It’s not you, it’sme…

For many modern professional short term rental hosts, Airbnbwas the gateway into a larger business opportunity. While the industry itselfhas been around for a long time, the relatively new uptick and generalacceptance of the vacation rental industry over the past decade spawns mostlyfrom Airbnb. Indeed, “Airbnb” has become the word most people use to describevacation rentals stays generally.

But whether you were fed up as a host about how Airbnb handled Covid, or whether you are simply getting to the next step of your business growth – there comes a time in everyone’s business where you start to realize that…maybe you should start seeing other people?

What did you learn?

Like any relationship, it’s important to reflect on what youlearned and can take away from Airbnb. Airbnb really is, technically speaking,a great first platform. But there are pros and cons…

Pros: Easy to useinterface, streamlined backend operations, and customer support can be hugebenefits. Specifically, Airbnb has a lot of built in excellent marketing toolsfor reaching guests, it has a great Host Guarantee (insurance) system built into the price, and in a pinch, Airbnb support generally is pretty quick to helptry and resolve an issue (*though if a guest needs to be evicted or a seriousissue occurs Airbnb can be extremely hands-off).

Cons: Airbnb takesa handsome fee for its services, charging both guests and hosts a service feeto use its platform (Note: the service fee may change based on factors like howmany bookings you are taking on the host side, previous issues or resolutionson the guest side, or even if you upgraded to get premier listing status onAirbnb Plus). These fees can be up to 15-20% - which when you’re working withtight margins really adds up. Airbnb is pretty targeted both in itsdemographics and geographically.

There are other fishin the sea…

In order to really optimize your vacation rental business however, listing on multiple platforms is essential. The first step to getting there is picking a good Property Management Software (PMS). Unfortunately, this search process can be cumbersome and truly warrants a separate post (huge differences if you’re running a hotel type operation or a month-to-month operation). If the PMS software you choose doesn’t have a built in channel manager, you’ll need to figure that out as well. Once you are set up on a proper PMS solution, you’ll ideally be able to handle messaging, calendaring and pricing from a central location. Some PMS software offer additional perks, like automation or reporting tools that can be huge time savers. Others advertise direct API connections to listing platforms – which can be beneficial if you have a lot of listings and have accidental overlapping bookings or lag in your connection.

Learning how to play the field is different for everybusiness however. Some markets have smaller niche local platforms to look into,some properties generally perform better on certain platforms as well (largehouses = VRBO, apartments = Airbnb). One additional factor to consider though,some PMS software is not compatible with some listing platforms – though thishas been getting better (take note of Booking.com for example). Once you havethe right PMS software + platform listings set up, you can start raising yourprice and should see an increase in revenue. More eyes looking at yourproperty, more possible bookings you can charge more per night.

Finding THE ONEHowdo you know when you’ve “made it” in the industry? There are many differentbenchmarks for success, but one almost universally agreed to one is when youhave return guests. Once you’ve cast a wide enough net across all the platformsand have a streamlined operation where you are operating at high prices,focusing on each guest’s experience becomes crucial. Collecting contactinformation, sending marketing e-mails and reminding them that yours is theplace worth paying a little extra for is how you can build a worthwhile brandand start to create your enterprise value.