booking they want $400 and then an additional 3% from each successive booking that is made through their platform.  

Anyone doing this and having success and/or frustration?  

[Ann72]

@Richard531  I'm obsessed with your chalet.  Not only the decor, but the way you chose to list it and the tone of the pictures.  Amazing.  (Side note - I only got through 33 of the photos fyi.) 

I've looked at the Plum Guide site and think there's a market for it.  If you already list on multiple platforms, you're already paying each one its own commission, so no objection to their 3%.  I also found it interesting that guests could pay an additional amount - more than 10% of the fee - to get a full refund up to 5 days before they cancel.  I don't know how that works on the host's side, though - how much would the host get of a cancellation 5 days before check-in date?

Overall, I would imagine that there are users who don't use Airbnb because they consider it too downmarket and who would therefore be drawn to Plum.  The award idea is smart because it makes the user feel Plum has curated the selection more carefully than many platforms.  Of course, it would be super important to keep your prices even across all platforms. 

All in all, not a bad idea.

[Kelly149]

@Ann72 my prices have always been variable btwn platforms... I charge less on the one I prefer to receive bookings from

@Richard531 the 3% seems reasonable. I guess you could wait and see on the $400 if the first proposed booking seems worth it

[Ute42]

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@Kelly149 

I charge twice the price on airbnb compared to other platforms and sometimes I do get bookings. This is not a joke.

[Ann72]

@Kelly149 @Ute42  I try to keep the prices equally high on Airbnb and VRBO, the only two platforms I use.  VRBO's "market maker" has been setting this year's prices really high, so I spent some time last week raising prices to a comparable average at Airbnb.  It's not a 1 to 1 pricing system, given the different service fees and whatnot, but after running a variety of scenarios I came up with some figures that will net me roughly the same on each platform.  I still get most of my bookings from Airbnb, like @Richard531.

In the meantime I had completely blocked my big house until the first of July, for various personal reasons.  Yet a 5th-time guest messaged last night that he wants to come in June, so I opened the days for him, and I was shocked at the price.  Smart Pricing has for the last year or so only pushed my very high prices up a dollar or two; suddenly they were up $70 a night (14%).  The guest didn't bat an eye, InstantBooked and said thank you.

If I can get bookings at a much higher price, I would feel that I was leaving money on the table by leaving the prices lower on another platform.

[Kelly149]

@Ann72 I'm certainly not thinking of leaving money on the table, more like ABB guests have to pay a premium for no security deposit, no CS, EC loopholes, getting jerked around by the review system, etc

[Ann72]

@Kelly149  Ha!  Yes, I see that.  Hypothetically, though, if you're going to plunge into the concierged listing world, where your prices are high to attract a so-called "high-end guest," it would not be a good look to have that listing showing up elsewhere at budget prices.

[Kelly149]

@Ann72 definitely not! But if those Purple guests were truly special and high brow then the same principle should apply: they should pay less than the ABB riffraff who don't meet the special criteria.

*If you're worth high money anywhere, then ABB listing rate should be high money x 1.1

[Ann72]

@Kelly149  1.1 is a great factor.  Enough to cover the extras you name, not so much as to create too big a disparity across platforms.

[Laura2592]

Is this something through Airbnb or a third party?

[Ann72]

@Laura2592  It's a new booking platform:  https://www.plumguide.com/

[Helen3]

It's a fairly common if somewhat old fashioned form of marketing approach where the company  make you feel you are somehow better than your competitors and that you are part of an 'elite'. See Mr & Mrs.,  Sawadays etc. @Richard531 

There is no guarantee you will get better guests, get more bookings or earn a better day rate.

This is commonly done with the restaurant, hotel and holiday rental market.

If you have to pay to be on the platform it's almost certainly one to avoid.  

Have you asked them how many views they typically get every day for properties of your type in your location @Richard531 . Or what sort of investment and approach they take to their marketing. Try searching for your type of listing in your area (anonymously) and see how high they sit in the organic search rankings.

[Richard531]

@Ann72  Thank you so much for the kind words!  The chalet was a pretty big project and we're really happy she's online and cranking now.  Funny note related to that was the actual "invite" that inspired the original question was for my other listing, NOT the chalet, lol!    

Really appreciate everyone's thoughts.  I did the multi-platform thing years ago when I first started this and didn't like it.  We're ratcheting up/down our prices so often just on Airbnb and to have to do it on other platforms would be too much to deal with. 

That's an interesting point about being able to cancel for some would-be guests on Plum Guide. . .  We have been, and always will be, whatever the strictest of strict can be for all bookings.  So I'd hate to have to be forced to allow cancelations of any kind without being compensated at least to the standards of Airbnb's current Strict policy.  

@Helen3  I definitely echo your sentiments from the outset.  It's like: "Here, you're better than everyone, now give us money."  Ha!  Maybe, maybe not. . . 

It's easy to start getting swept away anytime that sort of thing happens - gotta watch it!  

[Richard531]

@Helen3  I actually wanted to do just that (search in the market in question, Julian, CA).  And they have no listing there (yet).  So I couldn't really make it happen. . .

[Lisa723]

@Richard531 this platform won't do anything for you if it doesn't have a lot of guest users. I've never heard of it. But if there's no "pay to play" and your bookings generally bring in substantially more than $400 you have little to lose by giving it a try. You could ask them for references.