Once you create your own STR website, what to do with it?

In this post I will explain how you can use your own property rental/short term rental website.


One of the first things you can do, if you are an Airbnb host, is give each of your guests your website and/or a business card with your website on it. This will ensure that if that guest ever wants to book with you again in the future, that they can do so without needing to go through Airbnb. To be sure, some guests do like to use Airbnb or other platforms because of the simplicity they provide and the security they can provide (though that security is a little more directed to the guest, than to the host).

You could for instance put your website URL in your "house manual" so that whenever a guest books, they will have your website link, and if they are smart and print out their reservation form, they can keep access to that...remember, when a reservation is done and the guest departs, all contact details as well as website links get censored out again and so the guest is unable to go back to an old reservation and look up your website.




You could also set a little business card holder in your front foyer or living room, and put your website's business cards there, for the guest to take one. You can hand them one as they come in, suggesting they book direct if they ever want to return. To do this is not in violation of Airbnb Terms of Service as some hosts think. Airbnb TOS only require that if someone contacts you through Airbnb, they must book through Airbnb for that first reservation. Airbnb does not require that that guests can only contact you thru Airbnb for the rest of their natural lives. Subsequent reservations could be direct...as long as they contact you direct after that.

You can also look for property rental websites where you can list/post your website address directly. There are two kinds of short term rental platforms. The first type, like Airbnb, allow you to list, but they function as the third party between host and guest, and handle all the finances. So guests do not pay you directly and may not contact you directly until the reservation is booked. The second type of STR platform simply allows you to list and have guests contact you directly. I prefer the latter type and it's actually my hope that we see more and more of the latter type, as these allow hosts to run their business more independently, free of service fees and many other kinds of rules and policies that they would rather not have to be subject to....some of which can put their business at risk.

Sites that allow you to post your website directly on their site include the following (please let me know if there are others you know about ....I'd like to include them all here):

www.craigslist.com

www.sabbaticalhomes.com

www.homeescape.com

traquo.com/



For the latter one Traquo it's a smallscale site at the moment, the site creator is the one who posts your content on the site, but it could eventually become larger.

You can also work to market your website in other ways, so that guests searching the internet can find your property rental site. This is not that easy, but I've actually found that I am getting a few guests who find my site directly...somehow! They are apparently searching on Google for short term rentals in my area and coming up with my website in some instances. I will do another post about marketing your website online.