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Post by High Priestess on Jun 22, 2017 20:33:30 GMT
There's a new website/community called "Hostogether" which has the goal of helping hosts network. www.hostogether.com/It's not quite clear to me what this is about. Would be interested in hearing from others what they think of it. |
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Post by ruiescaleira on Jul 12, 2017 19:41:54 GMT
Hi Deborah,
My name is Rui and I am a Founder of Hostogether, a global community where short-term rental owners expand their business by sharing and collaborating.
I would appreciate the chance to introduce Hostogether to you and have your thoughts on what we are doing and what we’d like to achieve. We are reaching out to people that have their opinion heard in the vacation rental industry, such as yourself.
We believe that together vacation rental owners are stronger to face the challenges posed by increasing concentration of distribution and dependency on vacation rental sites
Hostogether is supported by a technology that allows for hosts to:
1. Refer each other to their friends and guest, generating more direct bookings and earnings from referral,
2. Refer services and experiences to their guests and friends and earn from that
3. Access more services at prices only large property managers get
4. Learn from each other to improve their business
And much more for individual owner to increase their marketing reach and competitive strength
Hostogether is Crowdfunding to have hundreds of short-term rental owners joining us to kick-start this community. You can learn more about us in our Indiegogo campaign page:
/16954221#/
Please let me know if this is of interest to you.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards
Rui Escaleira
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Post by High Priestess on Jul 13, 2017 23:43:51 GMT
Thanks for telling us about this, Rui. I will have to look into it more to understand better what you are setting up. Is this a community that hosts need to pay a fee to join, or is it free?
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Post by ruiescaleira on Jul 19, 2017 1:05:15 GMT
Hi Deborah,
apologies for the late reply.
We have decided to simplify our membership plans, after an overwhelming feedback from owners.
We are now having only two memberships:
1. Premium: 0% commission on direct bookings, € 35 per month per property
2. Standard: 6% commission on direct bookings, free
We have also changed our crowdfunding perks accordingly, and we are now offering a Premium Membership for an annual value of € 50, forever. We believe these changes will help bring all the owners we need to join us, so we are full of strength when we roll-out the Hostogether technology in October.
Here's a link to our updated Crowdfunding: /16954221#/
best regards
Rui
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Post by moo on Jul 22, 2017 21:58:44 GMT
Hostogether has been discussed on a lot of facebook groups for owners of holiday properties and none of it has been complimentary. Owners like me have received loads of emails from names such as John Bishop, Charlie Adams etc via the Hostogether domain saying that they are owners who are really happy with Hostogether. But none of us believe these owners are in fact real and anyway the company is not even up and running yet. On their facebook page they used to show reviews which were a mixture of 5 star reviews from what look like friends of the 2 people who have founded Hostogether and 1 star reviews from disgruntled owners who are fed up with being spammed. But the reviews have all been removed now. Owners on other groups and forums have also said they have had their questions on the Hostogether facebook page hidden or removed. This is not a transparent way to run a business. It appears to be less about networking and more about getting owners to pay for their channel manager, pay for a Hostogether website and be charged commission on bookings and referrals. Doing some searching on the Internet (which is how I ended up here) has also revealed they have been reported on scam sites. None of this gives me as an owner much confidence in Hostogether and whilst the idea of owners helping each other break free from big listing sites is one many would embrace this does not seem to be what they are in fact offering.
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Post by High Priestess on Jul 23, 2017 5:44:58 GMT
Thanks for sharing your perspective, moo.
I dont' know much about Hostogether and don't have much time to do research, but my initial response is that I would have more interest and trust in a community that was free to join in and particpate in, rather than charging a fee for who knows what benefit.
I dont' know why this is so difficult-- just create a host community or listing service that is free to hosts to use. If someone really cares about community and supporting hosts, I think that should be possible. If it's popular enough and works well enough, then later on maybe folks will pay to sign on. But at the beginning, when the company isn't proven yet and there's no guarantee of benefits, I think it's best to not charge people to join in.
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Post by helgaparis on Jul 27, 2017 8:51:46 GMT
If I read the introduction above, I see a new listing site, with low fees for anadvertising site of 2005. No miney for good advertising, don't expect bookings created by them, but Refer your friends and contacts for direct booking. A cute formulation for that.
We have no money behind it, probably technological competences on the level of the marketing skills, but we take on major players by crowdfunding. Hiw to start? A yes, community is an asset. We are a community.
Actually I know nothing about it, but that comes to my mind as a potential customer. Free feedback: improve your communication, get your business ideas straight before investing effort in communication, as it's harder to correct a bad image than create a good one.
Free advice in the startup package, Premium consulting on a monthly fee ;-))
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