Listed on other websites?

[MicheleandLouw0]

Dear Hosts. I have noticed that there has been a large number of complaints about the way Airbnb treats host lately. I have also seen a tremendous increase in commercial listings in my area. I have noticed that some of you  also use other vacation rental websites to list your space on. I would like to ask if other host can recommend this and how do these other companies compare to Airbnb?  Do they give better service and support, lower commissions and do you see a larger number of bookings by registering your listing on more than one website? I am sure some of these other companies have their challenges too.  I would like to hear your opinions on this. Thanks!

[Marit-Anne0]

It depends on the market.  

I have a holiday rental in France + I assist my neighbours renting theirs.  I have listed them both on airbnb, but almost all the bookings come through a German site.  Only occasionally do I get anything through airbnb and almost always in off season when the prices are low. These are weekly rentals with Saturday arrival and high season is often booked one year in advance.  In off season I sometimes take week-ends and have had a few during French school holidays, but only at rock bottom prices, full service and no cleaning fee.  

In Norway I have a city apartment that I rent on a 3-day minimum basis and here airbnb really brings in the bacon.  I have listed on HomeAway to compare, but statistics are really poor.

[MicheleandLouw0]

Very intersting thank you!

[Andrew90]

My experience is similar. I have a condo at the beach that in rent as whole house. I've listed on dozens of different site and as the vacation renatal / home sharing evolves. Right now it's HomeAway and VRBO.

Before joining Airbnb earlier this year I was exclusively listing on HomeAway and paying for top placement. This had happily kept me fully booked during the season for the last 3 years. This year my inquiries and booking rates dropped way off as HomeAway changed to be more like Airbnb. (Eliminated the premium hosting options, changed the placement algorithms and pushed online booking and instant booking.

Airbnb has filled in nicely and I notice that my advance bookings (greater than six months) come from HomeAway and the near in bookings less than 3 months in advance come from Airbnb and they split the 3-6 month window.

I think Airbnb would source more of the advanced bookings if they would accept deposit and final payment scheme versus full payment up front. I also like that that HomeAway handles the transactions and I have control over refunds and a more traditional security deposit arangment.

In terms of support I actually give Airbnb better support. The queue ones are shorter and any of my issues were handled quickly and equitably. They don't post thier contact numbers for folks to find easily but searching contact Airbnb on google is not difficult. That is in fact how I found this community forum.

I am a huge proponent of booking on multiple sites and I may try booking.com next year. However if you do this it's imperative to have a system to manage things and ensure no double booking. I don't recommend instant book on any of the sites and would recommend either VRConnection.com or onerooftop.com.

[MicheleandLouw0]

Thank you @Andrew90. I am looking at Homeawy and you sure gave me great advice. Great comparisson.

[Andrew90]

@MicheleandLouw0 you are most welcome. There are many sites and they all have thier strenghts and perform better or worst in different geographical locations/markets.  I have not idea about Botswana but you might search for "Vacation rentals by owner" with your city name and see what comes up. Might give you some idea of who is sucessfull in that area. 

[Phyllis22]

Using several different company, how do you keep from double booking?  Your own system or do these companies sync calendars for you?  

[Emiliano69]

Yes ! Thank you @Andrew90 for the great advice.

[Victoria57]

@MicheleandLouw0 last year we used Airbnb exclusively and had 50 sets of guests during our first season. But at the start of this season in April and May it was a slow start and we weren't getting many bookings despite adding a second room, building new ensuite shower rooms and an internal redec. So we signed up with booking.com, got our first booking in 20 minutes and most of our guests since the end of May have been through them.

We now make sure Instant Book is turned off on Airbnb - we got it wrong at the start and double booked one set of guests and had to cancel so lost Superhost status. But having now had over 150 sets of guests through the front door this season I'm not too worried.

Guests do tend to look at booking.com as a more commercial site and rate you more like they would rate a hotel. The other thing about booking.com is it's more expensive than Airbnb at 15% - the guest doesn't pay a fee unlike with Airbnb. This is a lot but we still view the higher volume of guests we have received as worth the extra hosting fee. But we'll keep Airbnb going as well as we've had lovely guests. But I'm now looking forward to the end of the season on Sunday and having a holiday in Mexico!

[MicheleandLouw0]

Wow that is amazing @Victoria57 well done. You truly  deserve that break. So I can list booking.com?  I have a pricately owned cottage. I somehow thought is for hotels only. M

[Victoria57]

@MicheleandLouw0 yes you can list your cottage on it. There are many houses like ours, cottages and other accommodation types and it's not just for hotels.

[Amy38]

@Victoria57 I am curious about booking.com....is there any reason I cant just raise my rates to accomodate their fee?   15%  off the top is a lot for a 2 day midweek booking off season.

[Emma94]

On booking.com guest can cancel their booking at last minute without any penalties. No thank you. 

[Valerie7]

Does anyone know how to link other booking website to my airbb calendar. I have had a few double bookings and it is very time consuming to sort out.

Val

[Marit-Anne0]

@Valerie7

Search for "calendar sync" in the search window above, follow Andrew's link some posts above, find the help in the discuss tab above, search using the help section, use a google search.  All will lead you in the right direction.