Allowing property managers to list their properties in bulk

Justin45
Level 1
Myrtle Beach, SC

Allowing property managers to list their properties in bulk

Hi there 🙂  I own a travel agency (SoCoastal Vacation Rentals) that connects travelers to professionally-managed beach vacation rentals on the East Coast.

 

I'm looking to list 600+ properties with AirBnb -- but adding them manually isn't something we're interested in doing.

 

Is there any way to do bulk listing upload/syndication via API or otherwise?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

13 Replies 13
Mike77
Level 10
Bend, OR

People like you are what gives AirBnB a bad rep.  Even if I knew how to bulk upload your crap, I would not tell you.

 

Mike
AirBnB Treehouse for Rent
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7292887

 

 

David-and-Fiona0
Level 10
Panglao, Philippines

I agree with Mike. Resorts and agents like you shouldn't be on AirBnb

That's insane. Unless you have a round the clock staff to successfully manage guest experiences - 600 listings to add is ridiculous.
Melanie58
Level 10
Boise, ID

I love Myrtle Beach!  It's so beautiful!  We used to stay at Myrtle Beach Resort when we would go there from our old hometown in Virginia.

 

I'm not sure it is appropriate for a travel agency to put places on Airbnb?  You mention property managers, that might be acceptable.  There is a new feature where you can add additional hosts to an Airbnb listing, but basically what I am thinking is if the owner of the individual condo or rental fires you or otherwise wants to terminate services, they would lose all of the reviews/reservations/etc and have to start from scratch.  So at least from my perspective as an Airbnber, I would not allow anyone that kind of authority over my income source.  But maybe your owners would?  Also, how do you know none of these listings are on Airbnb already?  You would not want to create duplicate listings.  No one who already has something listed on Airbnb would appreciate that!

 

I understand why you might want the kind of visibility that comes from having listings on Airbnb - especially in light of the kind of rentals that are available at Myrtle and other East Coast beaches, which are very homey and in the same vein as an Airbnb listing generally.  Have you considered reaching out to individual property owners and educating them on the visibility they could get on Airbnb, and then walking them through setting up an account and adding you as the manager by adding you as a host?  (If you are the manager...I am confused as to whether you are the manager or the travel agency).  

 

If you are a travel agency, I would think that airbnb is basically your direct competition, unless the service you are offering is like setting the pricing for people or something like that??  Airbnb is pretty straightforward to use for booking a trip, comparing listing, and filtering results to find the kind of place you want, no travel agent required.  It is equally easy for a host to manage.

 

I also think if the listing is typical of other Myrtle condos, you may need to spell out to potential guests that they will be governed by the terms of agreement at said resort location, as many seem to have their own waivers and documents that need to be signed.  I would also doubt that such locations would be willing to submit to the terms of the Airbnb Host agreement, which agrees to mediation through the resolution center and may occassionally result in occupancy fees being waived or reduced, etc.

 

Due to these items, I don't see how it could be practical to do a batch upload of 600+ properties, because there is a good chance that some of those properties would be violating CCRs or other governing restrictions on using a service like Airbnb, some might already be listed on Airbnb, and I would hope that Airbnb would care to have some kind of proof that you have the authority to represent all 600+ properties, control their income stream, and delete their listing if the owner terminates services with your company.   

Unless he is willing to be specific about each and every listing with Features Functions and Benefits in addition to all the things that make each home unique and interesting to a guest, I don't see how batching or managing most of it is even possible.

Oh and have you considered that Airbnb runs the transaction and controls the funds, I think they are typically released 24 hrs after the reservation?  But where condos/resort loctaions/etc have rules about like "50% deposit up front and if you cancel by blah you can receive full deposit, but after blah you forfeit your deposit" - that wouldn't fly on Airbnb, which has it's own protocol for booking, payment, cancellation, and refunds.  Any Airbnb reservations you generate would have to conform to the standards of Airbnb.  Are you sure you don't want to just try out a couple of them first to make sure it is really a good business choice for the places your represent?  Because you will have to write up a ton of policies and crap for all these people so might be better to start small than get 600+ people mad at you, not to mention guests who don't understand what they are booking and don't know who to contact about what they are angry about because they are in a contract with airbnb, a travel agency, possibly a resort, and a rental owner.  Though maybe your question is more like you don't even want to deal with a small scale rollout if you know the large scale rollout isn't going to be smooth?  

 

Another thought I had is Airbnb might be sort of laying the groundwork for this kind of thing with a product they are calling "Airbnb for Business" - you should google that and look at the part that is for travel managers.  Right now there isn't really an overview tool available, so managing so many properties on one account might be a bear, but if you can kind of "see the future" there might be a place for you, but it ain't there yet.  You should probably contact Airbnb directly and let them know your interests.  Twitter is the best way to get a hold of someone @airbnbhelp, but they might not know how to process your request so you may have to be persistent.

David126
Level 10
Como, CO

You seem to be in the same businesss as ABB.

 

You do not own the properties, you do not manage the properties what right do you have to list them on ABB?

David
Kelly233
Level 2
Traverse City, MI

I would love an answer to this question also. 
I feel sort of disgusted at all the negative replies. 

 

While I don't have 600 listings to upload, I do have a client with 3 different property locations, that together have 20 separate sleeping spaces that I need to create listings for. It seems inefficient to do them one-by-one. 

 

Anyone want to provide a positive and helpful reply?

 

-- Kelly

@Kelly233 They must all be added separately. Just the way Airbnb works. 

I know how Airbnb works. I've been a host myself for two years. 

Basically though, I'm requesting the feature if it doesn't exist. 

@Kelly233

 

Let us know what sort of response you get.

David

You mean a reply that works for you?   Ok:

 

Each listing needs to be uploaded and managed.

 

GD

Uploading and managing are both what I'm going for.