Post by High Priestess on Sept 20, 2016 9:41:33 GMT
It's my view, and that of many experienced hosts, that anyone who is seriously committed to /engaged in the short term rental business, would do best to work to become either less dependent upon any one short term rental (STR) Platform, and/or to try to go independent, and create your own website to obtain guests directly.
Hosts who are overly dependent on just one STR platform are more at risk when there are problems with that platform.
Here's a post on another forum which lists some of the problems hosts could have that disrupt their business, including problems with a given platform:
www.airhostsforum.com/t/warning-dont-depend-on-airbnb/7595/167
Lately, hosts have felt concerned and/or soured with some new policies emerging from Airbnb for instance -- the new Airbnb nondiscrimination policy, while sounding good in theory, seems to have wrapped in with it several elements which remove freedoms of hosts to run their own business as they choose. Airbnb has forced many new hosts to use instant book, against their wishes. Airbnb has also made moves to water down strict cancellation policy, something which puts host's business at risk, as it exposes them to cancellations resulting in more income loss. Airbnb has also issued "threats" to hosts who get too many less than 5 star reviews (apparently when a guest reviews your place as "great" (4 star) rather than "fantastic" (5 star) this is viewed as a problem. Worst of all, Airbnb has terminated some hosts' listings or accounts without explanation. Finally, in this age when a number of cities are setting up "task forces" to spy on hosts and enforce what Airbnb itself has deemed unfair and unreasonable laws against hosts renting out their own property, hosts who are listing independently, rather than listing on a high-profile site like Airbnb, may face lower levels of scrutiny.
Hence, it's a good idea to list your property on more than one short term rental platform, and also to create your own website for your property rentals. Having your own website is advantageous even if you only use it to post on some of the STR platforms that allow you to post contact details directly (such as www.sabbaticalhomes.com or www.homeescape.com ). Even if you choose to use just good old fashioned Craigslist, it's very helpful to be able to post a link to your own website in a Craigslist ad -- partly because Craigslist will not let you post links to your Airbnb listings in your CL ad, but it will let you post your own website link there...and your website could simply be a page with links to your Airbnb listings, if you wanted.
Creating your own website need not be difficult. One of the best ways to create your site is to use Wordpress, which is perhaps the most popular site software, with literally hundreds of different "templates" or "themes" to choose from to use for your site, including the theme "stay" which is oriented specifically to vacation rental websites. Wordpress allows you to enter HTML code directly so you can easily code your own pages within its template structure. However Wordpress is not as easy to use as a few other site builders. Webs.com and wix.com are very popular as they make website building extremely simple to do. Once you get your site built, you can use GoDaddy.com to buy a domain name for it. With Wordpress, you get a free domain name that ends in "wordpress.com" but if you come up with your own domain name you can get a www.mywebsite.com type address, and this will be easier for folks to find.
If nothing else, you can create a FaceBook page for your property rentals, which can also function as your website. You dont' have to be a regular FaceBook user to do this...even if you aren't you can create a FaceBook account just to be able to set up a FaceBook page for your site. One of the advantages of using FaceBook (though there are disadvantages too) is that many people are already on FB and share things there, so this links you in to an established network. Note that when you set up a FB page for your property rentals, there are several options as to what type of business category you use. If you select small business you'll have to enter a phone number and address. But if you select "website" or one of the other options you are not required to enter address or phone number.
Websites to help you set up your own website:
www.webs.com
www.wix.com
www.wordpress.com
www.wordpress.org
www.weebly.com
www.web.com
(for some reason these all start with "w"....)
And:
www.squarespace.com/
others that offer web hosting:
www.ehost.com
www.godaddy.com
www.squarespace.com
ashevillemicro.com/
myvr.com/ (vacation rental software specific to a vacation rental website)
www.lodgify.com/ (offers Vacation rental software)
www.iroomi.com/ (vacation rental software)
www.godaddy.com (buy domain names here)
www.facebook.com (can use to set up page for your property rentals)
www.availcheck.com (lets you create calendars to embed in your website, showing your availability)
www.availcalendar.com (ditto -- you can create calendars to embed in your site)
You can also find many tutorials on setting up your own website on www.youtube.com
Hosts who are overly dependent on just one STR platform are more at risk when there are problems with that platform.
Here's a post on another forum which lists some of the problems hosts could have that disrupt their business, including problems with a given platform:
www.airhostsforum.com/t/warning-dont-depend-on-airbnb/7595/167
Lately, hosts have felt concerned and/or soured with some new policies emerging from Airbnb for instance -- the new Airbnb nondiscrimination policy, while sounding good in theory, seems to have wrapped in with it several elements which remove freedoms of hosts to run their own business as they choose. Airbnb has forced many new hosts to use instant book, against their wishes. Airbnb has also made moves to water down strict cancellation policy, something which puts host's business at risk, as it exposes them to cancellations resulting in more income loss. Airbnb has also issued "threats" to hosts who get too many less than 5 star reviews (apparently when a guest reviews your place as "great" (4 star) rather than "fantastic" (5 star) this is viewed as a problem. Worst of all, Airbnb has terminated some hosts' listings or accounts without explanation. Finally, in this age when a number of cities are setting up "task forces" to spy on hosts and enforce what Airbnb itself has deemed unfair and unreasonable laws against hosts renting out their own property, hosts who are listing independently, rather than listing on a high-profile site like Airbnb, may face lower levels of scrutiny.
Hence, it's a good idea to list your property on more than one short term rental platform, and also to create your own website for your property rentals. Having your own website is advantageous even if you only use it to post on some of the STR platforms that allow you to post contact details directly (such as www.sabbaticalhomes.com or www.homeescape.com ). Even if you choose to use just good old fashioned Craigslist, it's very helpful to be able to post a link to your own website in a Craigslist ad -- partly because Craigslist will not let you post links to your Airbnb listings in your CL ad, but it will let you post your own website link there...and your website could simply be a page with links to your Airbnb listings, if you wanted.
Creating your own website need not be difficult. One of the best ways to create your site is to use Wordpress, which is perhaps the most popular site software, with literally hundreds of different "templates" or "themes" to choose from to use for your site, including the theme "stay" which is oriented specifically to vacation rental websites. Wordpress allows you to enter HTML code directly so you can easily code your own pages within its template structure. However Wordpress is not as easy to use as a few other site builders. Webs.com and wix.com are very popular as they make website building extremely simple to do. Once you get your site built, you can use GoDaddy.com to buy a domain name for it. With Wordpress, you get a free domain name that ends in "wordpress.com" but if you come up with your own domain name you can get a www.mywebsite.com type address, and this will be easier for folks to find.
If nothing else, you can create a FaceBook page for your property rentals, which can also function as your website. You dont' have to be a regular FaceBook user to do this...even if you aren't you can create a FaceBook account just to be able to set up a FaceBook page for your site. One of the advantages of using FaceBook (though there are disadvantages too) is that many people are already on FB and share things there, so this links you in to an established network. Note that when you set up a FB page for your property rentals, there are several options as to what type of business category you use. If you select small business you'll have to enter a phone number and address. But if you select "website" or one of the other options you are not required to enter address or phone number.
Websites to help you set up your own website:
www.webs.com
www.wix.com
www.wordpress.com
www.wordpress.org
www.weebly.com
www.web.com
(for some reason these all start with "w"....)
And:
www.squarespace.com/
others that offer web hosting:
www.ehost.com
www.godaddy.com
www.squarespace.com
ashevillemicro.com/
myvr.com/ (vacation rental software specific to a vacation rental website)
www.lodgify.com/ (offers Vacation rental software)
www.iroomi.com/ (vacation rental software)
www.godaddy.com (buy domain names here)
www.facebook.com (can use to set up page for your property rentals)
www.availcheck.com (lets you create calendars to embed in your website, showing your availability)
www.availcalendar.com (ditto -- you can create calendars to embed in your site)
You can also find many tutorials on setting up your own website on www.youtube.com
thanks! Ashley